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  3. Silicon Valley likes to think of itself as morally exceptional. When Google went public in 2004, the company’s founders penned a

Silicon Valley likes to think of itself as morally exceptional. When Google went public in 2004, the company’s founders penned a

admin2014-10-24  84
问题     Silicon Valley likes to think of itself as morally exceptional. When Google went public in 2004, the company’s founders penned a letter to prospective shareholders that has become the Internet industry’s version of the Magna Carta. In it, they pledged that Google was "not a conventional company" but one focused on "making the world a better place. "
    Though Silicon Valley’s newest billionaires may anoint themselves the saints of American capitalism, they’re beginning to resemble something else entirely: robber barons. Like their predecessors in railroads, steel, banking, and oil a century ago, Silicon Valley’s new entrepreneurs are harnessing technology to make the world more efficient. But along the way, that process is bringing great economic and labor dislocation, as well as an unequal share of the spoils.
    Take Apple’s manufacturing practices inChina. By systematically outsourcing the assembly of iPhones and other gadgets to contract manufacturers like China’s Foxconn, Apple has reduced its overall cost of production and increased profit margins for shareholders. That’s neither unique nor necessarily evil. It’s a practice regularly adopted by all kinds of industries. But establishing an arm’s-length commercial relationship does not absolve a company from moral responsibility for the way its chosen partners treat workers. Labor issues at Foxconn have attracted bad press for some time. It was not until that negative publicity on New York Times last year that Apple took more meaningful action, allowing the Fair Labor Association to conduct special audits of its suppliers’ factories in China.
    A bigger battle remains to be fought on the privacy front, where Silicon Valley’s misdemeanors are even more upsetting. Pushing the boundaries of what is generally considered acceptable, even decent, when it comes to exploiting personal information is a daily sport in the online world. That’s because a tweak here or there to the privacy settings of a social network or a tiny change to the code on a mobile application can mean a world of difference in the value of information an advertiser can access about a usually unaware user. Perhaps swayed by Silicon Valley’s altruistic spin or slow to catch up with its rapid growth, Washington has, up to now, largely left the industry to regulate itself on privacy. That’s clearly not working. Hardly a day passes without some new revelation of an Internet or mobile company stepping a byte too far into the private business of its customers.
    The original robber barons had decent intentions when they built railroads to connect America’s emerging cities and drilled oil wells that fueled the nation’s growth, but their empires still needed to be regulated, reined in, and in some cases broken up by vigilant watchdogs. Lofty words and ideals are fine for motivating employees and even for spurring sales, but they can also serve as cover for motives that clash with the broader interests of consumers and society. We need more than fancy promises to ensure that the rise of the Silicon Valley engineer is good for the world.
It is believed by the author that the loftycorporate ideals can only be achieved______.
选项 A、under altruistic leadership
B、in benign corporate culture
C、under concerted efforts of all employees
D、under appropriate exterior surveillance
答案D
解析 在第四段后半部分，作者提到面对互联网对用户信息的盗取，政府往往不闻不问，听由互联网行业自行调节。然而，这样放任自流的方式显然是行不通的。因此，第五段提出，Lofty words and ideals(崇高的字眼和远大的理性)既能刺激员工的积极性，但也有可能成为公司获取不义之财的遮羞布。Weneed more than fancy promises to ensure that the rise of the Silicon Valley engineer is good for the world．为了保证硅谷的崛起对全世界有益，花言巧语、信誓旦旦是远远不够的。需要的是政府的监督。正确答案应该选[D]。而[A]、[B]和[C]三个选项都是公司内部自己的管理，我们是不能依靠公司自身监督自己的。
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