单选题 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

单选题 A lot of students take up law as their profession due to

单选题 Which of the following adds to the costs of legal education in most American states?

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。根据题干关键词cost定位到第三段。第三句讲“在美国大部分州，律师们大都有一条相同的人生轨迹：先是四年非相关专业的本科学习，然后再从美国律师协会认证的200所法学院中选择一所，攻读三年取得法律学位，接着再投入大笔费用备考律师资格考试。这让今天的法学院毕业生除了本科欠下的债款外，还要背负十万美元的巨债”。综合来看，美国法律教育时间成本很高，且本科学位专业与法律不相关，额外增加了成本，故答案为C项，其中another major对应文中的unrelated subject。

单选题 Hindrance to the reform of the legal system originates from

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。根据题干关键词reform定位到第四段。首句谈到“法律体系改革”，第二句讲“一些改革构想一直以来在业界流传，但是负责管理律师产业的州级机构由于过于保守始终未能将改革实施”(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.)，其核心问题来自于the state-level bodies that govern the profession，故答案为B项。