单选题 There are countless parents who will not allow their children to play violent video games, in which players are able to kill, maim, dismember or sexually assault human images in depraved ways. The video game industry rates them, and some stores use that rating to decide whether to sell a particular game to a minor.
But California went too far in 2005 when it made it illegal to sell violent video games to minors. Retailers challenged the law, and a federal appeals court rightly ruled that it violates the First Amendment. Last week, the Supreme Court said that it would review that decision. We hope it agrees that the law is unconstitutional. California's law imposes fines of up to $1,000 on retailers that sell violent video games to anyone under 18. To qualify, a game must, as a whole, lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors.
But video games are a form of free expression. Many have elaborate plots and characters, often drawn from fiction or history. The California law is a content-based restriction, something that is presumed invalid under the First Amendment. The Supreme Court has made it clear that minors have First Amendment rights. California has tried to lower the constitutional standard for upholding the law by comparing it to "variable obscenity," a First Amendment principle that allows banning the sale of some sexually explicit materials to minors that cannot be banned for adults. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, like other federal courts, rightly refused to extend that doctrine to violent games.
Under traditional First Amendment analysis, content-based speech restrictions can survive only if they are narrowly tailored to promote a compelling government interest. California says its interest is in preventing psychological or neurological damage to young people. The appeals court concluded that the evidence connecting violent video games to this sort of damage is too weak to make restricting the games a compelling government interest.
Even if the interest were legitimate, the state could have used less restrictive methods. The video game industry, like the movie business, has a voluntary rating system that provides buyers and sellers with information on the content of specific games, including age-specific ratings, ranging from "early childhood" to "adults only. " The government could do more to promote the use of voluntary ratings by retailers and parents.
California lawmakers may have been right when they decided that video games in which players kill and maim are not the most socially beneficial form of expression. The Constitution, however, does not require speech to be ideal for it to be protected.

单选题 The "decision" in the second paragraph refers to
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】第二段第三句中的that decision显然只能指第二句中提到的裁决。在第二句中,rule的意思是“裁决,裁定”。在第三句中,review也是一个法律词语,意为submit(a sentence,case,etc.)for reconsideration by a higher court or authority(把某个判决、案件等提交上一级法庭或权力机构复审)。
单选题 What is essentially wrong with California's law?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】第三段提到,加利福尼亚州的法律是a content-based restriction,而这样做是违反宪法第一修正案的,违背了其中对表达自由和言论自由的规定。加利福尼亚州把自己制定的法律跟variable obscenity相比。这个术语最早用于1968年,最高法院用这个术语来说明:虽然某些出版内容受到第一修正案的保护,但是如果它们被出售给未成年人,它们就自动失去了法律的保护。可见,加利福尼亚州在这里把自己的法律比作variable obscenity,主要是想说自己的法律没有违反宪法第一修正案的原则。总之,在作者看来,加利福尼亚州法律的最大问题是它限制游戏的内容,违背了言论自由或表达自由的原则。
单选题 Restricting the content of expression is permitted only when
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】第四段提到对内容实施限制的两个条件,第一,这些限制必须是narrowly tailored,这里tailor的意思是“按照特定要求制作”某个东西,如果说法律条文需要narrowly tailored,则指这些条文措辞应该非常谨慎、具体、准确,而不应该过于宽泛。第二,这些限制必须用于促进a compelling government interest,这里compelling的意思是urgently requiring attention(紧急的,需要紧急处理的)。也就是说,如果某种特殊国家利益需要,可以对表达自由进行一定的限制,但这些法律限制必须言辞谨慎。但是在作者看来,加利福尼亚州提供的理由,即保护年轻人的心理不受伤害,根本不能算作是a compelling government interest。
单选题 The author's attitude toward California's law is
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】从以上三个题的题解可以看出,作者对加利福尼亚州2005年的法律持坚决的批评态度,认为它违背了宪法第一修正案中所规定的表达自由和言论自由。实际上,作者的基本观点从第二段开始就表达得非常清楚。在总结全文的最后一段,作者再次重申了自己的观点:宪法不能只保护完美的言论,而是要保护各种各样的言论。限制游戏的内容就是限制表达自由或言论自由。
单选题 The passage is mainly about
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】从以上各题的题解可以看出,本文谈论的主要是由暴力游戏所引发的言论自由或表达自由问题。文章第一段提出暴力游戏的问题,第二段引出加利福尼亚州针对暴力游戏制定的法律,第三段紧接着把暴力游戏与表达自由联系在一起,以下几段通过讨论加利福尼亚州的法律,分析并批评了它违反表达自由和言论自由的做法。最后一段也是就这项法律、电子游戏、言论自由者的关系进行了总结。