A new study finds that blacks on death row (1) of killing whites are more likely to be executed than whites who kill minorities. It also concludes that blacks who kill (2) minorities are (3) likely to be executed than blacks who kill whites. For example, there is more than a twofold greater risk that an African-American who killed a white will be executed than a white person who kills a (4) victim. A Hispanic is at least 1.4 (5) more likely to be executed (6) such an offender kills a white.
The researchers of the study believe that there are two (7) explanations.. First, prosecutors often win (8) office if they win well-publicized cases. When a black kills a white, such killings gets more (9) and this idea can be (10) by many famous cases. (11) , the court judges at the state level are often (12) to elections, called retention elections. Retention election or judicial retention within the United States court system, is a periodic process, in which the voter (13) approval or disapproval for the judges presently (14) their position, and a judge can be removed from the position if the (15) of the citizens vote him or her out. Just as the researchers (16) out, death penalty is (17) political.
The findings of the study, in short, show that American justice systems clearly (18) white lives more than those of blacks or Hispanics. The researchers also say their findings (19) serious doubts about (20) that the U.S. criminal justice system is colorblind.
7（）
A.paradoxical
B.plausible
C.absurd
D.ironic
参考答案：B
解析：
[考点] 上下文语义+词义辨析
本题属于词义区分题，主句为the researchers of the study believe that...，that引导的宾语从句作believe的宾语，整句的意思是说“这些研究者觉得有两种……的解释”。第一段列出了一系列案例，属于现象说明段落，而这两二段则是上升到主题，是对现象的说明，所谓两种解释，也就是对第一段提到白人生命更容易得到珍视的解释。本段的最后一句也清楚表明，研究者认为死刑是政治的产物，而这一结论正是从两种解释得来的，显然两种解释是合理的，因此选项B是正确答案。
[干扰项分析] 阅读全文我们可以知道所谓两种解释，就是指“检察官为了升官在关注度高的案子上卖力”，“法官在审判中必须考虑留任选举”。首先判断NN+N释分别从检察官和法官的角度切入，不存在逻辑上的矛盾，所以排除选项A。剩下三个选项中，C偏向于贬义，这两种解释是研究者自己的研究表明的，倘若这些研究者自己都觉得这两个解释是“荒谬的”，那么提出这些解释还有何意义呢如果选择D，那么我们从后面的两种解释，看不出有何讽刺意味，即使有，也必定是就这两种解释与前面列举事实之间的关系而言。“白人生命更被珍视”与“法官和检察官从政治角度考虑审判”并不存在强烈的反常，不存在反讽，因此可以排除D。