Unit 63
A white kid sells a bag of cocaine at his suburban high school. A Latino kid does the same in his inner-city neighborhood. Both get caught. Both are first-time offenders. The white kid walks into juvenile court with his parents, his priest, a good lawyer and medical coverage. The Latino kid walks into court with his mom, no legal resources and no insurance. The judge lets the white kid go with his family; he’s placed in a private treatment program. The minority kid has no such option. He’s detained.
There, in a nutshell, is what happens more and more often in the juvenile-court system. Minority youths arrested on violent felony charges in California are more than twice as likely as their white counterparts to be transferred out of the juvenile-justice system and tried as adults, according to a study released last week by the Justice Policy Institute, a research center in San Francisco. Once they are in adult courts, young black offenders are 18 times more likely to be jailed and Hispanics seven times more likely than are young white offenders. “Discrimination against kids of color accumulates at every stage of the justice system and skyrockets when juveniles are, tried as adults,” says Dan Macallair, a co-author of the new study. “California has a double standard: throw kids of color behind bars, but rehabilitate white kids who commit comparable crimes.”
Even as juvenile crime has declined from its peak in the early 1990s, headline grabbing violence by minors has intensified a get-tough attitude. Over the past six years, 43 states have passed laws that make it easier to try juveniles as adults. In Texas and Connecticut in 1996, the latest year for which figures are available, all the juveniles in jails were minorities. Vincent Schiraldi, the Justice Policy Institute’s director, concedes that “some kids need to be tried as adults. But most can be rehabilitated.”
Instead, adult prisons tend to brutalize juveniles. They are eight times more likely to commit suicide and five times more likely to be sexually abused than offenders held in juvenile detention. “Once they get out, they tend to commit more crimes and more violent crimes,” says Jenni Gainsborough, a spokeswoman for the Sentencing Project, a reform group in Washington. The system, in essence, is training career criminals. And it’s doing its worst work among minorities.
注（1）：本文选自Time；
注（2）：本文习题命题模仿对象为1997年真题Text 5（其中因1997年真题Text 5只有4个题目，所以本文第4题模仿参照对象为1999年Text 4的第4题）。
1. From the first paragraph we learn that ______.
A) the white kid is more innocent than the minority kid
B) the white kid has got a lot of help than the minority kid
C) the white kid and minority kid have been treated differently
D) the minority kid should be set free at once
2. According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?
A) Kids shouldn’t be tried as adults.
B) Discrimination exists in the justice system.
C) Minority kids are likely to commit crimes.
D) States shouldn’t pass the laws.
3. The word “skyrocket”（Line 7, Paragraph 2）means ______.
A) rising sharply
B) widening suddenly
C) spreading widely
D) expanding quickly
4. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that ______.
A) something seems to be wrong with the justice system
B) adult prisons have bad influence on the juveniles
C) juveniles in adult prison are ill-treated
D) the career criminals are trained by the system
5. The passage shows that the author is ______ the present situation.
A) amazed at
B) puzzled by
C) disappointed at
D) critical of
篇章剖析
本文的结构形式为提出问题——分析问题。第一段首先提出问题，以一个案例为切入点，对比白人少年与有色人种少年受到的不同待遇；第二段和第三段用事实进一步说明司法机关对有色人种青少年的歧视以及他们受到的不公正待遇；第四段阐述了司法机关这一做法造成的不良影响。
词汇注释
offender /əˈfendə(r)/ n. 罪犯；冒犯者
coverage /ˈkʌvərɪdʒ/ n. 保险项目；保险范围
option /ˈɒpʃ(ə)n/ n. 选择；供选择的事物
detain /dɪˈteɪn/ v. 拘留
in a nutshell /ˈnʌtʃel/简括地，简言之
felony /ˈfeləni/ n. 【法】重罪
rehabilitate /riːhəˈbɪlɪteɪt/ v. 使（身体）康复；使复职；使恢复名誉；使复原
get-tough /ˈgetˈtʌf/ adj. 强硬的
concede /kənˈsiːd/ v. 勉强，承认
brutalize /ˈbruːtəlaɪz/ v. 残酷地对待
detention /dɪˈtenʃ(ə)n/ n. 拘留，禁闭
难句突破
Minority youths arrested on violent felony charges in California are more than twice as likely as their white counterparts to be transferred out of the juvenile-justice system and tried as adults, according to a study released last week by the Justice Policy Institute, a research center in San Francisco.
主体句式：Minority youths are as... as...
结构分析：这是一个比较长的简单句。“more than twice as likely as their white counterparts”是一种表示倍数的表达方式；“to be transferred out of the juvenile-justice system and tried as adults”不定式短语来修饰white counterparts;“according to a study released last week by the Justice Policy Institute”作伴随状语；“a research center in San Francisco”是“the Justice Policy Institute”的同位语。
句子译文：据旧金山一家研究中心——司法政策研究所——上周发表的一项研究结果显示，在加州因暴力重罪嫌疑被捕进而转出少年法庭而作为成人被审判的少数民族青少年的数量可能是白人青少年的两倍。
题目分析
1. C 推理题。作者在第一段中进行对比，其目的在于引出“同一性质的案例因为犯罪对象的不同，从而处理的结果也不同”这一论点。
2. B 细节题。原文对应信息是在第二段：“Discrimination against kids of color accumulates at every stage of the justice system and skyrockets when juveniles are, tried as adults”。其他选项意思与原文不符。
3. A 语义题。从单词所在的句子语境中，可以判断skyrocket与accumulate的意思相近，都表示激增，并且前者程度更强。
4. A 推理题。原文相关信息是文章最后两句话“The system, in essence, is training career criminals. And it’s doing its worst work among minorities.”。
5. D 情感态度题。作者通篇都在阐述司法机关对有色人种青少年的不公正待遇，所以对司法系统是持批判态度的。
参考译文
一白人少年在其就读的郊区中学贩卖了一袋可卡因，一拉丁美洲少年在其市内社区也做了同样的事情。两人都被逮捕了，并且他们都是初犯。白人少年在其父母、牧师、知名律师陪伴下走进少年法庭——他有医疗保险；而那个拉丁美洲少年却只在他母亲陪伴下来到法庭，没有任何法律援助，也没有什么保险。法官让白人少年随家人回家，判他接受私下处理计划监管的惩罚；而那位少数民族少年则别无选择，被拘留了。
简而言之，这样的事情在少年法庭上越来越常见。据旧金山一家研究中心——司法政策研究——上周发表的一项研究结果显示，在加州因暴力重罪嫌疑被捕之后进而转出少年法庭而作为成人被审判的少数民族青少年的数量可能是白人青少年的两倍。一旦被移交成人法庭，那些青少年黑人犯罪者被送进监狱的可能性是白人的18倍，美籍西班牙人是白人的8倍。“司法系统对有色人种青少年的歧视每升一级都加一次码，而这些年轻人一旦以成人的身份被审判的话，这种歧视便被极度升级，并且愈演愈烈，达到无以复加的地步。”这项研究的合作者丹·麦卡莱尔（Dan Macallair）说，“加利福尼亚历来奉行双重标准：把犯罪的有色人种青少年投进监狱，但对犯有同等罪行的白人少年却进行教育感化。”
正当青少年犯罪率从20世纪90年代初期的高峰开始下降的时候，常常成为报刊头条新闻的少数民族未成年人暴力犯罪强化了公众的强硬态度。在过去6年中，43个州通过的法律使青少年以成人的身份受审变得更加易如反掌。1996年，美国得克萨斯州和康涅狄格州（这是这两个州能收集到的最新一年的青少年犯罪记录）的资料表明，在监狱服刑的所有青少年都是有色人种。司法政策研究所所长文森特·希拉迪承认，“有些青少年需要作为成人进行审判，但是他们中大多数人是可以被教育感化的。”
成人监狱经常虐待这些青少年。这些人自杀的可能性是少管所罪犯的8倍，遭到性虐待的可能性是他们的5倍。华盛顿的一个改革革命性团体“审判项目组织”的女发言人Jenni Gainsborough认为，“这些人一旦被释放，往往会疯狂作案，实施更多的暴力犯罪。”这种体系实质上是在培养职业罪犯，对有色人种而言，它起的作用更糟。
