Passage 2
Most valid contracts are obeyed by both parties. Each does what was promised, and the contract is dissolved by being carried out. Sometimes a contract will not be fulfilled because both parties agree to end it. Occasionally the law will excuse one party from meeting an agreement. (For example, bankruptcy frees a person from credit agreements, and death or serious illness is a valid excuse for not fulfilling a contract for personal services. )But where one party has no legal excuse for failure to live up to the terms of a contract, the other party can claim breach of contract.
The essence of a contract is that the law will enforce the promise made. Three enforcement alternatives-discharge, damages ,and specific performance- are open to a person whose contract has been breached by the other party. We can illustrate the protection afforded by law with a hypothetical example. Nick Santo, a builder, contracts to buy 2,000 feet of pine board from the Zeller Lumberyard. The contract stipulates that the price for the board is to be $2 per foot and that delivery must be made by January 25. But on January 10 the lumberyard calls Santo and tells him that another contractor has offered to buy all of the yard's lumber at $2. 50 per foot. Zeller tells Santo that he must pay the higher price or wait until February 15 for delivery. The builder has the following options:
Discharge. When one party violates the terms of the agreement , the other party is under no obligation to continue with his or her end of the contract. In other words, the second party is discharged from the contract. Santo is free to buy his wood from another lumberyard. If Zeller goes ahead and delivers the wood at the later date, Santo does not have to accept it.
Damages. A party has the right to sue in court for damages that result from the other party's failure to fulfill a contract. The damages awarded usually reflect the direct loss of profit resulting from the nonperformance. If Santo had to pay another yard a higher price to get lumber, he would be entitled to collect the difference from Zeller, plus court costs. lf Zeller's failure to deliver the wood as contracted caused Santo to lose a large contract or a good customer, the court might force Zeller to pay damages far exceeding the value of the wood itself.
Specific performance. A party can be compelled to live up to the terms of the contract if money damages would not be adequate had agreed to sell not pine board but one-of-a-kind wood paneling from a sixteenth-century Spanish castle, Santo could demand specific performance of the contract. Since the wood paneling was purchased elsewhere, the only satisfactory remedy would be to order Zeller to go through with the deal.
According to the passage, who is NOT likely to be freed from fulfilling a contract?
A、A person who is dead.
B、A person who is in debt.
C、A person who has gone bankrupt.
D、A person with serious illness.
【正确答案】：B
【名师解析】:根据文章内容，债务人（a person who is in debt）不太可能被免除履行合同的责任。文章中提到，破产（bankruptcy）可以免除个人信用协议的责任，死亡或严重疾病是个人服务合同未履行的有效理由。然而，债务本身并没有被列为免除合同责任的合法理由。因此，选项B是正确答案。其他选项，如死亡（选项A）、破产（选项C）和严重疾病（选项D），在文中都被提及作为可能免除合同责任的情况。
