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  3. With the possible exception of equal rights, perhaps the most controversial issue across the United States today is the death pe

With the possible exception of equal rights, perhaps the most controversial issue across the United States today is the death pe

admin2005-06-26  116
问题     With the possible exception of equal rights, perhaps the most controversial issue across the United States today is the death penalty. Many argue that it is an effective deterrent(威慑)to murder, while others maintain there is no convincing evidence that the death penalty reduces the number of murders.
    The principal argument advanced by those opposed to the death penalty, basically, is that it is cruel and inhuman punishment, that it is the mark of a brutal society, and finally that it is of questionable effectiveness as a deterrent to crime anyway.
    In our opinion, the death penalty is a necessary evil. Throughout recorded history there have always been those extreme individuals in every society who were capable of terribly violent crimes such as murder. But some are more extreme than others.
    Fox example, it is one thing to take the life of another in a fit of blind rage, but quite another to coldly plot and carry out the murder of one or more people in the style of a butcher. Thus, murder, like all other crimes, is a matter of relative degree. While it could be argued with some conviction that the criminal in the first instance should be merely isolated from society, such should not be the fate of the latter type murderer.
    The value of the death penalty as a deterrent to crime may be open to debate. But the overwhelming majority of citizens believe that the death penalty protects them. Their belief is reinforced by evidence which shows that the death penalty deters murder. For example, from 1954 to 1963, when the death penalty was consistently imposed in California, the murder rate remained between three and four murders for each 100,000 population. Since 1964 the death penalty has been imposed only once, and the murder rate has risen to 10. 4 murders for each 100,000 population. The sharp climb in the state’s murder rate, which began when executions stopped, is no coincidence(巧合). It is convincing evidence that the death penalty does deter many murderers. If the bill reestablishing the death penalty is vetoed(否决), innocent people will be murdered—some whose lives may have been saved if the death penalty were in effect. This is literally a life or death matter. The lives of thousands of innocent people must be protected.
The passage attempts to establish a relationship between______.
选项 A、the importance of equal rights and that of the death penalty
B、executions and murders
C、the murder rate and the imposition of the death penalty
D、the effects of execution and the effects of isolation
答案C
解析 文章在第一段中就指出：死刑对于谋杀是一种有效的威慑，而其他人则认为，没有令人信服的证据表明死刑降低了谋杀案的数量。所以文章一开始就提到了有关死刑与谋杀案的关系。在文中接下来的几段中分别论述了赞成者和反对者的有关证据。在最后一段中指出：绝大多数公民认为死刑保护了他们，有确凿的证据显示，死刑确实阻止了许多杀人犯。综上所述我们可以看出在这篇文章中试图要确定的应该是“谋杀犯罪率与强制执行死刑”之间的关系。C项与符合文章的意思。平等权只是在文章中第一段提到，不是整个文章要表达的意图，所以A项不对；在第一段中提到死刑与谋杀案，是为了下文中描写谋杀犯罪率与强制执行死刑的关系作铺垫，所以B项也不对；文中提到隔离效应时只是作为赞成死刑观点所举的例子，所以D项也不对。因此本题的正确答案为C。
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