Corporate Crime劍橋雅思4聽力-原文翻譯及答案解析

一、Corporate Crime 聽力原文：

So far, in these lectures, we've been looking at crimes like robbery and murder - both from a historical viewpoint and also in contemporary society - and we've seen that the preoccupation in Western society with crime and with lawlessness is part of a long and continuous tradition, rather than something which is new and unique to modern society.

But over the past seventy years or so, there has been a massive increase in one type of crime, which is what's known as corporate crime'.

Corporate crime is crime which, as the name suggests, is connected with companies, with business organisations.

It includes illegal acts of either individuals or a group within the company, but what is important is that these acts are normally in accordance with the goals of the company - they're for the good of the company rather than the individual.

It's been defined as, quote, 'crime which is committed for the corporate organisation' - the company - 'not against it', unquote.

So crimes like theft by employees- things like embezzlement or fraud against one's actual employer are excluded according to this definition.

The employees may be involved but they're acting in the first place for the company - they may not even realise they're committing a crime or they may realise but they feel it's excusable because it's policy , or because otherwise they may lose their jobs.

So here , really , we're talking about the links between power and crime.

Now, this is one area that much less is generally known about than conventional or traditional crime.

It has been relatively ignored by the mass media - for example, it tends to be under-reported in comparison with conventional crime in news broadcasts, and in crime serials and films and so on - they very rarely deal with corporate crime.

And it also tends to be ignored in academic circles - there's been far more research on conventional crime and far more data is available.

There are several reasons for this lack of interest in corporate crime, compared with other types of crime.

It's often very complex, whereas with conventional crime it's usually possible to follow what's going on without specialist knowledge.

As well as this, whereas conventional crime usually has a lot of human interest, corporate crime often has much less.

The third reason, and possibly the most significant one, is that very often the victims are unaware - they think their misfortune is an accident or that it's the fault of no-one in particular.

They're unaware that they've been victims of a crime.

So, when we look at the effects of corporate crime we may find it's very difficult to assess the costs.

But these costs can be very considerable in both their economic and social aspects.

Let's look at the economic costs first.

For example, if a company is producing fruit juice and it dilutes its product so that it's just a little below the concentration it should be, many millions of people may be paying a small amount extra for their carton of orange juice.

Now small amounts like this may seem insignificant for individual customers - too small to worry about - but for the company this deception might result in massive illegal profit.

However, all studies of corporate crime agree that the individuals are in fact deprived of far more money by such crime than they are by conventional crime like robbery and theft.

In addition to this, we have to consider the social costs of corporate crime and these are again very difficult to assess, but they are considerable.

They're important because they can undermine the faith of the public in the business world and also, more importantly, because the main group of people they affect are, in fact, not the richer sections of society but the poorer - so here companies are robbing the poor to benefit the rich.

There are two more points to do with corporate crime that I'd like to illustrate with reference to a specific event which occurred several years ago.

This was an explosion of a large oil tanker which caused the loss of more than fifty lives of the crew.

It was an explosion which never should have happened and a subsequent Inquiry laid the blame not on anyone who had actually been on the tanker at the time, but on the owners of the tanker.

They had deliberately decided not to carry out necessary repair work on the tanker as it was due to be sold, and it was this lack of repair work which was directly responsible for the explosion.

Now this illustrates two points to do with corporate crime.

First of all, that it does not have to be intentional.

The owners of the tanker certainly did not intend it to explode.

But very serious consequences can result from people or organisations not considering the possible results of their actions seriously enough.

The main crime here was (Q39-40)indifference to the human results rather than actual intention to harm anyone, but that didn't make the result any less tragic.

And this leads me to my second point - that corporate crime can have very severe consequences.

It's not just a matter of companies making bigger profits than they should do, but of events which may affect the lives of innocent people, and yet very often companies, because they say they didn't intend to harm anyone, can avoid taking responsibility for the results of their actions.

And that has been a very dangerous loophole in the law.

A further example of corporate crime was...

(fade out)

二、Corporate Crime 聽力中文翻譯：

到目前為止，在這些講座中，我們一直在從歷史的角度和當代社會的角度研究搶劫和謀殺等犯罪，我們已經(jīng)看到，西方社會對犯罪和無法無天的關注是長期持續(xù)的傳統(tǒng)的一部分，而不是現(xiàn)代社會特有的新事物

但在過去70年左右的時間里，一種類型的犯罪大幅增加，這就是所謂的公司犯罪

公司犯罪，顧名思義，是指與公司、商業(yè)組織有關的犯罪

它包括公司內(nèi)部個人或團體的非法行為，但重要的是，這些行為通常符合公司的目標——它們是為了公司的利益，而不是個人的利益

它被定義為“為公司組織犯下的罪行”-公司-“不是針對它”，unquote

因此，根據(jù)這一定義，諸如員工盜竊之類的犯罪——例如針對實際雇主的貪污或欺詐行為——被排除在外

員工可能參與其中，但他們首先是在為公司行事——他們甚至可能沒有意識到自己在犯罪，或者他們可能意識到，但他們覺得這是可以原諒的，因為這是政策，否則他們可能會失去工作

所以這里，真的，我們在談論權力和犯罪之間的聯(lián)系

現(xiàn)在，這是一個比常規(guī)或傳統(tǒng)犯罪更為人們所知的領域

大眾媒體相對忽視了這一點，例如，與新聞廣播、犯罪連續(xù)劇和電影等中的常規(guī)犯罪相比，它往往被低估，它們很少涉及公司犯罪

而且，這一點在學術界也往往被忽視——關于傳統(tǒng)犯罪的研究多得多，可用的數(shù)據(jù)也多得多

與其他類型的犯罪相比，對公司犯罪缺乏興趣有幾個原因

這通常非常復雜，而對于傳統(tǒng)犯罪來說，通?？梢栽跊]有專業(yè)知識的情況下跟蹤所發(fā)生的事情

除此之外，傳統(tǒng)犯罪通常有很多人類利益，而公司犯罪則往往少之又少

第三個原因，也可能是最重要的一個原因，是受害者往往沒有意識到——他們認為自己的不幸是一場事故，或者這不是任何人的過錯

他們不知道自己是犯罪的受害者

因此，當我們研究公司犯罪的影響時，我們可能會發(fā)現(xiàn)很難評估成本

但這些成本在經(jīng)濟和社會方面都可能非?？捎^

讓我們先看看經(jīng)濟成本

例如，如果一家公司正在生產(chǎn)果汁，并稀釋其產(chǎn)品，使其濃度略低于應有濃度，數(shù)百萬人可能會為他們的一盒橙汁支付少量額外費用

現(xiàn)在，像這樣的小額金額對個人客戶來說似乎微不足道——小得令人擔憂——但對公司來說，這種欺騙可能會導致巨額非法利潤

然而，所有關于公司犯罪的研究都一致認為，事實上，個人因此類犯罪而被剝奪的金錢遠遠多于搶劫和盜竊等常規(guī)犯罪

除此之外，我們還必須考慮公司犯罪的社會成本，這些成本也很難評估，但相當可觀

它們之所以重要，是因為它們會破壞公眾對商業(yè)世界的信心，更重要的是，它們所影響的主要人群實際上不是社會的富裕階層，而是窮人——因此，在這里，公司正在掠奪窮人以造福富人

關于公司犯罪，我想通過幾年前發(fā)生的一個具體事件來說明另外兩點

這是一艘大型油輪發(fā)生爆炸，造成50多名船員死亡

這是一次永遠不應該發(fā)生的爆炸，隨后的調(diào)查并沒有將責任歸咎于當時確實在油輪上的任何人，而是歸咎于油輪的所有者

他們故意決定不對油輪進行必要的修理，因為油輪將被出售，正是由于缺乏修理工作，才導致了這次爆炸

現(xiàn)在，這說明了與公司犯罪有關的兩點

首先，它不一定是故意的

油輪的所有者當然沒有爆炸的意圖

但是，如果人們或組織不認真考慮其行為可能產(chǎn)生的結果，可能會導致非常嚴重的后果

這里的主要罪行是（問題39和40）對人類的結果漠不關心，而不是傷害任何人的實際意圖，但這并沒有使結果不那么悲慘

這就引出了我的第二點——公司犯罪可能會有非常嚴重的后果

這不僅是一個公司盈利超過其應有水平的問題，也是一個可能影響無辜人民生活的事件的問題然而，很多公司，因為他們說他們無意傷害任何人，可以避免對其行為的結果負責

這是一個非常危險的法律漏洞

另一個公司犯罪的例子是

三、Corporate Crime 聽力問題：

Question 31-32

Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.

31.Corporate crime is generally committed

A. against individuals.

B. by groups.

C. for companies.

32.Corporate crime does NOT include

A. employees stealing from their company.

B. unintentional crime by employees.

C. fraud resulting from company policy.

Question 33-38

Complete the notes below.

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.Corporate crime has been ignored by:

a) the　　e.g. films.

b).

Reasons:

a) often more complex and needing　.

b) less human interest than conventional crime.

c) victims are often　.

Effects:

a) Economic costs

·may appear unimportant to

·can make large　　for company

·cause more losses to individuals than conventional crimes

b) Social costs

·make people lose trust in business world

·affect poorer people most

Question 39-40

Choose TWO letters A—F.

The oil tanker explosion was an example of a crime which A. was no-one’s fault.

B. was not a corporate crime.

C. was intentional.

D. was caused by indifference.

E. had tragic results.

F. made a large profit for the company.

四、Corporate Crime 聽力答案：

31.C

32.A

33.mass media / media

34.academic circles / academics / researchers

35.specialist knowledge / specialised knowledge

36.unaware

37.individual customers / individual consumers / individuals

38.illegal profit / illegal profits

39.D

40.E

五、Corporate Crime 聽力答案解析

Question 31 C. 當錄音中提到 what is important is that these acts are normally in accordance with the goals of the company—they’re for the good of the company rather than the individua（l 這種企業(yè)犯罪為的是公 司的利益，而不是個人的），考生應意識到這正是第 31 題的答案對應試卷上已給出的信息，可得知答案為 c.

Question 32 A. 錄音中提到 So crimes like theft by employees-things like embezzlement or fraud against one’s actual employer are excluded according to this definition，本句關鍵為 excluded（排除）這個詞，此 詞對應題目中的 NOT include，故答案為 A

Question 33 mass media/media. 當定位信號詞 ignored 在錄音中出現(xiàn)后，考生接著會聽到 by the mass media，因此可確定答案為 mass media

Question 34 academic circles/academics/researchers. 定位信息 And it also tends to be ignored in 在錄音中 出現(xiàn)后，考生應意識到其后的 academic circles 即為正確答案

Question 35 specialist knowledge/specialised knowledge. 當錄音中提到題目中的定位信號詞 There are several reasons 后應意識到答案即將出現(xiàn)，緊接著錄音提到 It’s often very complex，whereas with conventional crime it’s usually possible to follow what’s going on without specialist knowledge，由此可 知，與傳統(tǒng)的犯罪相比，企業(yè)犯罪更復雜，因此需要有專門的知識，故答案為 specialist knowledge

Question 36 unaware. 錄音中提到 The third reason，答案即將出現(xiàn) ，接 著錄音提到 the victims are unaware 對應卷面信息中的 victims 可確定答案為 unaware

Question 37 individual customers/individual consumers/individuals. 錄音中提到 Now small amounts like this may seem insignificant for individual customers—too small to worry about“insignificant”同題目中 的“unimportant”屬于同義詞替換，對應卷面信息，可確定答案為 individual customers

Question 38 illegal profit/illegal profits . 接著錄音中提到 but for the company this deception might result in massive illegal profit“massive”同題目中的“l(fā)arge”屬于同義詞替換，對應卷面信息，可確定答案為 illegal profit（ 非法利潤）

Question 39 - 40 D - E. 在做多選題時應注意選項的大意，同時關注是否存在明顯的干擾項，以增 加答案判斷的精準度在本題中，可以明顯感覺到 A，B 為干擾項的可能性較大，A 背離常識，過 于絕對，而 B 背離主題錄音中首先提到 this illustrates two points to do with corporate crime，接著提 到：First of all，that it does not have to be intentional，即首先，企業(yè)犯罪并非一定是蓄意而為；由此 C 可以被排除 隨后錄音提到 The main crime here was indifference to the human results rather than actual intention to harm anyone，but that didn’t make the results any less tragic. 這個犯罪的結果是由于 冷漠，而非蓄意傷害而造成的，但這并不能減輕犯罪后果的悲劇性這些信息可以幫助我們確定 答案應為 D 和 E

>> 雅思 托福 免費課程學習，AI量身規(guī)劃讓英語學習不再困難<<