The ethical judgments of the Supreme Court justices have become an important issue recently. The court cannot (1)_______ its legitimacy as guardian of the rule of law (2)_______ justices behave like politicians. Yet, in several instances, justices acted in ways that (3)_______ the court’s reputation for being independent and impartial.

    Justice Antonin Scalia, for example, appeared at political events. That kind of activity makes it less likely that the court’s decisions will be (4)_______ as impartial judgments. Part of the problem is that the justices are not (5)_______ by an ethics code. At the very least, the court should make itself. (6)_______ to the code of conduct that (7)_______ to the rest of the federal judiciary.

    This and other similar cases (8)_______ the question of whether there is still a (9)_______ between the court and politics.

The framers of the Constitution envisioned law (10)_______ having authority apart from politics. They gave justices permanent positions (11)_______ they would be free to (12)_______ those in power and have no need to (13)_______ political support. Our legal system was designed to set law apart from politics precisely because they are so closely (14)_______ .

    Constitutional law is political because it results from choices rooted in fundamental social (15)_______ like liberty and property. When the court deals with social policy decisions, the law it (16)_______ is inescapably political—which is why decisions split along ideological lines are so easily (17)_______ as unjust.

    The justices must (18)_______ doubts about the court’s legitimacy by making themselves (19)_______ to the code of conduct. That would make their rulings more likely to be seen as separate from politics and, (20)_______, convincing as law.

答案精析：动词辨析题。空处所填动词表明court’s decisions（法院判决）和impartial judgments（公正判决）之间的关系。空格前的That kind of activity指前面举例所说的法官出现在政治活动中，这种行为会使人认为法院判决不公正，即不太可能认为法院判决是公正的。accept sth. as..表示“认为某物……”，故正确答案为D选项。

错项排除：A选项和C选项代入空处表示“不太可能质疑/怀疑法院判决是公正的”，与原文含义相悖，故错误。B选项compromised不与as搭配。

长难句分析：That kind of activity makes it less likely that the court’s decisions will be accepted as impartial judgments.

本句话为复合句，句子主干是That kind of activity makes it less likely，是主谓宾宾补结构，其中it为形式宾语，后面that引导的宾语从句为真正的宾语，宾语从句中谓语部分will be accepted使用了被动语态，as impartial judgments是主语补足语。

句意为：这种活动使得法院的判决不太可能被视为公正的判决。