2014年考研英语一阅读 Text 2 原文翻译及答案解析

All around the world, lawyers generate more hostility than the members of any other profession - with the possible exception of journalism. But there are few places where clients have more grounds for complaint than America.

全球范围内，律师比其他任何职业的成员都引发更多的敌意——新闻业可能是个例外。但很少有地方比美国客户更有理由抱怨。

During the decade before the economic crisis, spending on legal services in America grew twice as fast as inflation. The best lawyers made skyscrapers-full of money, tempting ever more students to pile into law schools. But most law graduates never get a big-firm job. Many of them instead become the kind of nuisance-lawsuit filer that makes the tort system a costly nightmare.

在经济危机前的十年里，美国法律服务支出的增长速度是通货膨胀的两倍。最优秀的律师赚得盆满钵满，诱使更多学生涌入法学院。但大多数法律毕业生从未获得大公司的工作。相反，他们中许多人成为那种让侵权诉讼体系变成昂贵噩梦的琐碎诉讼提起者。

There are many reasons for this. One is the excessive costs of a legal education. There is just one path for a lawyer in most American states: a four-year undergraduate degree in some unrelated subject, then a three-year law degree at one of 200 law schools authorized by the American Bar Association and an expensive preparation for the bar exam. This leaves today's average law-school graduate with $100,000 of debt on top of undergraduate debts. Law-school debt means that they have to work fearsomely hard.

这有很多原因。其一是法律教育的费用过高。在美国大多数州，成为律师只有一条路：先获得一个不相关学科的四年本科学位，然后在200所美国律师协会授权的法学院之一攻读三年法学学位，并准备昂贵的律师资格考试。这使得当今的法学院毕业生平均负债10万美元，外加本科债务。法学院债务意味着他们必须极其努力地工作。

Reforming the system would help both lawyers and their customers. Sensible ideas have been around for a long time, but the state-level bodies that govern the profession have been too conservative to implement them. One idea is to allow people to study law as an undergraduate degree. Another is to let students sit for the bar after only two years of law school. If the bar exam is truly a stern enough test for a would be lawyer, those who can sit it earlier should be allowed to do so. Students who do not need the extra training could cut their debt mountain by a third.

改革这个体系将对律师和客户都有帮助。合理的建议已经存在很长时间，但监管该行业的州级机构过于保守，不愿实施。一个想法是允许人们将法律作为本科学位来学习。另一个是让学生在法学院学习仅两年后就参加律师资格考试。如果律师资格考试对准律师来说确实足够严格，那么那些能提前参加考试的人应该被允许这样做。不需要额外培训的学生可以将他们的债务负担减少三分之一。

The other reason why costs are so high is the restrictive guild-like ownership structure of the business. Except in the District of Columbia, non-lawyers may not own any share of a law firm. This keeps fees high and innovation slow. There is pressure for change from within the profession, but opponents of change among the regulators insist that keeping outsiders out of a law firm isolates lawyers from the pressure to make money rather than serve clients ethically.

成本如此高的另一个原因是该行业限制性的、类似行会的所有权结构。除了哥伦比亚特区，非律师不得拥有律师事务所的任何股份。这使得费用居高不下，创新缓慢。行业内部有变革的压力，但监管机构中反对变革的人坚持认为，将外部人员排除在律师事务所之外，使律师免于赚钱而非道德服务客户的压力。

In fact, allowing non-lawyers to own shares in law firms would reduce costs and improve services to customers, by encouraging law firms to use technology and to employ professional managers to focus on improving firms' efficiency. After all, other countries, such as Australia and Britain, have started liberalizing their legal professions. America should follow.

事实上，允许非律师拥有律师事务所的股份将降低成本并改善客户服务，通过鼓励律师事务所使用技术和雇佣专业经理来专注于提高公司效率。毕竟，其他国家，如澳大利亚和英国，已经开始自由化其法律行业。美国应该效仿。

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