2014年3月高级口译听力真题Listening Comprehension 含解析

M: Now I'll take some questions.
W: Well, Mr. Brown, I have a question. Isn't it true that the public supports the death penalty? I read that according to recent statistics, 67% of Americans favor the death penalty in cases of murder. That's two thirds of the population.
M: It's true that there is a support for the death penalty. But it's also true that people's moods and opinions are difficult to understand through statistics. I think this figure might reflect people's concern about violent crime in general. United States is by far the most violent industrialized nation. In the United States, there're about 9 murders a year per 100,000 people. In Japan, for example, that figure is 0.5. In France, it's 1.1. So Americans are understandably concerned about violence.
W: Excuse me, Mr. Brown. What did you say the figure was in the United States?
M: It's about 9 murders per year per 100,000 people.
W: I'd like to make a comment. I mean, if someone commits a really bad crime, don't they deserve to be punished just severely?
M: As I often tell my students at the university, the problem of the death penalty is that on an emotional level. You can understand why people want it. If you suffer the loss of a loved one, your immediate response is to want revenge. It's a normal natural reaction. But I feel that the reason we have laws is that they allow us to rise above our personal emotional response to crime. This form of retribution is not the answer. The idea of having laws in a society is that together as society we're stronger than a sum of our parts, we can rise above our personal emotional response to crime. The legal system is supposed to elevate us. It is set up so that it is better than us. Individually, we are flawed. But as a society, we are strong.
W: I thought it was interesting what you said about the death penalty not being fair, because it was applied to some people but not to others. Could you talk a little bit more about that 12 students?
M: Yes. In many ways, capital punishment is very arbitrary. If you really believed in the death penalty as a principle, as a punishment for a horrific crime, then every single person who has committed this crime would have to be executed. But that would mean that we would have about 50,000 executions a year. That's absurd! Nobody would stand for that. It would mean that the state was some kind of killing machine. The fact is that we do not execute some people, but other people who have committed similar crimes are not executed. So the death penalty is not applied equally to all people.
W: Mr. Brown, I'd like to thank you for your comments today. I'm opposed to the death penalty myself, and I don't think we talk enough about the issues.

Q11: About what issue is Mr. Brown being interviewed?
Q12: What is the approximate number of murders a year per 100,000 people in the United States?
Q13: What is Mr. Brown most probably?
Q14: What does Mr. Brown actually say about the death penalty?
Q15: Which of the following statements is true according to the interview?

【解析】

本段采访以“死刑（death penalty）”为主题进行展开。受访者Mr. Brown首先说明了对死刑的支持率并不能反映人们心里真实的想法，并列举了美国等工业国家谋杀案发生的概率；然后阐述了法律可以让人们更加理智，使社会更加强大的观点；最后说明了死刑的判决也会因人而异。对话的难度不大，但是大多数问题都无法在文中直接找到答案，因此需要考生真正理解对话后再进行作答。