[长难句突破]

"The test of any democratic society," he wrote in a Wall Street Journal column, "lies not in how well it can control expression but in whether it gives freedom of thought and expression the widest possible latitude, however disputable or irritating the results may sometimes be. We won't retreat in the face of any threats."

主体句式：He wrote in a Wall Street Journal column

结构分析：西方媒体的新闻报道文字中经常出现直接引用人物言论或其著作片断的话，这样的句子往往结构看上去比较复杂，但实际分析后就会发现这种句型很容易解剖。以本句为例，作者把主句放在了宾语（即这篇文章的引言）的中间。宾语即引言包含了两个句子，其中第一个句子比较复杂，其主干成分为"The test lies not in... but in ..."，即由两个并列结构构成，相当于中文的"不是......而是......"。这两个并列结构的in后面都跟了一个句子表示不同的状况，句子最后的"however disputable or irritating the results may sometimes be"是对两种情况的补充说明。第二个句子比较短，即"We won't retreat in the face of any threats."，其中"in the face of"是"面临、面对"的意思。

[全文译文]

No company likes to be told it is contributing to the moral decline of a nation. "Is this what you intended to accomplish with your careers?" Senator Robert Dole asked Time Warner executives last week. "You have sold your souls, but must you corrupt our nation and threaten our children as well?" At Time Warner, however, such questions are simply the latest manifestation of the soul searching that has involved the company ever since the company was born in 1990. It's a self-examination that has, at various times, involved issues of responsibility, creative freedom and the corporate bottom line.

At the core of this debate is chairman Gerald Levin, 56, who took over for the late Steve Ross in 1992. On the financial front, Levin is under pressure to raise the stock price and reduce the company's mountainous debt, which will increase to 17.3 billion after two new cable deals close. He has promised to sell off some of the property and restructure the company, but investors are waiting impatiently.

The flap over rap is not making life any easier for him. Levin has consistently defended the company's rap music on the grounds of expression. In 1992, when Time Warner was under fire for releasing Ice T's violent rap song Cop Killer, Levin described rap as a lawful expression of street culture, which deserves an outlet. "The test of any democratic society," he wrote in a Wall Street Journal column, "lies not in how well it can control expression but in whether it gives freedom of thought and expression the widest possible latitude, however disputable or irritating the results may sometimes be. We won't retreat in the face of any threats."

Levin would not comment on the debate last week, but there were signs that the chairman was backing off his hard line stand, at least to some extent. During the discussion of rock singing verses at last month's stockholders' meeting, Levin asserted that "music is not the cause of society's ills" and even cited his son, a teacher in the Bronx, New York, who uses rap to communicate with students. But he talked as well about the "balanced struggle" between creative freedom and social responsibility, and he announced that the company would launch a drive to develop standards for distribution and labeling of potentially objectionable music.

The 15 member Time Warner board is generally supportive of Levin and his corporate strategy. But insiders say several of them have shown their concerns in this matter. "Some of us have known for many, many years that the freedoms under the First Amendment are not totally unlimited," says Luce. "I think it is perhaps the case that some people associated with the company have only recently come to realize this."

没有一家公司愿意听到别人说自己引起了社会的道德败坏。上星期，参议员罗伯特·多尔质问时代--华纳公司的高级经理们时说："难道这就是你们要成就的事业吗？你们已经出卖了自己的灵魂，难道你们还一定要腐化我们这个民族，威胁我们的下一代吗？"不过，对于成立于1990年的时代--华纳公司而言，这样的质问仅仅只是公司自我反思的最新表白，是在不同时期关于责任、创作自由和公司底线问题的自我反省。

56岁的现任董事长杰拉德·莱文于1992年接替已故董事长斯蒂夫·罗斯，他现在成为了争论的焦点人物。在财政方面，他承受着抬高股价，减少公司巨额债务的压力。在谈妥两笔新的有线电视协议后，公司债务将达到173亿美元。他也答应出售部分财产并重组公司，而现在，投资者们却仍在焦急地等待着。

对于说唱音乐的吹捧并没使他的日子变得好过一些。莱文一直以说唱音乐是一种富于表现力的演唱方式为理由来捍卫公司的这种音乐形式。在1992年，当公司因出品冰特乐队狂暴的说唱歌曲《警察杀手》而遭受了巨大的谴责时，莱文说这是街头文化的合法表达方式，它应该有自己的宣泄途径。他在《华尔街日报》一篇专栏文章中写道："对于任何一个民主社会的检验不在于它如何有效地控制各种言论和情感的表达，而在于社会是否给予了人们思考和表达的最广泛的自由--不管有时这种做法的结果会引起多大争论和愤怒。在任何威胁面前，我们决不会退却。"

莱文不愿对上周的评论做出评论，但有迹象表明这位董事长的强硬立场起码在一定程度上有所松动。在上个月的股东大会上，大家就摇滚乐的歌词问题进行了讨论。莱文强调"音乐不是社会丑恶现象出现的原因"，他甚至还以他的儿子为例，后者是纽约州布朗克斯的一个教师，他用说唱音乐的形式与学生进行交流。但他也谈到了创作自由和社会责任之间要"保持平衡"的问题。他还宣布，公司将全力为那些可能引起人们反感的音乐制定各种发行和标识的标准。

总的来说，时代--华纳公司的15位董事是支持莱文和公司的经营策略的。但据内部消息人士透露，其中有几位董事对此事表示担忧。"我们中的一些人多年来一直都知道宪法修正案第一条所说的自由并非毫无限制的自由，"鲁斯说，"但我觉得与公司有关系的一些人可能是最近才意识到这一点。"