III. Read the following article, and answer the questions as indicated.
“The Death Penalty Reconsidered” by Max Ornot (２０１５)
① According to Amnesty International, a human rights organization, China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the USA are responsible for about ８２% of all the state-ordered executions which take place every year. Yet these countries are just the main players among the total of ２５ states which still allow prisoners to be executed. Today, they are in the clear minority: over one hundred countries no longer use capital punishment. However, the debate about whether or not the death penalty is appropriate remains very much alive.
② Moral arguments about the death penalty might seem at first glance to be biased in favor of abolition. How can the taking of a precious life ever be justified? However, those with strong views about the sacred nature of life can find only mixed support for that view in most religious texts, many of which call openly for death as a punishment. Further, unless one believes in fate as the ultimate source of all human activity, then people who commit terrible deeds must, to a certain extent, be responsible for them. [ ２２ ] .
③ Political calculations are similarly balanced. Those who attribute maximum responsibility to individuals (and therefore support the death penalty) ought also to favor a more powerful role for individuals in politics. Yet in this debate, ironically they become defenders of the powers of the state. That is because it is the state, not individuals, which carries out executions. By contrast, the liberals argue that state-based punishment systems cannot avoid discrimination on grounds of race, gender and class. By emphasizing existing social and economic inequalities, opponents of the death penalty have long described it as a tool for state oppression. The rich and educated, they argue, already control the system, and should therefore not [ ２３ ] .
④ All these considerations have led many to avoid the philosophical issues involved, and concentrate on the practical side of capital punishment. Does it deter criminals from crime? Is it cost-effective? Or error-free? Yet, here too we encounter troubled waters.
⑤ Take deterrence. As the law professor Ernest Van Den Haag put it in １９８３, “Murderers clearly prefer life in prison to execution.... Therefore, a life sentence must be less deterrent than a death sentence”. Logically, this makes sense, and some data seems to support it. In practice, however, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argued the opposite in ２００７, when it concluded there was no evidence to support the theory. [ ２４ ] .
⑥ As for costs, there is the same imbalance between theory and observation. Logically, it ought to cost more to keep prisoners locked up for many years rather than to execute them - a burden which a nation's taxpayers must bear. But in countries where the legal system is developed and challenges are common, that is not always the case: in California, for example, since １９７８, over ４ billion dollars has been spent on executions, at roughly ３００ million per case. That is slightly more than ten times what life imprisonment would have cost. Not all places are as legally-minded as California, but that leads inevitably to the last issue: mistakes. [ ２５ ]
⑦ Mistakes look like a strong reason for abolition. Even the possibility that someone might die in error ought, one might think, to give us pause. In many countries there have been instances of people being freed after years in jail due to new evidence: if the prisoner had been executed, that would be a tragedy. This is a valid point. However, it is without practical merit. Clearly the justice system fails at every stage, like all human systems. Designing a mistake-free system is impossible. Thus, supporters of capital punishment simply argue that the present checks and balances are usually appropriate.
⑧ Ultimately, our ability to resolve this issue depends [ ２６ ] on practical issues such as cost or deterrence. Rather, it rests on our relations with the state. Many persuasive arguments insist that we surrender responsibility for punishment to the state. It is part of every government's power to administer justice. The state exercises its right to revenge for the public good. However, giving the state the ultimate power should always make us uneasy. Historians rightly remind us of the horrors that some governments inflicted on their citizens in the past. Today, [ ２７ ] too many powers to the modern state at their own risk.
⑨ Such fears are particularly relevant in an age where the victims of crime no longer feel connected to the justice system. Everyone who has been a victim knows the desire for revenge, and sometimes the capacity to forgive. But the machinery of the law is usually [ ２８ ] it is to the criminals. We cannot of course go back to a time when citizens took the law into their own hands. Yet without bringing people into the debate, confusion must follow. Across the globe today, voters seem evenly divided about the death penalty. But the voices which [ ２９ ] , those of the accused and of the victims, are often overlooked. It is to these people to whom we should turn for wisdom, if we want to avoid continued divisions within and among nations. [ ３０ ] [ ３１ ] [ ３２ ]
Answer the questions [ ２２ ] - [ ３４ ] as indicated.
２２. Which of the following would best fill the gap at [ ２２ ] in Paragraph ② ? Answer by filling in the corresponding slot under the number (２２) on the mark sheet.
１. If it is someone's destiny to commit a crime, then responsibility is absurd
２. Our moral guides are simply ambiguous about exactly how far
３. Religious texts which tell us that life is sacred do not instruct us to take it
４. Thus, religious teachings about life are rarely open to interpretation
２３. Which of the following would best fill the gap at [ ２３ ] in Paragraph ③ ? Answer by filling in the corresponding slot under the number (２３) on the mark sheet.
１. avoid punishment based on race, gender and class
２. be allowed to abolish the death sentence
３. gain even more advantage from other people's property
４. have the additional power to inflict capital punishment
２４. Which of the following would best fill the gap at [ ２４ ] in Paragraph ⑤ ? Answer by filling in the corresponding slot under the number (２４) on the mark sheet.
１. Crime rates in US states with the death penalty, for example, resemble those in states without
２. Death sentences across the US have always deterred criminals, for example
３. Deterrence, for example, has been statistically proven to be effective
４. The ACLU, for example, has long opposed life imprisonment as cruel
２５. Based on Paragraph ⑥ , which of the following most likely represents the cost of keeping a person in prison for a lifetime in California? Answer by filling in the corresponding slot under the number (２５) on the mark sheet.
１. ２２ million dollars
２. ２８ million dollars
３. ３０ million dollars
４. ３２ million dollars
２６. Which of the following would best fill the gap at [ ２６ ] in Paragraph ⑧ ? Answer by filling in the corresponding slot under the number (２６) on the mark sheet.
１. both on moral considerations and
２. neither on moral considerations nor
３. not on moral considerations but
４. sometimes on moral considerations and at others
２７. Which of the following would best fill the gap at [ ２７ ] in Paragraph ⑧ ? Fill in the corresponding slot under the number (２７) on the mark sheet.
１. citizens hand over
２. governments install
３. historians give up
４. prisoners protest against
２８. Which of the following would best fill the gap at [ ２８ ] in Paragraph ⑨ ? Fill in the corresponding slot under the number (２８) on the mark sheet.
１. as deaf to victims as
２. just as deaf to victims than
３. so blind to victims just as
４. such a blind victim so as
２９. Which of the following would best fill the gap at [ ２９ ] in Paragraph ⑨ ? Answer by filling in the corresponding slot under the number (２９) on the mark sheet.
１. console
２. dominate
３. matter
４. reason
３０, ３１, ３２. Read the three statements below. Then, based on the article as a whole, under the corresponding number (３０), (３１), or (３２) on the mark sheet, fill in slot １ if you think the author would agree with the statement, or fill in slot ２ if you think the author would disagree with the statement, or fill in slot ３ if you think the author does not express an opinion about the statement.
３０. Insisting that the justice system be perfect is too idealistic.
３１. The seriousness of the crime should determine the application of the
death penalty.
３２. Victims need to be consulted, if we are to make any progress towards consensus.
３３, ３４. The following words both appear in the article. When pronounced, on which syllable is the stress placed? Answer by filling the corresponding slots under the numbers (３３) and (３４) on the mark sheet.
３３. i-ron-i-cal-ly
１ ２ ３ ４ ５
３４. ap-pro-pri-ate
１ ２ ３ ４
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