沪江考研 - 一天一篇真题记单词（26-1997 阅读TEXT4）

一天一篇真题记单词（26-1997 阅读TEXT4）

来源：沪江论坛 | 时间：2008-07-12 | 作者：quicklearner | 阅读：508 次 | [大中小] [收藏] [划词 ] 评论 0 条

【写在前面】

暑假可以说是备考的黄金时间了，如何利用好这2个月的宝贵时间，全面提升各科实力，想必是诸多考研学子最想知道的事了吧。各种备考方法纷繁复杂，备考资料五花八门，如何不让这个暑假虚度呢，如何学才能更有效率呢。我想有一个方法是大家公认的，那就是做真题。数学，英语，专业课，真题都是最宝贵的资料。一天一篇真题记单词，在推出后受到了大家的认可，当然也有很多不足之处，在上学期出了20期后，暑期版隆重推出，希望能陪伴大家度过一个充实的暑假备战时期。

【真题原文】

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.

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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.”

【单词讲解】

1.accomplish vt. 完成, 达到, 实现

2.manifestation n. 1 显示, 表现 2 示威运动

3.self-examination 自我反省

4.bottom line 底线

5.take over 接任

6.late 用在某人前表示已故的这里出了个题，这个一词多义大家一定要掌握。

7.close the deal 达成交易

8.defend 辩护，辩称

9.be under fire for... 因为...成为众矢之的

10.outlet n 出口，出路

11.latitude n. 1 纬度, 范围, (用复数)地区 2 行动或言论的自由(范围)

longitude n. 经度, 经线

12.retreat 退却，退缩

13.back off 屈服

14.hard-line stand 强硬立场

15.insider 知道内情的人

【参考译文】

没有一家公司乐意听到别人说自己引起了社会道德败坏。上周，参议员罗伯特.多尔质问时代华纳公司高级人员时说：“这就是你们要成就的事业吗？你们已经出卖了自己的灵魂，难道你们还非要腐化我们的国家，威胁我们的孩子吗？”对成立于1990 年的时代华纳公司来说，多尔所质疑的问题只不过是公司自创立以来一直所进行的自我反省的最新表述，在公司发展的不同阶段，这一自我反省涉及（社会）责任、创作自由、公司所能做的一切。

处于这场争论中心位置的是公司主席，56 岁的杰拉德.莱文，他于1992 年从已故主席史蒂夫.罗斯手中接过这个重任。在财政问题上，莱文的压力很大，他必须提高公司的股价，并减少公司的巨额债务，而这一债务在购买两条电缆的交易完成之后将达到一百七十三亿美元。他准备出售公司的一些产业，并对公司进行重组，但是投资者已经等得不耐烦了。

唤起人们对说唱音乐的注意并没有使他的日子变得好过些。莱文一向以它是一种富于表现力的演唱方式为理由来捍卫公司的说唱音乐。1992 年时代华纳公司因出品Ice-T 乐队狂暴的说唱歌曲《警察杀手》而备受谴责，那时，莱文说这是街头文化的合法表达方式，它应该有自己的宣泄途径。在《华尔街日报》一篇专栏文章中，莱文写到：“对任何一个民主社会的检验不是看它能够多好地控制各种感情的表达，而在于它是否给予了人们思考和表达的最广泛的自由，不管这种结果有时可能会引起多大的争论和愤怒。我们不会在任何威胁面前退却。”

莱文不愿对上周进行的这次争论发表评论，但是种种迹象显示这位主席的强硬立场有所减弱，至少是在某种程度上的减弱。在上周股东会议讨论摇滚音乐内容时，莱文强调说：“音乐并不是社会弊端的根源”，他甚至还举了儿子的例子，他的儿子是纽约布郎克斯的一名教师，曾用说唱乐的形式和学生进行交流。但是在会议上，他也谈到了要在“创作自由”和“社会责任”之间努力保持平衡，他还宣布华纳公司将开始制定标准，对可能引起非议的音乐予以标记，并对起发行进行控制。

总的来说，时代华纳公司的15 位董事是支持莱文和公司的经营策略的。但内部人士透露其中几位对此事表示担忧。“我们中的一些人多年来就知道宪法第一修正案所说的自由并非毫无限制，” 路斯说，“我想公司里有些人可能最近才刚开始明白这一点”。

【作业】

1.学习完单词后自己认真翻译原文，并将原文中红色字体部分句子的译文回帖，认真答题者奖励100HY

2.自己认真总结本篇文章的词组，长难句，可以整理在本子上（推荐），也可以跟帖总结，把每天的帖子当作你的笔记本。