2014高考英语阅读理解二轮精练题23.docVIP

2014高考英语阅读理解基础训练 阅读理解---------B With the possible exception of equal rights, perhaps the most heated argument across the United States today is the death penalty (死刑). Many argue that it is an effective deterrent (威慑) to murder, while others think there is no enough proof that the death penalty reduces the number of murders. The argument advanced by those opposed （反对） to the death penalty is that it is cruel and inhuman punishment, that it is tile mark of a bad society and finally that it is of questionable effectiveness as a deterrent to crime (罪行) anyway. In our opinion, the death penalty is a necessary action. Throughout recorded history there have always been those peculiar persons in every society who made terrible crimes such as murder. But some are more dangerous than others. For example, it is one thing to take the life of another in time of blind anger, but quite another to coldly plan 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 different degree. While it could be argued with some reason that the criminal in the first instance should be merely kept 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 discussion. But the majority of people believe that the death penalty protects them. Their belief is proved by the fact that the death penalty prevents murder. For example, from 1954 to 1963, when the death penalty was carried out from time to time in California, the murder rate remained between three and four murders for each 100, 000 population. Since 1964 the death penalty has been done only once, and the murder rate has risen to10.4 murders for each 100, 000 population. The sharp climb in the states murder rate, which began when killings stopped, does not happen by chance. It certainly shows that the death penalty does deter many murderers. If the law about death penalty is vetoed (否决), so