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  3. A recent article indicated that business schools were going to encourage the study of ethics as part of the curriculum. If gradu

A recent article indicated that business schools were going to encourage the study of ethics as part of the curriculum. If gradu

admin2015-10-21  85
问题     A recent article indicated that business schools were going to encourage the study of ethics as part of the curriculum. If graduate schools have to discover ethics, then we are truly in serious trouble. I no more believe that ethics can be taught past the age of 10 than I believe in the teaching of so-called creative writing. There are some things that you are born with, or they are taught by your parents, your priest or your grade-school teacher, but not in college or in graduate school. I believe that businesses should go back to basics in recruiting, should forget about the business schools and recruit the best young liberal arts students we can find.
    The issue of ethics, both in business and in politics, takes on a sharper focus in the money culture of a service economy than in our earlier industrial days. For the businessmen and the politicians, virtually the only discipline that can be applied is ethical. Financial scandals are not new, nor is political corruption. However, the potential profit, and the ease with which they can be made from insider trading, market manipulation, conflict-of-interest transactions and many other illegal or unethical activities are too great and too pervasive to be ignored. At the same time, those institutions that historically provided the ethical basis to the society—the family, the church and the primary school—are getting weaker and weaker. Hence, our dilemma.
    The application of ethics, as well as overall judgment, is made even more difficult by the increasing application of rapidly changing technology to major problems in our society. How does a layman deal with the questions raised by "Star Wars", genetic engineering, AIDS and the myriad issues relating to the availability and affordability of life-saving drugs and other medical technology? It is clear that one cannot abdicate to the technocrats the responsibility of making judgment on these issues.
    Two important risks accompany the discarding of our value system when dealing with a money culture and high technology. The first risk is that more people will turn to radical religion and politics. People always search for frameworks that provide a certain amount of support. If they do not find it in their family, in their school, in their traditional church or in themselves, they will turn to more absolute solutions. The second risk is the polarization of society. We have created hundreds of paper millionaires and quite a few billionaires. But alongside the wealth and glamour of Manhattan and Beverly Hills, we have seen the growth of a semipermanent or permanent underclass.
    The most important function of higher education is to equip the individual with the capacity to compete and to fulfill his or her destiny. A critically important part of this capacity is the ability to critically evaluate a political process that is badly in need of greater public participation. This raises the issue of teaching ethics in graduate schools. Ethics is a moral compass. Ideally, it should coincide with enlightened self-interest, not only to avoid jail in the short run but to avoid social upheaval in the long run. It must be embedded early, at home, in grade school, in church. It is highly personal. I doubt it can be taught in college.
    Yet what is desperately needed in an increasingly complex world dominated by technicians is the skepticism and the sense of history that a liberal arts education provides. History, philosophy, logic, English, and literature are more important to deal with today’s problems than great technical competence. These skills must combine with an ethical sense acquired early in life to provide the framework needed to make difficult judgments. We most certainly need the creativity of great scientific minds. But all of us cannot be technical experts, nor do we need to be. In the last analysis, only judgment, tempered by a sense of history and a healthy skepticism of cant and ideology will give us the wherewithal to make difficult choices.  
What are the two alternatives of the dilemma the author is referring to?
选项 A、Growing immoral activities and weakening moral basis.
B、Financial scandals and political corruption.
C、Potential profits and the ease with which they can be made from insider trading, etc.
D、Ethical discipline and illegal trading.
答案A
解析 细节题。第二段最后提到了“dilemma(进退两难的局面)”。由“Hence(因而)”可以看出前面的内容是导致这种两难局面的原因。该段倒数第二句句首的“At the same time”表明倒数第二、三句是造成这一局面的两个方面：首先，潜在的利益、从内部交易中轻而易举地获利、市场操纵、利益交易的冲突以及其他许多非法或者不道德的活动极为猖獗，以致人们无法忽视它们；同时，过去那些为社会提供道德基础的机构，包括家庭、教堂、小学，现在影响力越来越弱了，故答案为[A]。[B]和[C]是该问题所体现的两个具体例证，故排除；[D]中的“illegal trading”是具体例证，故排除。
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