原文：Historian F.W.Maitland observed that legal documents are the best—indeed,often the only—available evidence about the economic and social history of a given period.Why,then,has it taken so long for historians to focus systematically on the civil that is,noncriminal law of early modern that is,sixteenth- to eighteenth-century England?Maitland offered one reason:the subject requires researchers to “master an extremely formal system of pleading and procedure.” Yet the complexities that confront those who would study such materials are not wholly different from those recently surmounted by historians of criminal law in England during the same period.Another possible explanation for historians’ neglect of the subject is their widespread assumption that most people in early modern England had little contact with civil law.If that were so,the history of legal matters would be of little relevance to general historical scholarship.But recent research suggests that civil litigation during the period involved artisans,merchants,professionals,shopkeepers,and farmers,and not merely a narrow,propertied,male elite.Moreover,the later sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries saw an extraordinary explosion in civil litigation by both women and men,making this the most litigious era in English history on a per capita basis.
2.The author of the passage suggests which ofthe following about the "widespread assumption" mentioned in thesentence?
A.Because it is true,the history of civil lawis of as much interest to historians focusing on general social history as tothose specializing in legal history.
B.Because it is inaccurate,the history of civillaw in early modern England should enrich the general historical scholarship of that period.
C.It is based on inaccurate data about thepropertied male elite of early modern England
.D.It does not provide a plausible explanation forhistorians’ failure to study the civil law of early modern England
.E.It is based on an analogy with criminal law inearly modern England
答案是B,