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  3. Big crimes deserve tough responses. In any country the theft and publication of 250,000 secret government documents would deserv

Big crimes deserve tough responses. In any country the theft and publication of 250,000 secret government documents would deserv

admin2012-03-23  39
问题     Big crimes deserve tough responses. In any country the theft and publication of 250,000 secret government documents would deserve punishment. If the leak costs lives, let alone the careers and trust that have already perished amid the WikiLeaks disclosures, the case for action is even stronger.
    Nor should a government fear to act because its adversaries are popular and fight back. That the digital Jacobins of WikiLeaks have a cult following should not save them from condemnation or prosecution. Removing illicit material from the Internet is hard. But governments spend a lot of money, rightly, on chasing child pornography, bomb-making techniques and copyright breaches to the Internet’s margins. Similarly, discouraging WikiLeaks and those who give it financial and technical support is justified for elected politicians in a law-governed state.
    But calibrating that response raises questions of principle, practice and priority. Businesses will go their own way. Some, such as PayPal, Visa and MasterCard, which handled donations to WikiLeaks, and Amazon, which provided web-hosting services, have dumped it as a customer in response to American outrage. More may follow. They risk attacks from its fans, just as those that refuse face hostility from their customers in America. Too bad: business is full of hard choices.
    For the American government, prosecution, not persecution, offers the best chance of limiting the damage and deterring future thefts. The blustering calls for the assassination of Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder now in custody in London awaiting extradition to Sweden on faintly mysterious charges of sexual assault, look both weak and repellent. If Mr. Assange has broken American law, it is there that he should stand trial, just like Bradley Manning, the alleged source of the stolen documents. If not, it may be some consolation that the cables so far reveal a largely flattering picture of America’s diplomats: conscientious, cool-headed, well-informed, perceptive and on occasion eloquent.
    If America sticks to those standards now it will display a strength and sanity that contrasts with the shrill absolutism and cyber-vandalism of the WikiLeaks partisans. Calling Mr. Assange a terrorist, for example, is deeply counterproductive. His cyber-troops do not fly planes into buildings, throw acid at schoolgirls or murder apostates. Indeed, the few genuine similarities between WikiLeaks and the Taliban —its elusiveness and its wide base of support—argue against ill-judged attacks that merely broaden that support. After a week of clumsy American-inspired attempts to shut WikiLeaks down, it is now hosted on more than 700 servers around the world.
    The big danger is that America is provoked into bending or breaking its own rules, straining alliances, eroding credibility and—because it will not be able to muzzle WikiLeaks—ultimately seeming impotent. In recent years America has promoted the Internet as a menace to foreign censorship. That sounds tinny now. So did its joy of hosting next year’s World Press Freedom Day. Russian glee at American discomfort are a sure sign of such missteps.
    The best lessons to bear in mind are those learned in such costly fashion during the past decade of the "war on terror". Deal with the source of the problem, not just its symptoms. Keep the moral high ground. And pick fights you can win.
Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE?
选项 A、Visa has ended the cooperative relationship with WikiLeaks.
B、Supporters of WikiLeaks may attack some businesses.
C、Governments eliminate pornography on the Internet.
D、A lot of people are in favor of the WikiLeaks.
答案C
解析 细节题。第二段第四句指出“But governments spend a lot of money，rightly，on chasing child pornography，bomb-making techniques and copyright breaches to the Intemet’s margins．”，驱赶到互联网的边缘并非根除，故[C]为答案。第三段第三句“Some，such as PayPal，Visa and MasterCard，which handled donations toWikiLeaks．and anion，which provided web-hosting services，have duplex it as a customer in response toamerican outrage”表明这些公司终止了与维基解密的合作，[A]符合文意；第三段倒数第二句“They risk attacks from its fans．just as those that refuse face hostility from their customers in America”表明[B]符合文意；第二段首句指出“Nor should a government fear to act because its adversaries are popular and fight back”，句中的popular表明维基解密有许多拥护者，[D]符合文意。
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