Early in the age of affluence that followed World War Ⅱ, an American retailing analyst named Victor Lebow proclaimed, "Our enormously productive economy... demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption.... We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever increasing rate."Americans have responded to Lebow"s call, and much of the world has followed.Consumption has become a central pillar of life in industrial lands and is even embedded in social values. Opinion surveys in the world"s two largest economies—Japan and the United Sates—show consumerist definitions of success becoming ever more prevalent.Overconsumption by the world"s fortunate is an environmental problem unmatched in severity by anything but perhaps population growth. Their surging exploitation of resources threatens to exhaust or unalterably spoil forests, soils, water, air and climate.Ironically, high consumption may be a mixed blessing in human terms, too. The time-honored values of integrity of character, good work, friendship, family and community have often been sacrificed in the rush to riches.Thus many in the industrial lands have a sense that their world of plenty is somehow hollow—that, misled by a consumerist culture, they have been fruitlessly attempting to satisfy what are essentially social, psychological and spiritual needs with material things.Of course, the opposite of overconsumption—poverty—is no solution to either environmental or human problems. It is infinitely worse for people and bad for the natural world too. Dispossessed peasants slash-and-burn their way into the rain forests of Latin America, and hungry nomads turn their herds out onto fragile African grassland, reducing it to desert.If environmental destruction results when people have either too little or too much, we are left to wonder how much is enough. What level of consumption can the earth support When does having more cease to add noticeably to human satisfaction Why does the author say high consumption is a mixed blessing
A. Because poverty still exists in an affluent society.
Because moral values are sacrificed in pursuit of material satisfaction.
C. Because overconsumption won"t last long due to unrestricted population growth.
D. Because traditional rituals are often neglected in the process of modernization.
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As part of more comprehensive compliance and ethics programs, many companies have formulated internal policies pertaining to the ethical conduct of employees.These policies can be simple exhortations in broad, highly-generalized language ( typically called a corporate ethics statement), or they can be more detailed policies, containing specific behavioral requirements (typically called corporate ethics codes).51They are generally meant to identify the company’s expectations of workers and to offer guidance on handling some of the more common ethical problems that might arise in the course of doing business.52 It is hoped that having such a policy will lead to greater ethical awareness , consistency in application, andthe avoidance of ethical disasters. 53. An increasing number of companies also requires employees to attend seminars regarding business conduct, which often include discussion of the company’s policies, specific case studies, and leEal requirements. Some companies even require their employees to sign agreements stating that they will abide by the company’s rules of conduct. Many companies are assessing the environmental factors that can lead employees to engage in unethical conduct.A competitive business environment may call for unethical behavior.Lying has become expected in fields such as trading.An example of this are the issues surrounding the unethical actions of the Saloman Brothers. Not everyone supports corporate policies that govern ethical conduct. Some claim that ethical problems are better dealt with by depending upon employees to use their own judgment. Others believe that corporate ethics policies are primarily rooted in utilitarian concerns, and that they are mainly to limit the company’s legal liability, or to curry public favor by giving the appearance of being a good corporate citizen.Ideally, the company will avoid a lawsuit because its employees will follow the rules.54 .Should a lawsuit occur, the company can claim that the problem would not have arisen if the employee had only followed the code properly. Sometimes there is disconnection between the company’s code of ethics and the company’s actual practices. 55. Thus, whether or not such conduct is explicitly sanctioned by management, at worst, this makes the policy duplicitous (搞两面派的) , and, at best, it is merely a marketing tool. Should a lawsuit occur, the company can claim that the problem would not have arisen if the employee had only followed the code properly.
As part of more comprehensive compliance and ethics programs, many companies have formulated internal policies pertaining to the ethical conduct of employees.These policies can be simple exhortations in broad, highly-generalized language ( typically called a corporate ethics statement), or they can be more detailed policies, containing specific behavioral requirements (typically called corporate ethics codes).51They are generally meant to identify the company’s expectations of workers and to offer guidance on handling some of the more common ethical problems that might arise in the course of doing business.52 It is hoped that having such a policy will lead to greater ethical awareness , consistency in application, andthe avoidance of ethical disasters. 53. An increasing number of companies also requires employees to attend seminars regarding business conduct, which often include discussion of the company’s policies, specific case studies, and leEal requirements. Some companies even require their employees to sign agreements stating that they will abide by the company’s rules of conduct. Many companies are assessing the environmental factors that can lead employees to engage in unethical conduct.A competitive business environment may call for unethical behavior.Lying has become expected in fields such as trading.An example of this are the issues surrounding the unethical actions of the Saloman Brothers. Not everyone supports corporate policies that govern ethical conduct. Some claim that ethical problems are better dealt with by depending upon employees to use their own judgment. Others believe that corporate ethics policies are primarily rooted in utilitarian concerns, and that they are mainly to limit the company’s legal liability, or to curry public favor by giving the appearance of being a good corporate citizen.Ideally, the company will avoid a lawsuit because its employees will follow the rules.54 .Should a lawsuit occur, the company can claim that the problem would not have arisen if the employee had only followed the code properly. Sometimes there is disconnection between the company’s code of ethics and the company’s actual practices. 55. Thus, whether or not such conduct is explicitly sanctioned by management, at worst, this makes the policy duplicitous (搞两面派的) , and, at best, it is merely a marketing tool. 51They are generally meant to identify the company’s expectations of workers and to offer guidance on handling some of the more common ethical problems that might arise in the course of doing business.
As part of more comprehensive compliance and ethics programs, many companies have formulated internal policies pertaining to the ethical conduct of employees.These policies can be simple exhortations in broad, highly-generalized language ( typically called a corporate ethics statement), or they can be more detailed policies, containing specific behavioral requirements (typically called corporate ethics codes).51They are generally meant to identify the company’s expectations of workers and to offer guidance on handling some of the more common ethical problems that might arise in the course of doing business.52 It is hoped that having such a policy will lead to greater ethical awareness , consistency in application, andthe avoidance of ethical disasters. 53. An increasing number of companies also requires employees to attend seminars regarding business conduct, which often include discussion of the company’s policies, specific case studies, and leEal requirements. Some companies even require their employees to sign agreements stating that they will abide by the company’s rules of conduct. Many companies are assessing the environmental factors that can lead employees to engage in unethical conduct.A competitive business environment may call for unethical behavior.Lying has become expected in fields such as trading.An example of this are the issues surrounding the unethical actions of the Saloman Brothers. Not everyone supports corporate policies that govern ethical conduct. Some claim that ethical problems are better dealt with by depending upon employees to use their own judgment. Others believe that corporate ethics policies are primarily rooted in utilitarian concerns, and that they are mainly to limit the company’s legal liability, or to curry public favor by giving the appearance of being a good corporate citizen.Ideally, the company will avoid a lawsuit because its employees will follow the rules.54 .Should a lawsuit occur, the company can claim that the problem would not have arisen if the employee had only followed the code properly. Sometimes there is disconnection between the company’s code of ethics and the company’s actual practices. 55. Thus, whether or not such conduct is explicitly sanctioned by management, at worst, this makes the policy duplicitous (搞两面派的) , and, at best, it is merely a marketing tool. It is hoped that having such a policy will lead to greater ethical awareness , consistency in application, andthe avoidance of ethical disasters.
About the time that schools and others quite reasonably became interested in seeing to it that all children, whatever their background, were fairly treated, intelligence testing became unpopular.Some thought it was unfair to minority children. Through the past few decades such testing has gone out of fashion and many communities have indeed forbidden it.However, paradoxically, just recently a group of black parents filed a lawsuit in California claiming that the state"s ban on IQ testing discriminates against their children by denying them the opportunity to take the test. (They believed, correctly, that IQ tests are a valid method of evaluating children for special education classes.) The judge, therefore, reversed, at least partially, his original decision.And so the argument goes on and on. Does it benefit or harm children from minority groups to have their intelligence tested We have always been on the side of permitting, even facilitating, such testing. If a child of any color or group is doing poorly in school it seems to us very important to know whether it is because he or she is of low intelligence, or whether some other factor is the cause.What school and family can do to improve poor performance is influenced by its cause. It is not discriminative to evaluate either a child"s physical condition or his intellectual level.Unfortunately, intellectual level seems to be a sensitive subject, and what the law allows us to do varies from time to time. The same fluctuation back and forth occurs in areas other than intelligence. Thirty years or so ago, for instance, white families were encouraged to adopt black children. It was considered discriminative not to do so.And then the style changed and this cross-racial adopting became generally unpopular, and social agencies felt that black children should go to black families only. It is hard to say what are the best procedures. But surely good will on the part of all of us is needed.As to intelligence, in our opinion, the more we know about any child"s intellectual level, the better for the child in question. The recent legal action taken by some black parents in California aimed to ______.
A. draw public attention to IQ testing
B. put an end to special education
C. remove the state"s ban on intelligence tests
D. have their children enter white schools