六级冲刺练习阅读（111）_大学英语阅读

六级冲刺练习阅读（111）

　　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 .

　　My job as a police pfficer is to impose accountability on people who refuse, or have never learned, to impose it on themselves. But as every policeman knows, external control on peoples behavior is 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 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 large cities and suburbs, these inner restraints 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 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, its the criminal who is considered victimized: by his underprivileged upbringing, by the school that didnt teach him to read, by the church that failed to reach him with moral guidance, by the parents who didnt provide a stable home.