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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  64
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 can be inferred from the passage that the "robber barons" (Para. 2) are usually interpreted as
选项 A、businessmen who have used questionable practices to amass their wealth
B、people who make fortunes by engaging in businesses like railway and steeling
C、companies who glorify themselves as morally superior to their peers
D、robbers who make fortunes without being punished by the law
答案A
解析 文章第一次出现robber baron一词是在第二段中。作者在第二段中指出，硅谷的高新技术产业巨头们总是将自己美化为资本主义的圣人，但是他们的所作所为却越来越接近于robber baron。可见robber baron绝对不是指有崇高道德理念的人，[C]选项可以排除。另外，既然高新技术产业的人可以被称之为robber baron，我们也可以将[B]选项排除。第二段中提到了科技业巨头的前辈们，那些从事铁路、钢铁行业聚敛财富的商人，他们发家致富的过程往往伴随着许多的罪恶，他们聚敛的巨额财富中有很大一部分是通过不法手段获得的。而现在的科技业巨头虽然从事行业不同，但是在追求利益的过程中也犯下了许多的罪行。因此robber baron应该是指那些运用不当手段聚敛巨额财富的人，[A]选项正确。[D]选项直接将robber baron解释为“……强盗”，一看便知是望文生义，应排除。
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