Few beyond California’ s technology crowd recognise the name Larry Sonsini; none within its circle could fail to. For four decades he has been lawyer, adviser and friend to many prominent companies and investors. Some consider him the most powerful person in Silicon Valley. Companies beg for his law firm to represent them. The 65-year-old chairman of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (WSG&R) has suddenly been thrust into the spotlight: first, for counselling many of the technology firms now under scrutiny for backdating stock options (and in some cases, serving on their boards); and more recently, as outside counsel to Hewlett-Packard (HP), for initially defending the board’s dubious investigative practices.
WSG&R boasts 600 lawyers and represents around half of Silicon Valley’s public companies, including Apple Sun Microsystems and Google. Last year it ranked first in private-equity and venture-capital deals, with nearly twice as many as its closest rival. Over the past five years WSG&R has worked on over 1 000 mergers and acquisitions, collectively worth over $ 260 billion.
The recent troubles cast a shadow over WSG&R’s reputation. Although Mr. Sonsini is not accused of wrongdoing himself, many of his firm’s clients are on the ropes. Former executives at Brocade Communications suffered criminal charges in July, Mr. Sonsini Served on Brocade’s board until last year and his firm was its outside counsel. He also was on the boards of Pixar, Echelon, Lattice Semiconductor, LSI Logic and Novell all firms at which the issuing of stock options is being called into question.
WSG&R dismisses the idea that Mr. Sonsini faced a conflict of interest by acting as both director and legal adviser to so many firms and says he did not advise HP in its investigation of board members. Mr. Sonsini initially said it was "well done and within legal limits". It now seems it was neither.
The author’s attitude toward Mr. Sonsini’s remarks is （）
A. sceptical
B. indifferent
C. biased
D. sympathetic
参考答案：A
解析：
[考点解析] 这是一道细节推导题，测试考生对原文细节的理解和推导能力。本题的答案信息来源在尾段的倒数第一、二句，尤其是倒数第一句。倒数第二句的大意是：“Sonsini先生起初说这事没有问题，并且是在法律准许范围之内的”。全文尾句对Sonsini先生的话进行了评述。尾句的大意是：“目前这事似乎既有问题，又在法律所准许的范围以外”。其实尾句恰恰是本文作者对Sonsini先生的态度。由此可以推断本题的正确选项应该是A。考生在阅读时要注意上下句之间的关系，不要孤立地理解原文的每一句话。