Corporate Crime剑桥雅思4听力-原文翻译及答案解析

一、Corporate Crime 听力原文：

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 听力中文翻译：

到目前为止，在这些讲座中，我们一直在从历史的角度和当代社会的角度研究抢劫和谋杀等犯罪，我们已经看到，西方社会对犯罪和无法无天的关注是长期持续的传统的一部分，而不是现代社会特有的新事物

但在过去70年左右的时间里，一种类型的犯罪大幅增加，这就是所谓的公司犯罪

公司犯罪，顾名思义，是指与公司、商业组织有关的犯罪

它包括公司内部个人或团体的非法行为，但重要的是，这些行为通常符合公司的目标——它们是为了公司的利益，而不是个人的利益

它被定义为“为公司组织犯下的罪行”-公司-“不是针对它”，unquote

因此，根据这一定义，诸如员工盗窃之类的犯罪——例如针对实际雇主的贪污或欺诈行为——被排除在外

员工可能参与其中，但他们首先是在为公司行事——他们甚至可能没有意识到自己在犯罪，或者他们可能意识到，但他们觉得这是可以原谅的，因为这是政策，否则他们可能会失去工作

所以这里，真的，我们在谈论权力和犯罪之间的联系

现在，这是一个比常规或传统犯罪更为人们所知的领域

大众媒体相对忽视了这一点，例如，与新闻广播、犯罪连续剧和电影等中的常规犯罪相比，它往往被低估，它们很少涉及公司犯罪

而且，这一点在学术界也往往被忽视——关于传统犯罪的研究多得多，可用的数据也多得多

与其他类型的犯罪相比，对公司犯罪缺乏兴趣有几个原因

这通常非常复杂，而对于传统犯罪来说，通常可以在没有专业知识的情况下跟踪所发生的事情

除此之外，传统犯罪通常有很多人类利益，而公司犯罪则往往少之又少

第三个原因，也可能是最重要的一个原因，是受害者往往没有意识到——他们认为自己的不幸是一场事故，或者这不是任何人的过错

他们不知道自己是犯罪的受害者

因此，当我们研究公司犯罪的影响时，我们可能会发现很难评估成本

但这些成本在经济和社会方面都可能非常可观

让我们先看看经济成本

例如，如果一家公司正在生产果汁，并稀释其产品，使其浓度略低于应有浓度，数百万人可能会为他们的一盒橙汁支付少量额外费用

现在，像这样的小额金额对个人客户来说似乎微不足道——小得令人担忧——但对公司来说，这种欺骗可能会导致巨额非法利润

然而，所有关于公司犯罪的研究都一致认为，事实上，个人因此类犯罪而被剥夺的金钱远远多于抢劫和盗窃等常规犯罪

除此之外，我们还必须考虑公司犯罪的社会成本，这些成本也很难评估，但相当可观

它们之所以重要，是因为它们会破坏公众对商业世界的信心，更重要的是，它们所影响的主要人群实际上不是社会的富裕阶层，而是穷人——因此，在这里，公司正在掠夺穷人以造福富人

关于公司犯罪，我想通过几年前发生的一个具体事件来说明另外两点

这是一艘大型油轮发生爆炸，造成50多名船员死亡

这是一次永远不应该发生的爆炸，随后的调查并没有将责任归咎于当时确实在油轮上的任何人，而是归咎于油轮的所有者

他们故意决定不对油轮进行必要的修理，因为油轮将被出售，正是由于缺乏修理工作，才导致了这次爆炸

现在，这说明了与公司犯罪有关的两点

首先，它不一定是故意的

油轮的所有者当然没有爆炸的意图

但是，如果人们或组织不认真考虑其行为可能产生的结果，可能会导致非常严重的后果

这里的主要罪行是（问题39和40）对人类的结果漠不关心，而不是伤害任何人的实际意图，但这并没有使结果不那么悲惨

这就引出了我的第二点——公司犯罪可能会有非常严重的后果

这不仅是一个公司盈利超过其应有水平的问题，也是一个可能影响无辜人民生活的事件的问题然而，很多公司，因为他们说他们无意伤害任何人，可以避免对其行为的结果负责

这是一个非常危险的法律漏洞

另一个公司犯罪的例子是

三、Corporate Crime 听力问题：

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 听力答案：

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 听力答案解析

Question 31 C. 当录音中提到 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 这种企业犯罪为的是公 司的利益，而不是个人的），考生应意识到这正是第 31 题的答案对应试卷上已给出的信息，可得知答案为 c.

Question 32 A. 录音中提到 So crimes like theft by employees-things like embezzlement or fraud against one’s actual employer are excluded according to this definition，本句关键为 excluded（排除）这个词，此 词对应题目中的 NOT include，故答案为 A

Question 33 mass media/media. 当定位信号词 ignored 在录音中出现后，考生接着会听到 by the mass media，因此可确定答案为 mass media

Question 34 academic circles/academics/researchers. 定位信息 And it also tends to be ignored in 在录音中 出现后，考生应意识到其后的 academic circles 即为正确答案

Question 35 specialist knowledge/specialised knowledge. 当录音中提到题目中的定位信号词 There are several reasons 后应意识到答案即将出现，紧接着录音提到 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，与传统的犯罪相比，企业犯罪更复杂，因此需要有专门的知识，故答案为 specialist knowledge

Question 36 unaware. 录音中提到 The third reason，答案即将出现 ，接 着录音提到 the victims are unaware 对应卷面信息中的 victims 可确定答案为 unaware

Question 37 individual customers/individual consumers/individuals. 录音中提到 Now small amounts like this may seem insignificant for individual customers—too small to worry about“insignificant”同题目中 的“unimportant”属于同义词替换，对应卷面信息，可确定答案为 individual customers

Question 38 illegal profit/illegal profits . 接着录音中提到 but for the company this deception might result in massive illegal profit“massive”同题目中的“large”属于同义词替换，对应卷面信息，可确定答案为 illegal profit（ 非法利润）

Question 39 - 40 D - E. 在做多选题时应注意选项的大意，同时关注是否存在明显的干扰项，以增 加答案判断的精准度在本题中，可以明显感觉到 A，B 为干扰项的可能性较大，A 背离常识，过 于绝对，而 B 背离主题录音中首先提到 this illustrates two points to do with corporate crime，接着提 到：First of all，that it does not have to be intentional，即首先，企业犯罪并非一定是蓄意而为；由此 C 可以被排除 随后录音提到 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. 这个犯罪的结果是由于 冷漠，而非蓄意伤害而造成的，但这并不能减轻犯罪后果的悲剧性这些信息可以帮助我们确定 答案应为 D 和 E

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