As Americasdigest the news of another gun atrocity, a mall shooting in Nebraska onDecember 5th, they cannot be blamed for thinking that guns are in too readysupply. But an article in the latest Economic Journal* suggests that the demandfor illegal guns, at least, is not met as easily as people might fear. SudhirVenkatesh, now of Columbia University, has talked to 132 gang-members, 77prostitutes, 116 gun-owning youths, 23 gun-dealers and numerous other denizensof Chicago’s Grand Boulevard and Washington Park neighbourhoods. He did not findmany satisfied customers.

　　Chicago hasunusually tough restrictions on legal handguns. Even so the black market issurprisingly "thin", attracting relatively few buyers and sellers.The authors reckon that the 48,000 residents of the two neighbourhoods buyperhaps 1,400 guns a year, compared with at least 200,000 cocaine purchases.Underground brokers sell guns for $150-350, a mark-up of perhaps 200% over thelegal price. They also demand a fee of $30-50 for orchestrating the deal. Eventhen, 30-40% of the transactions fall through because the seller cannot securea gun, gets cold feet or cannot agree on a location for the deal.

　　Buyers alsofind it hard to verify the quality of the merchandise. They often know littleabout the weapons they covet. "Tony", who owns a .38 calibre handgun,learnt how to use his weapon by fiddling with it. He even put a stone in it."Did it fire?" Mr Venkatesh asked. "I’m not sure. I think it did,"Tony said.

　　Fortunatelyfor Tony and his peers, their rivals and the victims of crime cannot tell iftheir guns work any better than they can. Often, showing the "bulge"is enough to gain the respect of rival gangs. In robberies brandishing theweapon will usually do. Storekeepers do not wait for proof that it works.

　　Markets canovercome thinness, the paper says; they can also overcome illegality. But theycannot overcome both. A thin market must rely on advertising or a centralisedexchange: eBay, for example, has dedicated pages matching sellers of imitationpearl pins or Annette Funicello bears to the few, scattered buyers that can befound. But such solutions are too cumbersome and conspicuous for an undergroundmarket. The drugs market, by contrast, slips through the law’s fingers because of the naturaldensity of drug transactions. Dealers can always find customers on theirdoorstep, and buyers can reassure themselves about suppliers through repeatedcustom. There are no fixed and formal institutions that the police could easilythrottle.

　　Indeed, theauthors argue that the gun market may be threadbare partly because the drugmarket is so plump. Gang-leaders are wary of gun-dealing because the extrapolice scrutiny that guns attract would jeopardise their earnings from coke anddope. Even Chicago’s gang-leaders have to worry about the effect of crime on commerce.

　　1. Some of the gun transactins are unsuccessful mainly because_____.

　　[A] it is notprofitable as the underground price of gun far exceeds legal price

　　[B] Chicagohas surprisingly tough restrictions on the ownership and business of guns

　　[C] thedealers are unable to guarntee whether the deal is really going to happen or not

　　[D] it ishard to testify the quality of the guns in actual situations

　　2.Comparedwith the gun market, the drug market can be "fat" mainlybecause_____.

　　[A] it hardlyattracts the police’s attention due to the flexibility of the business

　　[B] the drugdealings are taking place in higher frequency

　　[C] there areno fixed and formal spots for drug dealing

　　[D] drug isaffordable to a larger number of people

　　3. The word"cumbersome" (Line 4, Pargraph 5) most probably means_____.

　　[A]transparent

　　[B] troubling

　　[C] horrible

　　[D] sutpid

　　4. The reasonwhy the authors argue that the gun market may be threadbare partly because thedrug market is so plump is _____.

　　[A] that thedrug transaction is more prefitable thatn gun-dealing.

　　[B] that thepolice are more dedicated to the gun-dealing than to the drug-dealing.

　　[C] that thegang-leaders are suppressing the gun-dealing in order to maintain their profitfrom drug

　　[D] that thegang-leaders are worried about the effect of crime on commerce.

　　5. Towardsthe future of gun-dealing, the author’s attitude is _____.

　　[A]pessimistic

　　[B]optimistic

　　[C] desperate

　　[D] sorrowful

　　文章剖析：

　　這篇文章主要介紹了目前美國槍支黑市的情況。第一段由美國人將槍殺案多的原因歸罪于槍支比較容易獲得這個觀點引出一個Sudhir經(jīng)調查后的駁論;第二段講述強制黑市交易量情況;第三段、第四段講述買槍支的人的情況;第五段、第六段和毒品交易比較，得出目前槍支交易慘淡的另一方面原因。

　　詞匯注釋：

　　mark-up n. (價格中)標高的金額; 漲價幅度

　　orchestrate v. 使...協(xié)調地結合在一起

　　fall throught v. 失敗

　　cold feet v. 臨陣畏縮

　　covet v. 覬覦，垂涎

　　calibre n. 口徑

　　bulge n. 突起

　　brandish v. 揮舞

　　cubersome adj. 討厭的, 麻煩的, 笨重的

　　throttle v. 壓制，扼殺來源：考試大

　　threadbare adj. 破舊的，磨薄的

　　denizen n. 居民

　　難句突破：

　　(1) Fortunately for Tony and his peers, their rivals andthe victims of crime cannot tell if their guns work any better than they can.

　　[主體句式] Their rivals and the victims cannot tell...

　　[結構分析] 這是一個簡單句，前面的介詞短語做句子的狀語, any better than they can后面省略了tell，也是做句子的狀語。

　　[句子譯文]幸運的是，對于托尼還有和他一樣的人，他們的敵人還有那些受害人也比他們強不了多少，并不知道他們的槍能不能用。

　　(2) A thin market must rely on advertising or acentralised exchange: eBay, for example, has dedicated pages matching sellersof imitation pearl pins or Annette Funicello bears to the few, scattered buyersthat can be found.

　　[主體句式] A thin market must rely on...: eBay has dedicated...

　　[結構分析]這是一個簡單句，后面用來解釋整個句子的從句中，matching...組成的現(xiàn)在分詞短語做前面pages的定語，而后面有一個that引導的定語從句修飾buyers。

　　[句子譯文] 一個狹窄的市場要依賴于廣告或是統(tǒng)一的交換。比如易趣專門設出幾頁讓那些賣假珍珠針飾的商家或Annette Funicello熊的商家和所能找到的極少的、分布在各地的買家進行配對。

　　題目分析：

　　1.Some of the gun transactins are unsuccessful mainly because_____.1.有一些槍支交易未能成功主要是因為_____。

　　[A] it is not profitable as the underground price of gun far exceedslegal price[A] 槍支黑市價格遠遠高過合法槍支的價格

　　[B] Chicago has surprisingly tough restrictions on the ownership andbusiness of guns[B] 芝加哥對合法手槍有嚴格的限制

　　[C] the dealers are unable to guarantee whether the deal is reallygoing to happen or not[C] 賣家不能保證交易是否能夠發(fā)生

　　[D] it is hard to testify the quality of the guns in actualsituations[D] 很難在實際情景下證實所銷售槍支的質量

　　[答案]C

　　[難度系數(shù)] ☆☆☆

　　[分析] 細節(jié)題。文章第二段提到，30%到40%的交易最后失敗是因為賣家或是沒有拿到槍支，

　　或者臨陣脫逃，或者沒有就交易地點達成一致。因此，交易失敗的主要原因是賣家不能保證交易，

　　答案C符合題意。A選項在該段中有所涉及，但卻不是交易不成功的直接原因。B與選項無關，

　　而D則涉及到了第三段，且所談及的是槍支的質量問題，而不是交易是否成功的問題�？荚嚧笫占�整理

　　2.Compared with the gun market, the drug market can be"fat" mainly because_____.2.與槍支市場相比，毒品市場比較興旺是因為_____。

　　[A] it hardly attracts the police’s attention due tothe flexibility of the business[A] 毒品交易非常靈活，因此很難吸引警察的注意力

　　[B] the drug dealings are taking place in higher frequency[B] 毒品交易更加頻繁

　　[C] there are no fixed and formal spots for drug dealing[C] 毒品交易沒有固定、正式的場所

　　[D] drug is affordable to a larger number of people[D] 對于很多人來說，他們都能夠買得起毒品

　　[答案]B

　　[難度系數(shù)] ☆☆☆☆

　　[分析] 細節(jié)題。文章第五段提到槍支交易因為其復雜性很難改變其慘淡的現(xiàn)狀，而相反地，毒品交易因為其本身density of drug transactions(毒品交易密度)的原因可以逃避法律，接著下面就具體作了解釋，比如交易很容易達成，而且其交易地點不固定，警察不能輕易壓制。而且主要原因就是由于其交易量本身比較大，因此B為正確選項，其中選項中的frequency可以視為density的統(tǒng)一詞。A和C選項都是導致了毒品交易頻繁的原因，但是B選項卻是題干的直接原因。D選項在原文中沒有根據(jù)。

　　3. The word "cumbersome" (Line 4, Pargraph 5) mostprobably means_____.3."cumbersome"(第五段第四行)最有可能的意思是_____。

　　[A] transparent[A] 透明的

　　[B] troubling[B] 麻煩的

　　[C] horrible[C] 恐怖的

　　[D] stupid[D] 愚笨的

　　[答案]B

　　[難度系數(shù)] ☆☆☆

　　[分析]猜詞題。該詞所在的句子意思是"但是，對于一個地下市場來說，這樣的解決辦法又麻煩又顯眼"。前文中提到"一個狹窄的市場要依賴于廣告或是統(tǒng)一的交易。比如易趣專門設出幾頁讓那些賣假珍珠針飾的商家或Annette Funicello熊的商家和所能找到的極少的、分布在各地的買家進行配對"，顯然這是很麻煩的�？忌�可以將四個選項分別代入原文，其余三個選項都不能符合題意。答案為B。

　　4. The reason why the authors argue that the gun market may bethreadbare partly because the drug market is so plump is _____.4.研究者認為槍支市場慘淡部分是因為毒品市場比較興旺，這是因為_____。

　　[A] the drug transaction is more prefitable that gun-dealing.[A] 毒品交易要比槍支交易利潤更大�？荚嚧笫占�整理

　　[B] the police are more dedicated to the gun-dealing than to thedrug-dealing.[B] 警察在槍支交易方面投入的精力比毒品交易多。

　　[C] the gang-leaders are suppressing the gun-dealing in order toprotect their profit from drug[C]匪徒頭子壓制槍支交易以保證從毒品中可以謀取的

　　利潤。

　　[D] the gang-leaders are worried about the effect of crime oncommerce.[D] 匪徒頭子擔心商業(yè)犯罪的作用。

　　[答案]C

　　[難度系數(shù)] ☆

　　[分析]推理題。文章最后一段指出，研究者認為槍支市場慘淡的部分原因在于毒品市場交易的興旺，接著下面就具體作了解釋。匪徒頭子對于槍支交易非常警覺，因為他們害怕槍支會使得警察增加調查，這樣就會危及其毒品交易的收入。那么可以看出，研究者這樣認為就是看到不法分子的這種舉措，因此，答案C最為符合題意。

　　5. Towards the future of gun-dealing, the author’s attitudeis _____.5.作者對于槍支交易未來的態(tài)度是_____。

　　[A] pessimistic[A] 悲觀的

　　[B] optimistic[B] 樂觀的

　　[C] desperate[C] 絕望的

　　[D] sorrowful[D] 悲傷的

　　[答案]A

　　[難度系數(shù)] ☆☆☆

　　[分析]態(tài)度題。這篇文章主要分析了目前美國槍支交易的情況，因為種種原因處于比較慘淡的狀態(tài)，而從作者分析來看，對于未來的情況也不是很看好，尤其和毒品交易相比較。因此，作者對其未來持悲觀態(tài)度。因此正確答案為A選項。C和D選項的表述語氣過于強烈，不符合原文的含義。

　　參考譯文：

　　當美國還因另外一則槍殺案，12月5日內部達斯加州一家商場的槍擊案余悸未消時，一點都不能責怪他們認為原因是槍支太容易得到了。但是在最新的《經(jīng)濟期刊》上發(fā)表的一篇文章認為至少非法槍支需求并沒有人們想象得那么容易就被滿足了。Sudhir Venkatesh目前在哥倫比亞大學供職，他和132名歹徒、77名妓女、116名擁有槍支的年輕人、23名槍支經(jīng)銷商以及許多其他在芝加哥大林蔭大道及華盛頓公園附近的居民交談過，他并未發(fā)現(xiàn)有多少滿意的顧客。

　　芝加哥在合法手槍方面有嚴格的固定，即便如此，黑市還是異常慘淡,相對而言幾乎沒有多少買的人和賣的人被吸引到這里。研究者承認在這兩個區(qū)48000個居民中間每年只銷售1400支槍，而購買可卡因的卻有至少20萬。地下代理人銷售槍支的價格為150美元到350美元，這要比合法價格高出200%。而且，他們還要多要30到50美元的協(xié)調費用。即便如此，30%到40%的交易還是流產(chǎn)了，因為銷售者或是沒能拿到槍，或是臨陣畏縮，或是不能就交易地點達成一致。

　　買槍的人發(fā)現(xiàn)要證實自己貨物的質量也比較困難。他們對自己想要的槍支的情況知之甚少。"托尼"有一把口徑為38的槍，他只能是自己把玩才能弄清楚怎么使用。他甚至還把一顆石頭放在里面。"它能開火嗎? " Venkatesh問他。"我不知道。我像應該是的。"托尼回答說。

　　幸運的是，對于托尼還有和他一樣的人，他們的敵人還有那些受害人也比他們強不了多少，并不知道他們的槍能不能用。一般地，只要露出"凸起"的部分就可以讓那些敵對的歹徒尊重，在搶劫中只要揮舞一下武器就夠了。店主不會等著證明看能不能有效果。

　　文章提到，市場可以克服經(jīng)營慘淡, 也可以克服非法問題。但是不能同時克服兩個問題。一個狹窄的市場要依賴于廣告或是統(tǒng)一的交易。比如易趣專門設出幾頁讓那些賣假珍珠針飾的商家或 Annette Funicello熊的商家和所能找到的極少的、分布在各地的買家進行配對。但是，對于一個地下市場來說，這樣的解決辦法又麻煩又顯眼。而毒品市場可以鉆法律的空子，因為毒品交易的自然頻繁程度。賣主在他們門口就能找到顧客，而買家經(jīng)過老主顧也能相信供應商。而且因為沒有固定、正式的地方，警察要扼殺起來也比較困難。

　　實際上，研究者認為槍支市場這樣慘淡部分原因就在于毒品市場過于興旺。匪徒頭子對槍支交易十分警惕，因為槍支引起警察額外的審查會危及他們從毒品上獲得的收入。甚至芝加哥的匪徒頭子也得擔憂經(jīng)濟犯罪的影響。