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  3. No company likes to be told it is contributing to the moral decline of a nation. "Is this what you intended to accomplish with y

No company likes to be told it is contributing to the moral decline of a nation. "Is this what you intended to accomplish with y

admin2022-07-19  28
问题     No company likes to be told it is contributing to the moral decline of a nation. "Is this what you intended to accomplish with your careers?" Senator Robert Dole asked Time Warner executives last week, "You have sold your souls, but must you corrupt our nation and threaten our children as well?" At Time Warner, however, such questions are simply the latest manifestation of the soul-searching that has involved the company ever since the company was born in 1990. It’s a self-examination that has, at various times, involved issues of responsibility, creative freedom and the corporate bottom line.
    At the core of this debate is chairman Gerald Levin, 56, who took over for the late Steve Ross in 1992. On the financial front, Levin is under pressure to raise the stock price and reduce the company’s mountainous debt, which will increase to $17.3 billion after two new cable deals close. He has promised to sell off some of the property and restructure the company, but investors are waiting impatiently.
    The flap over rap is not making life any easier for him. Levin has consistently defended the company’s rap music on the grounds of expression. In 1992, when Time Warner was under fire for releasing Ice-T’s violent rap song Cop Killer, Levin described rap as a lawful expression of street culture, which deserves an outlet. "The test of any democratic society," he wrote in a Wall Street Journal column, "lies not in how well it can control expression but in whether it gives freedom of thought and expression the widest possible latitude, however disputable or irritating the results may sometimes be. We won’t retreat in the face of any threats."
    Levin would not comment on the debate last week, but there were signs that the chairman was backing off his hard-line stand, at least to some extent. During the discussion of rock singing verses at last month’s stockholders’ meeting, Levin asserted that "music is not the cause of society’s ills" and even cited his son, a teacher in the Bronx, New York, who uses rap to communicate with students. But he talked as well about the "balanced struggle" between creative freedom and social responsibility, and he announced that the company would launch a drive to develop standards for distribution and labeling of potentially objectionable music.
    The 15-member Time Warner board is generally supportive of Levin and his corporate strategy. But insiders say several of them have shown their concerns in this matter. "Some of us have known for many, many years that the freedoms under the First Amendment are not totally unlimited," says Luce, "I think it is perhaps the case that some people associated with the company have only recently come to realize this."
In face of the recent attacks on the company, the chairman________.
选项 A、stuck to a strong stand to defend freedom of expression
B、softened his tone and adopted some new policy
C、changed his attitude and yielded to objection
D、received more support from the 15-member board
答案B
解析 本题关键词是recent attacks和the chairman。问题是：面对最近对公司的攻击，这位主席的情况如何?定位第三、四、五段。根据第三段内容，莱文一直以说唱音乐是一种富于表现力的演唱方式为理由来捍卫 (consistently defended)公司的这种音乐形式……莱文说这是街头文化的合法表达方式(a lawful expression)，它应该有自己的宣泄途径。在任何威胁面前，我们决不会退缩(won’t retreat)。似乎这位主席的立场很坚定，但是第四段首句指出，但有迹象表明这位董事长的强硬立场起码在一定程度上有所松动(backing off)，后来这位主席并没有一味强调表达自由，而是谈及创作自由和社会责任之间要“保持平衡”(balanced struggle)的问题，并采取了新的政策，即为那些可能引起人们反感的音乐制定各种发行和标识的标准(develop standards)。由此可见，这位主席面对攻击时，没有坚持强硬，也没有完全屈服，而是缓和了语气(softened his tone)，采取了新的政策(adopted some new policy)，因此选项B与原文态度一致，为正确选项；同理可知，选项A断章取义，选项C曲解文意。选项D来自第五段，但该段只提及15个成员表面上支持这位主席的策略，但实际上有人表示担忧，并没有提及这位主席是否从15名董事会成员那里得到了更多的支持，因此选项D无中生有。
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