No company likes to be told it is contributing to the moral decline of a nation. "Is this what you intended to accomplish with y

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问题     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.
    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."
According to the text, which of the following is TRUE?

选项 A、Luce is a spokesman of Time Warner.
B、Gerald Levin is liable to compromise.
C、Time Warner is united as one in the face of the debate.
D、Steve Ross is no longer alive.

答案D

解析 本题无明显关键词,属于是非判断题,可以根据选项关键词定位相应段落。第二段第一句话指出,56岁的现任董事长杰拉尔德.莱文于1992年接替已故(late)董事长史蒂夫.罗斯,此处需注意late是熟词僻义,表示“已故的”,因此选项D与原文属于相同含义,为正确选项。第五段第三句卢斯称:“我们中的一些人多年来一直都知道宪法修正案第一条所说的自由并非毫无限制的自由,但我觉得与公司有关的某些人可能最近才意识到这一点。”从这句话只能看出卢斯可能是董事会成员,但是不是该公司的发言人不得而知,因此选项A属于主观推导;由此也可以看出,时代华纳公司并不团结一致,因此选项C正反混淆。选项B也属于正反混淆,因为liable的意思是“易于……的,有……倾向的”,该选项意思是莱文有可能妥协,但从第四段不难看出他已经妥协,不再一意孤行,采取了新政策。
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