 Sun Jan 20, 2008 8:42 am an English question: uncomfortably vs uncomfortable |
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| Quote: | U.S. lawmakers take Yahoo to task
U.S. Congressional Hearing Room
Washington, D.C.
REP. TOM LANTOS, CHAIRMAN, HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: If you think our witnesses today are uncomfortable sitting in this climate controlled room and accounting for their company's spineless and irresponsible actions, imagine how life is for Shi Tao, spending ten long years in a Chinese dungeon for exchanging information publicly—exactly what Yahoo! claims to support in places like China.
JERRY YANG, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, YAHOO INC: I want to take a moment to recognize the family of the dissidents, who sit behind me. And I want to say that we're committed to do what we can to secure their freedom. And I want to personally apologize to them for what they and their family are going through.
MICHAEL CALLAHAN, GENERAL COUNSEL, YAHOO INC: And I also emphasized my understanding that failure by the Yahoo! China operation in Beijing to comply with these lawful orders from government authorities may have subjected local employees of that company to civil and criminal penalties, including imprisonment.
LANTOS: Why do you insist on repeating the phrase lawful orders? These were demands by a police state to make of an American company a co-conspirator in having a freedom-lobbying Chinese journalist put in prison.
CALLAHAN: And we sincerely regret the consequences, as you point out, of the Yahoo! China operation having complied with those orders.
We haven't come here to throw out this problem and say, “Well, someone else has to deal with it, then.” We recognize that, as some of the industry's leaders, we have an obligation and an opportunity to try to effect change here. Has the past been perfect? Obviously not, given the situation that we've talked about. But I would like to think that there is a real opportunity, with the collaboration that's ongoing between the human rights groups and the leading companies, in partnership with Congress on the new bill, in partnership with the State Department, to try to make real progress on these issues.
YANG: I'm very open to understanding how we can be helpful.
REP. BRAD SHERMAN, HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: I told you how you can be helpful. You can meet their humanitarian needs. Sir, give me a yes or no. Are you going to do it, or are you not going to do it?
YANG: I'm willing to consider it, Mr. Congressman.
SHERMAN: You're willing to consider it. That's a no by any other standard.
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Hi, I have a question on this dialog.
| Quote: | REP. TOM LANTOS, CHAIRMAN, HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: If you think our witnesses today are uncomfortable sitting in this climate controlled room and accounting for their company's spineless and irresponsible actions, imagine how life is for Shi Tao, spending ten long years in a Chinese dungeon for exchanging information publicly—exactly what Yahoo! claims to support in places like China.
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What does the speaker mean ?
I don't understand the word "witnesses" here. "Witness" means a person who knows about an incident and then tell the judge what he knows.
If the two Yahoo lawyers are "witnesses", then they tell the judge about the irresponsible actions of Yahoo, which means that they are "betrayer". I don't understand this ?
How about the use of "uncomfortable". I thought it should be "uncomfortably". But the judge uses "uncomfortable". There must be a reason for that. Can you explain it for me ?
After all, what does this mean ? |
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sympathy
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Joined: 08 Dec 2007
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