单选题 A wise man once said that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. So, as a police officer, I have some urgent things to say to good people.
Day after day my men and I struggle to hold back a tidal wave of crime. Something has gone terribly wrong with our once-proud American way of life. It has happened in the area of values. A key ingredient is disappearing, and I think I know what it is: accountability.
Accountability isn"t hard to define. It means that every person is responsible for his or her actions and liable for their consequences.
Of the many values that hold civilization together-honesty, kindness, and so on—accountability may be the most important of all. Without it, there can be no respect, no trust, no law—and ultimately, no society.
My job as a police officer is to impose accountability on people who refuse, or have never learned, to impose it on themselves. But as every policeman knows, external controls on people"s behaviour are far less effective than internal restraints such as guilt, shame and embarrassment.
Fortunately there still communities—smaller towns, usually—where schools maintaining discipline and where parents hold up standards that proclaim: "In this family certain things are not tolerated—they simply are not done!"
Yet more and more, especially in our larger cities and suburbs, these inner restrains are loosening. Your typical robber has none. He considers your property his property; he takes what he wants, including your life if you enrage him.
The main cause of this breakdown is a radical shift in attitudes. Thirty years ago, if a crime was committed, society was considered the victim. Now, in a shocking reversal, it"s the criminal who is considered victimized: by his underprivileged upbringing, by the school that didn"t teach him to read, by the church that failed to reach him with moral guidance, by the parents who didn"t provide a stable home.
I don"t believe it. Many others in equally disadvantaged circumstances choose not to engage in criminal activities. If we free the criminal, even partly, from accountability, we become a society of endless excuses, where no one accepts responsibility for anything.
We in America desperately need more people who believe that the person who commits a crime is the one responsible for it.

单选题 What the wise man said suggests that ______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 本题为细节题。本文以智者的话“A wise man once said that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”引入主题，即邪恶的胜利就是善良之人无所作为。从下文可知，作者要告诉人们，不应对罪犯再采取纵容的态度，为他们的犯罪行为寻找借口，而应认识到真正对犯罪行为负责的应该是罪犯本人。B选项与原文意思一致，为正确选项。A和D选项与智者的话意思相反。C选项文中并未提及。因此，B选项正确。

单选题 According to the author, if a person is found guilty of a crime, ______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 本题为细节题，考查因果逻辑关系。根据文章最后三段可知，第八段作者比较了过去和现在人们对待犯罪的态度；第九段作者对现在将犯罪行为归结为外部因素的观点提出质疑；最后一段中作者指出，犯罪本人应对自己的犯罪行为负责。所以，C选项为正确选项。A、B和D选项都是将外部原因归结为结论，是作者所批判的观点。因此，C选项正确。

单选题 Compared with those in small towns, people in large cities have ______.

单选题 The writer is sorry to have noticed that ______.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 本题为细节推理题。根据第八段“The main cause of this breakdown is a radical shift in attitudes. Thirty years ago, if a crime was committed, society was considered the victim.”可知，人们对罪犯态度彻底变了，为罪犯犯罪找借口。A选项符合原文意思。第六段中作者对小城镇人们对纪律和标准的坚持持积极态度，故排除B。C选项属无中生有。而D选项与作者观点正好相反。因此，A选项正确。