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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  69
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.
In the case of Foxconn’s scandal, Apple’s greatest mistake lies in______.
选项 A、outsourcing its production assembly to overseas manufactures
B、ignoring the press’ plea for better treatment of workers
C、failing to enforce strict supervision over its contract suppliers
D、failing to manage its branches under unified operating standards
答案C
解析 作者在第三段中列举了富士康的例子来说明硅谷巨头的不光彩行为。苹果公司将iPhone手机和其他配件的装配工作系统外包给中国富士康。这样的外包行为本身并没有什么不当(That’sneither unique nor necessarily evil)，[A]选项错误。但是富士康公司出现劳资纠纷，苹果公司也脱不了干系。因为苹果公司没有能够对它的外包商实施适当的监督。这是苹果最大的失误，正确答案应该选[C]。当然苹果公司对媒体报道置若罔闻，直到事情完全败露才采取有力措施，这也是苹果的过失，但归根结底，问题还是在它没有对外包商进行审计监督。因此，[B]选项不是最佳答案。[D]选项错误，要求苹果公司对海外公司实施监督，并不是要求它将海外分公司都置于统一的执行标准之下，[D]选项歪曲原文内容。
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