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

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

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

On Tuesday, the appeals court unanimously upheld the 2017 order deregulating broadband providers, citing a Supreme Court ruling from 2005 that upheld a similarly deregulatory move. But Judge Patricia Millett rightly argued in a concurring opinion that “the result is unhinged from the realities of modern broadband service,” and said Congress or the Supreme Court could intervene to “avoid trapping Internet regulation in technological anachronism.”

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

The endless legal battles and back-and-forth at the FCC cry out for Congress to act. It needs to give the commission explicit authority once and for all to bar broadband providers from meddling in the traffic on their network and to 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.

解析：定位句为第一段第一句，concern对应worried，broadband provides对应the cable and phone companies selling broadband connections(后面的“prevent broadband providers from picking winners and losers online”也是补充解题信息)。C选项是对favor affiliated websites over their rivals的解释，即：帮助affiliated websites(附属网站)而非rivals(竞争对手)，说明对待clients时存在partiality(偏袒)。

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.

解析：定位句为第二段、第三段和第五段红色部分，the FCC通过的由Republican起草的order不但“eliminated the strict net neutrality rules ......”, 而且“rejected the commission’s authority to require broadband providers to do much of anything.”,还“declared that state and local governments couldn’t regulate broadband providers either.”说明其反对对broadband providers的监管;另外，第三段说FCC“ended the investigations of broadband providers”，第五段说它“attempt to block all state rules on net neutrality”，也说明其对管控是不支持的，选B。

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.

解析：定位句为第三段第一句。AT&T“favoring its own video-streaming service at the expense of Netflix and Apple TV”说明其存在违反公平竞争的行为，选B。原文中表述AT&T时前面有like，明显是通过AT&T进行举例，应重点关注例子前面证明的论点。

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.

解析：定位句为第四段第二句。Judge Patricia Millett认为“the result is unhinged from the realities ......”说明其认为该决定与现实相脱离，故选D。

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.

解析：定位句为末段第一句(第二句是对action的具体说明)。“......cry out for Congress to act”说明作者认为Congress应该采取行动，选A。

Text4文章某些句子有些难懂，涉及的主体也比较多，但题目均为细节题，只需找准定位，因此，总体来看难度适中。