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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 struggled 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 behavior are far less effective than internal restraints such as guilt, shame and embarrassment.
Fortunately, there are still communities—smaller towns, usually—where schools maintain discipline and there 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 gone. He considers your property his property: he takes what he wants, including your life if you engage him.
The main cause of this break-down 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.
The wise man‘s remark suggests that it is ________.
第一段中作者以一句智者的话“邪恶的胜利就是善良之人无所作为” 开头， 再结合下文， 不难发现智者的话意思是指如果好人纵容邪恶， 那么邪恶就会泛滥。 B 项最符合题意。
According to the author, if a person is found guilty of a crime, ________.
文章最后一段提到“We in America desperately need more people who believe that the person who commits a crime is the one responsible for it.” 可见， 如果有人犯罪， 那么应是他自己为此负责。
Compared with those in small towns, people in large cities have _____.
文章倒数第五段提到“Yet more and more, especially in our larger cities and suburbs, these inner restrains are loosening.” 可知在大城市里人们的自律性更差一些， 故选 A。
The writer is sorry to have noticed that ________.
根据文章倒数第五段可知大城市里的人自律性变差， 往往会对某些犯罪存在同情心， 把责任归咎到社会环境， 从而间接纵容了犯罪行为。 故选 A。
From the text we can conclude that ________.
文章开头提出了责任感的缺失纵容了犯罪行为， 并在结尾号召“We in America desperately need more people who believe that the person who commits a crime is the one responsible for it.”由此判断文章的主要目的是呼吁人们增强责任意识。 故选 D。