1999年全国攻读硕士学位研究生入学考试英语试题（2 / 2）
Feeling threatened, panies responded by writing everlonger warning bels, trying to anticipate every possible act. Today, stepdders carry bels several inches long that warn, among other things, that you might—surprise!—fall off. The bel on a child’s Batman cape cautions that the toy “does not enable user to fly”.
While warnings are often appropriate and necessary—the dangers iions, for example—and many are required by state or federal regutions, it isn’t clear that they actually protect the manufacturers and sellers from liability if a er is injured. About 50 pert of the panies lose when injured ers take them to court.
Now the tide appears to be turning. As personal injury cims tinue as before, some courts are beginning to side with defendants, especially in cases where a warning bel probably wouldn’t have ged anything. In May, Julie Nimmons, president of Schutt Sports in Illinois, successfully fought a wsuit involving a football pyer who aralyzed in a game while wearing a Schutt helmet. “We’re really sorry he has bee paralyzed, but helmets aren’t desigo prevent those kinds of injuries, ” says Nimmons. The jury agreed that the nature of the game, not the helmet, was the reason for the athlete’s injury. At the same time, the Ameri Law Institute—a group of judges, wyers, and academics whose reendations carry substantial weight—issued new guidelines for tort w stating that panies need not warn ers of obvious dangers or bombard them with a lengthy list of possible ones. “Important informatio buried in a sea of trivialities, ” says a w professor at ell Law School who helped draft the new guidelines. If the moderate end of the legal unity has its way, the information on products might actually be provided for the be of ers and not as prote against legal liability.
11. What were things like in 1980s when acts happened?
［A］ ers might be relieved of their disasters through wsuits.
［B］ Injured ers could expect prote from the legal system.
［panies would avoid being sued by providing new warnings.
［D］ Juries teo find fault with the pensations panies promised.
12. Manufacturers as mentioned in the passage tend to.
［A］ satisfy ers by writing long warnings on products
［B］ bee ho in describing the inadequacies of their products
［C］ make the best use of bels to avoid legal liability
［D］ feel obliged to view ers’ safety as their first
13. The case of Schutt helmet demonstrated that.
［A］ some injury cims were no longer supported by w
［B］ helmets were not desigo prevent injuries
［C］ product bels would eventually be discarded
［D］ some spames might lose popurity with athletes
14. The author’s attitude towards the issue seems to be.
［A］ biased ［B］ indifferent ［C］ puzzling ［D］ objective