快⬆️⬆️点击上方蓝字关注并星标这个公众号，一起涨姿势～
词数：366 words
难度：★★★☆☆
小贴士：
后台聊天对话框：
回复“考研”获取2025考研英语等备考资料
回复“四六级”获取四六级历年真题及解析
回复“PDF”获取本文PDF版内容；
回复“笔记”获取阅读、新题型、完形填空、写作模板等笔记
点击文末左下角“阅读原文”可获得PDF版内容、每月文章合集
——大橙子留
✦ +
+
上期划线句答案
Japanese politicians have also talked about the importance of raising wages, and some economists say the government should support corporate social activities that could lead to relationships.
日本的政界人士也谈到了提高工资的重要性，一些经济学家表示，政府应该支持可能促成交往的企业社会活动。
✦ +
+
本期内容
◆
双语阅读
Para.1
Legalese is now so well embedded in our collective thinking that even non-lawyers use it, as shown by a team of researchers from the University of Chicago Law School, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of Melbourne in Australia. In the same way that magic spells are often invoked in a rather grand and verbose style – to give them that extra air of importance – people also tend to apply the same sort of ratcheting up of complexity when it comes to legal documents, the study found.
Para.2
Previous research had shown that long definitions in the middle of sentences – known as 'center-embedding' – contributed significantly to the complexity of legal documents. Here the team wanted to explore the possible reasons for this center-embedding. Gibson and his colleagues ran experiments in which 286 non-lawyer volunteers were asked to compose different types of writing: texts describing laws, stories about crimes involving those laws, and explanations of the laws to people from other countries.
Para.3
The results showed center-embedding was common in law writing, whether or not the participants were asked to go back and edit their drafts later – suggesting that it's not rounds of revisions that make legal documents complicated. More plain language and less center-embedding were noticeable in the writing that wasn't describing laws, so this is something that only really appears in legal texts. The next step is to find out the source – and the researchers want to look back into older legal texts to see where this style started.
Para.4
"In English culture, if you want to write something that's a magic spell, people know that the way to do that is you put a lot of old-fashioned rhymes in there," says Gibson. "We think maybe center-embedding is signaling legalese in the same way."
Para.5
As far back as the mid-19th century, Dickens was writing about a lawsuit that had "become so complicated, that no man alive knows what it means," – and there has been little improvement since. That goes against the natural human drive to communicate more effectively and to be better understood. So essentially, in legal writing, clarity is being sacrificed in an effort to sound more authoritative.
本文节选自：Science Alert（科学快讯）
发布时间：2024.9.8
作者：David Nield
原文标题：Here's Why Legal Documents Are So Hard to Understand, According to Science
◆
写作句总结
That goes against the natural human drive to communicate more effectively and to be better understood.
结构：… goes against the natural human drive to communicate more effectively and to be better understood.
…违背了人类希望更有效地沟通、更易被理解的本能。
例句：Ambivalent attitudes go against the natural human drive to communicate more effectively and to be better understood.
◆
阅读理解题
Which of the following best describes the main idea of the article?
A) Legal documents have become easier to understand over time.
B) The forms and causes of complexity in legal writing.
C) Non-lawyers often write legal documents using simple language.
D) The use of legal jargon is a recent development in law.
◆
打卡作业
翻译文章中的划线句，文末留言打卡，下期推送会在文章开头处公布参考翻译答案，大家一起来学习英语吧~
翻译 | 大橙子
校对 | 李柚子
词汇词组 | 西西弗
划线句讲解 | 流木
写作句总结 | 沅沅
免责声明：本文来自网络公开资料，仅供学习交流，其观点和倾向不代表本公众号立场。
