Moral responsibility is all very well, but what about military orders？ Is it not the soldi

ch as Stephen Covey and Tom Peters point to the practical utility of moral virtues such as compassion, responsibility, fairness, and honesty. They suggest that virtue is an essential ingredient in the recipe for success, and that moral standards are not merely commendable choices but necessary components of a thriving business career. This is a frequent theme in commencement addresses and other personal testimonials: Virtuous behavior. advances a career in the long run by building trust and reputation, whereas ethical shortcomings eventually derail careers. The humorist Dorothy Parker captured this idea in one of her signature quips: "Time wounds all heels."

and traditions that teach them are unique to each culture. Not only that, but culture has an effect on how people show these virtues.

One of the most basic moral values for Americans is honesty. The wall-known legend about George Washington and a cherry tree teaches this value clearly.

Another virtue Americans respect is perseverance. Remember Aesop’s fable about the turtle and the rabbit that had a race The rabbit thought he could win easily, so he took a sleep. But the turtle finally won because he did not give up.

Compassion(同情心)may be the queen of American virtues. In 1992, people in Iowa sent truckloads of water to help Floridians hit by a hurricane. The next summer, during the mid-west of flooding, Florida returned the favor.

There are more moral values honored by Americans. Courage, responsibility, loyalty, gratitude and many others could be discussed. But no matter how long or short the list is, moral values are invaluable. They are the foundation of American cultures--and any culture.

1.The morality that Americans honor most is () .

A.honesty

B. perseverance

C. compassion

D. gratitude

2.What conclusion may you come to from the paragraph？

A.Moral values for Americans are like those of other people

C B.Virtues of people are connected with certain culture

C. Morality of a nation has an effect on its culture

D. Stories and tradition can teach the people virtues

3.What is not described in detail in the text？

A.The story, Washington and a cherry tree, is often used to teach children to be honest

B. The story, the turtle and the rabbit, makes us determined

C.Compassion, sometimes recycles (循环) well among people

D.Moral values are the base of any culture

4.Which of the following has the closest meaning to the underlined word "invaluable"()

A.useless

B.valueless

C.priceless

D.unvalued

5.Which of the following might be the best title for the passage？

A.Moral virtues are worth nothing

B. Moral values are important

C.Nothing can take the place of moral virtues

D.Moral values for Americans

support one's parents. Called the Maintenance of Parents Bill, it received the backing of the Singapore Government.

That does not mean it hasn't generated discussion. Several members of the Parliament opposed the measure as un-Asian. Others who acknowledged the problem of the elderly poor believed it a disproportionate response. Still others believe it will subvert relations within the family: cynics dubbed it the "Sue Your Son" law.

Those who say that the bill does not promote filial responsibility, of course, are right. It has nothing to do with filial responsibility. It kicks in where filial responsibility fails. The law cannot legislate filial responsibility any more than it can legislate love. All that the law can do is to provide a safety net where this morality proves insufficient. Singapore needs this bill not to replace morality, but to provide incentives to shore it up.

Like many other developed nations, Singapore faces the problems of an increasing proportion of people over 60 years of age. Demography is inexorable. In 1980, 7.2% of the population was in this bracket. By the end of the century that figure will grow to 11%. By 2030, the proportion is projected to be 26%. The problem is not old age per se. It is that the ratio of economically active people to economically inactive people will decline.

But no amount of government exhortation or paternalism will completely eliminate the problem of old people who have insufficient means to make ends meet. Some people will fall through the holes in any safety net.

Traditionally, a person's insurance against poverty in his old age was his family. This is not a revolutionary concept. Nor is it uniquely Asian. Care and support for one's parents is a universal value shared by all civilized societies.

The problem in Singapore is that the moral obligation to look after one's parents is unenforceable. A father can be compelled by law to maintain his children. A husband can be forced to support his wife. But, until now, a son or daughter had no legal obligation to support his or her parents.

In 1989, an Advisory Council was set up to look into the problems of the aged. Its report stated with a tinge of complacency that 950% of those who did not have their own income were receiving cash contributions from relations. But what about the 5% who aren't getting relatives' support？ They have several options: (a) get a job and work until they die; (b) apply for public assistance (you have to be destitute to apply); (c) starve quietly. None of these options is socially acceptable. And what if this 5% figure grows, as it is likely to do, as society ages？

The Maintenance of Parents Bill was put forth to encourage the traditional virtues that have so far kept Asian nations from some of the breakdowns encountered in other affluent societies. This legislation will allow a person to apply to the court for maintenance from any or all of his children. The court would have the discretion to refuse to make an order if it is unjust.

Those who deride the proposal for opening up the courts to family lawsuits miss the point. Only in extreme cases would any parent take his child to court. If it does indeed become law, the bill's effect would be far more subtle.

First, it will reaffirm the notion that it is each individual's—not society's—responsibility to look after his parents. Singapore is still conservative enough that most people will not object to this idea. It reinforces the traditional values and it doesn't hurt a society now and then to remind itself of its core values.

Second, and more important, it will make those who are inclined to shirk their responsibilities think twice. Until now, if a person asked family elders, clergymen or t

A．received unanimous support in the Singapore Parliament

B．was believed to solve all the problems of the elderly poor

C．was intended to substitute for traditional values in Singapore

D．was passed to make the young more responsible to the old

on daytime television. And anyone who watches them regularly knows that each one varies in style. and format. But no two shows are more profoundly opposite in content, while at the same time standing out above the rest, than the Jerry Springer and the Oprah, Winfrey show.

Jerry Springer could easily be considered the king of "trash talk". The topics on his show are as shocking as shocking can be. For example, the show takes the ever-common talk show themes of love, sex, cheating, guilt, hate, conflict and morality to a different level. Clearly, the Jerry Springer show is a display and exploitation of society's moral catastrophe, yet people are willing to eat up the intriguing predicaments of other people's lives.

Like Jerry Springer, Oprah Winfrey takes TV talk show to its extreme, but Oprah goes in the opposite direction. The show focuses on the improvement of society and an individual's quality of life. Topics range from teaching your children responsibility, managing your work week, to getting to know your neighbors.

Compared with Oprah, the Jerry Springer show looks like poisonous waste being dumped on society. Jerry ends ever with a "final word". He makes a small speech that sums up the entire moral of the show. Hopefully, this is the part where most people will learn something very valuable.

Clean as it is, the Oprah show is not for everyone. The show's main target audiences are middle-class Americans. Most of these people have the time, money, and stability to deal with life's tougher problems. Jerry Springer, on the other hand, has more of an association with the young adults of society. These are 18-to 20-year olds whose main troubles in life involve love relationship, sex, money and peers. They are the ones who see some value and lessons to be learned underneath the show's exploitation.

While the two shows are as different as night and day, both have ruled the talk show circuit for many years now. Each one caters to a different audience while both have a strong following from large groups of fans. Ironically, both could also be considered pioneers in the talk Show world.

Compared with other TV talk shows, both the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey shows are

A．more family-oriented.

B．relatively formal.

C．more profound.

D．unusually popular.

Section A（2016年6月英语六级卷二试题）

Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage.

The robotics revolution is set to bring humans face to face with an old fear-man-made creations as smart and capable as we are without a moral compass. As robots take on ever more complex roles, the question naturally_____(27). Who will be responsible when they do something wrong？ Manufacturers？ Users？ Software writers？ The answer depends on the robot.

Robots already save us time, money and energy. In the future, they will improve our health care, social welfare and standard of living. The _____(28)of computational power and engineering advances will _____(29)enable lower-cost in-home care for the disabled,_____(30)use of driverless cars that may reduce drunk and distracted-driving accidents and countless home and service-industry uses from street cleaning to food preparation.

But there are _____(31)to be problems. Robot cars will crash. A drone (遥控飞行器)operator will _____(32)someone's privacy. A robotic lawn mower(割草机)will run over a neighbor's cat. Juries sympathetic to the _____(33)of machines will punish entrepreneurs with company-crushing _____(34)and damages What should government do to protect people while _____(35), space for innovation？

Big. complicated systems on which much public safety depends, like driverless cars, should be built _____(36)and sold by manufacturers who take responsibility for ensuring safety and are liable for accidents. Governments should set safety requirements and then let insurers price the risk of the robots based on the manufacturer's driving record. not the passenger's.

A.arises

B.ascends

C.bound

D.combination

E.definite

F.eventually

G.interfere

H.invade

I.manifesting

J.penalties

K.preserving

L.programmed

M.proximately

N.victims

O.widespread

er's duty to give instant obedience to orders given by his military superiors？ And apart from duty, will not the soldier suffer severe punishment, even death, if he refuses to do what he is ordered to？ If, then, a soldier is told by his superior to burn this house or to shoot that prisoner, how can he be held criminally accountable on the ground' that the burning or shooting was a violation of the laws of war？

These are some of the questions that are raised by the concept commonly called "superior orders", and its use as a defense in war crimes trials. It is an issue that must be as old as the laws of war themselves, and it emerged in legal guise over three centuries ago when, after the Stuart restoration in 1660, the commander of the guards at the trial and execution of Charles I was put on trial for treason and murder. The officer defended himself on the ground "that all I did was as a soldier, by the command of my superior officer whom I must obey or die," but the court gave him short shrift, saying that "When the command is traitorous, then the obedience to that command is also traitorous①."

Though not precisely articulated, the rule that is necessarily implied by this decision is that it is the soldier's duty to obey lawful orders, but that he may disobey—and indeed must, under some circum stances-unlawful orders. Such has been the law of the United States since the birth of the nation. In 1804, Chief Justice John Marshall declared that superior orders would justify a subordinate's conduct only "if not to perform. a prohibited act," and there are many other early decisions to the same effect.

A strikingly illustrative case occurred in the wake of that conflict which most Englishmen have never heard (although their troops burned the White House) and which we call the War of 1812. Our country was baldly split by that war too and, at a time when the United States Navy was not especially popular in New England, the ship-in-the-line Independence was lying in Boston Harbor. A passer-by directed abusive language at a marine standing guard on the ship, and the marine, Bevans by name, ran his bayonet through the man. Charged with murder, Bevans produced evidence that the marines on the Independence had been ordered to bayonet anyone showing them disrespect. The case was tried before Justice Joseph Story, next to Marshall, the leading judicial figure of those years, who charged that any such order as Bevans had invoked "would be illegal and void," and, if given and put into practice, both the superior and the subordinate would be guilty of murder②. In consequence, Bevans was convicted.

The order allegedly given to Bevans was pretty drastic, and Boston Harbor was not a battlefield; per haps it was not too much to expect the marine to realize that literal compliance might lead to bad trouble. But it is only too easy to conceive of circumstances where the matter might not be at all clear. Does the sub ordinate obey at peril that the order may later be ruled illegal, or is protected unless he has a good reason to doubt its validity？

It can be inferred from the first paragraph that if a soldier obeys his superior's order to burn a house or to kill a prisoner, ______.

A．he is fight according to moral standards

B．he should not receive any punishment

C．he should certainly be liable for his action

D．he will be convicted according to the law of war

rom its current location in the suburban town of Merion, Pa., to a site in Philadelphias museum district caused an argument — not only because it shamelessly went against the will of the founder, Albert C. Barnes, but also because it threatened to dismantle(拆开)a relationship among art, architecture and landscape critical to the Barness success as a museum.

For any architect taking on the challenge of the new space, the confusion of moral and design questions might seem overwhelming. What is an architects responsibility to Barness vision of a marvelous but odd collection of early Modern artworks housed in a rambling(布局凌乱的)1920s Beaux-Arts pile？ Is it possible to reproduce its spirit in such a changed setting？ Or does trying to replicate(复制)the Barness unique atmosphere only doom you to failure？ The answers of the New York architects taking the commission are not reassuring. The new Barnes will include many of the features that have become virtually mandatory(强制性的)in the museum world today — conservation and education departments, temporary exhibition space, auditorium, bookstore, cafe — making it four times the size of the old Barnes. The architects have tried to compensate for this by laying out these spaces in an elaborate architectural procession that is clearly intended to replicate the peaceful-ness, if not the fantastic charm, of the old museum.

But the result is a complicated design. Almost every detail seems to ache from the strain of trying to preserve the spirit of the original building in a very different context. The failure to do so, despite such an earnest effort, is the strongest argument yet for why the Barnes should not be moved in the first place.

The old Barnes is by no means an obvious model for a great museum. Inside the lighting is far from perfect, and the collection itself, mixing masterpieces by Cezanne, Picasso and Soutine with second-rate paintings by lesser-known artists, has a distinctly odd flavor. But these apparent flaws are also what have made the Barnes one of the countrys most charming exhibition spaces. But today the new Barnes is after a different kind of audience. Although museum officials say the existing limits on crowd size will be kept, it is clearly meant to draw bigger numbers and more tourist dollars. For most visitors the relationship to the art will feel less immediate.

The Old Barnes becomes a successful museum mainly because of______.

A. the beneficial geographical position in a suburban town

B. its unique design and orderly collection of arts

C. the influence of its founder Albert C. Barnes

D. the perfect connection among art, architecture and landscape

道德风险(moral hazard)

rent social values. (moral)

道德发展(moral development)