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From the early days of broadband, advocates for consumers and web-basedcompanies worried that the cable and phone companies selling broadbandconnections had the power and incentive to favor affiliated websites over theirrivals. That’s why there has been such a strong demand for rules that wouldprevent broadband providers from picking winners and losers online, preservingthe freedom and innovation that have been the lifeblood of the internet.

Yet that demand has been almost impossible to fill—in part because ofpushback from broadband providers, anti-regulatory conservatives and the courts.A federal appeals court weighed in again Tuesday, but instead of providing abadly needed resolution, it only prolonged the fight. At issue before the U.S.Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was the latest take of theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) on net neutrality, adopted on aparty-line vote in 2017. The Republican-penned order not only eliminated thestrict net neutrality rules the FCC had adopted when it had a Democraticmajority in 2015, but rejected the commission’s authority to require broadbandproviders to do much of anything. The order also declared that state and localgovernments couldn’t regulate broadband providers either.

The commission argued that other agencies would protect againstanti-competitive behavior, such as a broadband-providing conglomerate likeAT&T favoring its own video-streaming service at the expense of Netflix andApple TV. Yet the FCC also ended the investigations of broadband providers thatimposed data caps on their rivals’ streaming services but not their own.

On Tuesday, the appeals court unanimously upheld the 2017 orderderegulating broadband providers, citing a Supreme Court ruling from 2005 thatupheld a similarly deregulatory move. But Judge Patricia Millett rightly arguedin a concurring opinion that “the result is unhinged from the realities ofmodern broadband service,” and said Congress or the Supreme Court couldintervene to “avoid trapping Internet regulation in technologicalanachronism.”

In the meantime, the court threw out the FCC’s attempt to block all staterules on net neutrality, while preserving the commission’s power to preemptindividual state laws that undermine its order. That means more battles like theone now going on between the Justice Department and California, which enacted atough net neutrality law in the wake of the FCC’s abdication.

The endless legal battles and back-and-forth at the FCC cry out forCongress to act. It needs to give the commission explicit authority once and forall to bar broadband providers from meddling in the traffic on their network andto create clear rules protecting openness and innovation online.

36. There has long been concern that broadband provides would

A. bring web-based firms under control.

B. slow down the traffic on their network.

C. show partiality in treating clients.

D. intensify competition with their rivals.

37. Faced with the demand for net neutrality rules, the FCC

A. Sticks to an out-of-date order.

B. Takes an anti-regulatory stance.

C. Has issued a special resolution.

D. Has allowed the states to intervene.

38. What can be learned about AT&T from Paragraph 3?

A. It protects against unfair competition.

B. It engages in anti-competitive practices.

C. It is under the FCC’s investigation.

D. It is in pursuit of quality service.

39. Judge Patricia Millett argues that the appeals court’s decision

A. focuses on trivialities.

B. conveys an ambiguous message.

C. is at odds with its earlier rulings.

D. is out of touch with reality.

40. What does the author argue in the last paragraph?

A. Congress needs to take action to ensure net neutrality.

B. The FCC should be put under strict supervision.

C. Rules need to be set to diversify online services.

D. Broadband providers’ rights should be protected.

　【正确答案】36. C37. B38. B39. D 40. A

【解析】

36.题干问长期以来对于宽带供应商，大家担心的一个点是什么。定位到原文第一段开头处的worried,后文提到这些宽带供应商会支持一些附属于自己的网站来和其他对手竞争。这就造成了某种偏袒，所以选C show partiality in treatingclients.

37.题干问，面对这种呼吁中立规则的要求，FCC这个组织做了什么。定位到原文第二段中间。原文提到FCC采用了一个vote-linevote，后面进一步提到人数占优的共和党把之前民主党的一个政策给推翻了，而且还拒绝各种和ruleneutrality相关的决定，由此可见FCC所采取的是反对监管的立场，因而选B Takes an anti-regulatory stance.

38.题干问从第3段中，我们能知道关于AT&T这个组织的哪些方面。定位到原文第3段开头部分。原文提到AT&T这个宽带供应商支持自己的视频流服务，但是不允许其他公司来用这个。所以这就涉嫌anti-competitive，因而选BIt engages in anti-competitive practices.

39. 题干问某个法官认为上诉法院的决议怎么样。定位到原文第4段中间，原文说这个决议是unhinged from therealities，由此可见该法官觉得上诉法院的决议有问题，脱离现实，所以选D is out of touch with reality.

40.题干问在最后一段中，作者的观点是啥。在最后一段的第一句我们看到，所有发生的这些事都迫切要求国会出面来解决。后面进一步提到国会应该做哪些事。所以作者的观点很明确，就是国会应该采取行动来解决文中提到的争议，因而选ACongress needs to take action to ensure net neutrality.