Table of Contents
BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 476
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST 476 – PASSAGE – 2
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST – 476
READING PASSAGE – 2
Capital punishment
A. Capital punishment is the lawful infliction of death as a punishment and since ancient times it has been used for a wide variety of offences. The Bible prescribes death for murder and many other crimes including kidnapping and witchcraft. By 1500 in England, only major felonies carried the death penalty treason, murder, larceny, burglary, rape, and arson. From 1723, under the “Waltham Black Acts”, Parliament enacted many new capital offences and this led to an increase in the number of people being put to death each year. In the 100 years from 1740 – 1839 there were a total of up to 8753 civilian executions in England.
Reform of the death penalty began in Europe by the 1750’s and was championed by academics such as the Italian jurist, Cesare Beccaria, the French philosopher, Voltaire, and the English law reformers, Jeremy Bentham and Samuel Romilly. They argued that the death penalty was needlessly cruel, over-rated as a deterrent and occasionally imposed in fatal error. Along with Quaker leaders and other social reformers, they defended life imprisonment as a more rational alternative.
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By the 1850’s, these reform efforts began to bear fruit. Venezuela (1853) and Portugal (1867) were the first nations to abolish the death penalty altogether. In the United States, Michigan was the first state to abolish it for murder in 1847. Today, it is virtually abolished in all of Western Europe and most of Latin America. Britain effectively abolished capital punishment in 1965.
The USA, together with China, Japan and many Asian and Middle Eastern countries, plus some African states still retain the death penalty for certain crimes and impose it with varying frequency.
B. The state clearly has no absolute right to put its subjects to death other. In most countries, it is by arming their police forces and although, of course, almost all countries do so in some form or accepting the fact that people will from time to time be shot as a result and therefore at the state’s behest.
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A majority of a state’s subjects may wish to confer the right to put certain classes of criminal to death through referendum or voting in state elections for candidates favouring capital punishment. Majority opinion in some democratic countries, including the U.K., is still in favour of the death penalty.
It is reasonable to assume that if a majority is in favour of a particular thing in a democracy, their wishes should be seriously considered with equal consideration given to the downside of their views.
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A fact that is conveniently overlooked by anti-capital punishment campaigners is that we are all ultimately going to die. In many cases, we will know of this in advance and suffer great pain and emotional anguish in the process. This is particularly true of those diagnosed as having terminal cancer. It is apparently acceptable to be “sentenced to death” by one’s family doctor without having committed any crime at all but totally unacceptable to be sentenced to death by a judge having been convicted of murder or drug trafficking (the crimes for which the majority of executions worldwide are carried out) after a fair and careful trial.
C. Capital punishment permanently removes the worst criminals from society and should prove much safer for the rest of us than long term or permanent incarceration. It is self-evident that dead criminals cannot commit any further crimes, either within prison or after escaping or after being released from it.
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Money is not an inexhaustible commodity and the government may very well better spend our (limited) resources on the old, the young and the sick etc., rather than on the long term imprisonment of murderers, rapists, etc.
Execution is a very real punishment rather than some form of “rehabilitative” treatment, the criminal is made to suffer in proportion to the offence. Although whether there is a place in a modern society for the old fashioned principal of “lex talens” (an eye for an eye), is a matter of personal opinion. Retribution is seen by many as an acceptable reason for the death penalty according to my survey results.
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Does the death penalty deter? It is hard to prove one way or the other because in most retentionist countries the number of people actually executed per year (as compared to those sentenced to death) is usually a very small proportion. It would, however, seem that in those countries (e.g. Singapore) which almost always carry out death sentences, there is far less serious crime. This tends to indicate that the death penalty is a deterrent, but only where execution is a virtual certainty. The death penalty is much more likely to be a deterrent where the crime requires planning and the potential criminal has time to think about the possible consequences.
Questions 14-16
Reading passage 1 has three sections, A-C.
Choose the correct heading for each section A-C from the list of headings given below.
Write the correct number, i-vi, in boxes 14-16 on your answer sheet.
14. Section A
15. Section B
16. Section C
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i. The financial benefits
ii. Is capital punishment ethically acceptable?
iii. Social reformers
iv. The history of death penalty
v. The only effective deterrent
vi. Points in favour of death penalty
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Questions 17-20
Which four of the following are mentioned as the positive aspects of capital punishment?
Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 17-20 on your answer sheet.
A. Welcomed by all without criticism.
B. Permanent incapacitation of the criminal.
C. Enjoy support of religious groups.
D. Helps save money
E. Suitable punishment for heinous crimes
F. The most effective deterrent of crime
G. Less painful for the criminal
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Questions 21-26
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?
In boxes 21-26 of your answer sheet, write
TRUE – if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE – if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN – if there is no information on this
21. In England, capital punishment was practised in large scale for half a century till 1970s.
22. In some countries, most people tend to support death penalty.
23. Singapore has the lowest crime rate.
24. Death penalty will make criminals think twice before committing crimes.
25. Surveys show that many people think capital punishment is not the right way to deal with crimes.
26. Capital punishment helps stop crimes.
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ANSWERS
14. IV
15. II
16. VI
17. – 20 (IN ANY ORDER) B/D/E/F
21. TRUE
22. TRUE
23. NOT GIVEN
24. TRUE
25. FALSE
26. NOT GIVEN
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