阅读理解
As the Senate prepares to vote on legislation to empower the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products, its members would be wise to consult a recent appeals court decision. The decision makes it clear that the tobacco companies have engaged in deceitful and harmful behavior for many decades and cannot be trusted to reform on their own. Regulatory oversight is the best chance to rein them in. The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld major elements of a 2006 lower court decision that found big tobacco companies guilty of racketeering and fraud as part of a prolonged campaign to deceive and addict the public. That 1,742-page opinion, rendered by Judge Gladys Kessler, laid out in painstaking detail how the tobacco companies made false statements and suppressed evidence to deny or play down the addictive qualities and the adverse health effects of smoking. Judge Kessler found that the companies manipulated the design of cigarettes to deliver addictive doses of nicotine, falsely denied that secondhand smoke caused disease and falsely represented that light and low-tar cigarettes presented fewer health risks. The appeals court not only upheld her decision as legally sound, it seemed deeply impressed by the "volumes of evidence" and "countless examples of deliberately false statements" underlying many of Judge Kessler's findings. It also upheld some but not all of the marketing restrictions and other requirements she imposed to prevent the companies from making future false claims and engaging in additional fraudulent activities. The companies protested that they should not be subjected to such requirements because they had already agreed to numerous remedies under a settlement agreement with 46 states and the District of Columbia. The appeals panel was rightly unimpressed. It upheld the district court's findings that after the settlement went into effect in 1998, the companies almost immediately began to evade and violate various prohibitions against joint activities and false statements. The House has already voted to give the F.D.A. power to regulate tobacco. Senators, who are getting ready to vote on similar legislation, now have fair warning, if they needed any more, that this is a dishonest industry. It can't be trusted to behave responsibly or even adhere to agreements it has signed. It is time to grant the F.D.A. the power to regulate the content and marketing of tobacco products.
单选题11.Why would it be wise for the senators to consult a recent appeals court decision before voting?