首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
The past few years have been busy ones for human-rights organisations. In prosecuting the so-called war on terror, many governme
The past few years have been busy ones for human-rights organisations. In prosecuting the so-called war on terror, many governme
admin
2011-03-10
49
问题
The past few years have been busy ones for human-rights organisations. In prosecuting the so-called war on terror, many governments in Western countries where freedoms seemed secure have been tempted to nibble away at them. Just as well, you might suppose, that doughty campaigners such as Amnesty International exist to leap to the defense. Yet Amnesty no longer makes the splash it used to in the rich world. This is not for want of speaking out. The organization is as vocal as it ever was. But some years ago it decided to follow intellectual fashion and dilute a traditional focus on political rights by mixing in a new category of what people now call social and economic rights.
Rights being good things, you might suppose that the more of them you campaign for the better. Why not add pressing social and economic concerns to stuffy old political rights such as free speech, free elections and due process of law? What use is a vote if you are starving? Are not access to jobs, housing, health care and food basic rights too? No: few rights are truly universal, and letting them multiply weakens them.
Food, jobs and housing are certainly necessities. But no useful purpose is served by calling them "rights". When a government locks someone up without a fair trial, the victim, perpetrator and remedy are pretty clear. This clarity seldom applies to social and economic "rights". It is hard enough to determine whether such a right has been infringed, let alone who should provide a remedy, or how. Who should be educated in which subjects for how long at what cost in taxpayers’ money is a political question Best settled at the ballot Box. So is how much to spend on what kind of health care. And no economic system known to man guarantees a proper job for everyone all the time: even the Soviet Union’s much-boasted full employment was based on the principle "they pretend to pay us and we pretend to work".
It is hardly an accident that the countries keenest to use the language of social and economic rights tend to be those that show least respect for rights of the traditional sort. The rulers of some countries habitually depict campaigns concentrating on individual freedoms as a conspiracy by the rich northern hemisphere to do down poor countries. It is mightily convenient, if you deprive your citizens of political liberties, to portray these as a bourgeois luxury.
And it could not be further from the truth. For people in the poor world, as for people everywhere, the most reliable method yet invented to ensure that governments provide people with social and economic necessities is called politics. That is why the rights that make open politics possible—free speech, due process, protection from arbitrary punishment—are so precious. Insisting on their enforcement is worth more than any number of grandiloquent but unenforceable declarations demanding jobs, education and housing for all.
Many do-goading outfits suffer from baying too broad a focus and too narrow a base. Amnesty used to be the other way round, appealing to people of all political persuasions and none, and concentrating on a hard core of well-defined basic liberties. No longer. By trying in recent years to borrow moral authority from the campaigns and leaders of the past and lend it to the woollier cause of social reform, Amnesty has succeeded only in muffling what was once its central message, at the very moment when governments in the West need to hear it again.
Which of the following might conclude the main idea of the passage?
选项
A、Everybody should stand up for all kinds of rights.
B、Stand up for traditional rights: newer ones are distractions.
C、It is time for Amnesty to undertake a better reform.
D、Politics is more important than social and economic necessities.
答案
B
解析
主旨题。本文首段通过对人权组织现状的简要说明引出文章主旨:it decided to follow intellectual fashion and dilute a traditional focus on political rights by mixing in a new category of what people now call social and economic rights。之后作者对这一举措提出自己的看法并通过例证进行说明:Food,jobs and housing are certainly necessities. But no useful purpose is served by calling them“rights”. 由此可以看出本文主旨在于说明人们关注原来传统概念中的人权就可以了,[B]全面概括本文,故为答案。[A]为绝对项,排除;末段虽然提到woolliercause of social reform,但作者并未就这次不成功的改革提出建议,[C]没有根据;[D]是对第五段第二句as for people everywhere,the most reliable method yet invented to ensure that governments provide people with social and economic necessities is called politics的曲解,排除。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/zDYO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
DonE.CrabtreewasamastercraftsmanandadeanofAmericanflintknappers.Crabtree’sresearchisimportantbecauseitpioneer
Sapir-Whorf’shypothesismeditateontherelationshipbetween______.
完善国家计划和财政政策、货币政策等相互配合的宏观调控体系,发挥经济杠杆的调节作用。深化财政、税收、金融和投融资体制改革。完善预算决策和管理制度,加强对财政收支的监督,强化税收征管。稳步推进利率市场化改革,优化金融资源配置,加强金融监管,防范和化解金融风险,
Likeallanimalspecies,plantspeciesmustspreadtheiroffspringtosuitableareaswheretheycangrowandpassontheirparen
Likeallanimalspecies,plantspeciesmustspreadtheiroffspringtosuitableareaswheretheycangrowandpassontheirparen
TheHistoryofAmericanIndiansWhenEuropeansdiscoveredtheWesternhemisphere,theydiscoveredaraceofpeople.【1】______
PatentmedicineusedinAmericadatesbacktotheearlydaysoftheRepublic,whendrugsimportedfromEuropeweresoldbypostm
IneverexpectedtogotoChina.Althoughitsancientcultureandpresentstrugglesintriguedme,itsgracefulartandmagnifice
"Iwouldn’twanttohavesomeonetakemydaughtertoahospitalforanabortionorsomethingandnottellme.Iwouldkillhimi
随机试题
以下哪种疾病引起的呼吸衰竭属于泵衰竭
我国作业场所职业卫生的监督检查工作由()负责;职业卫生法律法规、标准的拟定,职业病预防、保健、检查和救治的规范工作由()负责。
经海关批准允许集中申报的进口货物,在规定期限录人()向海关申报,海关审结之日起()现场交单。在次月10日对()以内的申报的数据进行归并,填制进出口货物报关单到海关办理集中申报手续。
关于公司股份收回,下列说法正确的是( )。
有限责任公司只能以发起方式设立,公司资本只能由发起人认缴,不允许向社会募集,而股份有限公司既可以发起设立,也可以募集设立。()
物流公司的基本职业道德——急客户之所急2003年11月19日,河北廊坊开发区某工厂全厂领导和工人都在焦急等待着某物流公司的一个快件,等待着一个重要配件来恢复生产。但大雾弥漫整个北京,首都机场很多航班晚点,飞机上的快件也迟迟不能落地。急客户之
根据《全国人口普查条例》和《国务院关于开展第六次全国人口普查的通知》,我国以2010年11月1日零时为标准时点进行了第六次全国人口普查。目前我国全国总人口为1370536875人。其中普查登记的大陆31个省、自治区、直辖市和现役军人的人口共13397248
乙的行为应认定为()。(2018年一专一第9题)
某系统总体结构图如下图所示:该系统总体结构图的深度是
コンパの会場はど________こしますか。
最新回复
(
0
)