2004年英语专八阅读真题

　　SECTION B SKIMMING AND SCANNING (10 MIN)

　　In this section there are seven passages with ten multiple?choice questions. Skim or scan them as required and then mark your answers on your coloured answer sheet.??

　　First read the question.

　　31.The main purpose of the passage is to ____.

　　A.demonstrate how to prevent crime

　　B.show the seriousness of crime?

　　C.look into the causes of crime

　　D.call for more government efforts?

　　Now go through TEXT E quickly to answer question 31.?

　　For three weeks, every night at 11 p.m., correspondents, officers and judges from justice courts, police departments and prisons, psychiatrists, criminologists, victims and even criminals in prisons made their appearance on TV to debate on a topic “Crime in the United States”.?

　　Indeed, crime has been disturbing the American people and has become a serious social problem just next to the unemployment problem. Some figures are terrifying: 1 of 4 Americans has been a victim of some kind of crimes; nearly 22 million crimecases occurred last year throughout the country. A simple arithmetic calculation indicates that on average, a crime is being committed in every 2 seconds. Now the Americans are living in a horrible environment. Their safety and property are threatened by various crimes: robbery, theft, rape, kidnapping, murder, arson, vandalism and violence.?

　　The most worrisome problem comes from the fact that about one?third of crime cases were committed by the juvenile and 53% of criminals in jails are youngsters below 25. A poll indicates that about 73% of citizens said they avoided teenagers in streets, especially at night.?

　　To protect themselves from crime, according to a released figure, 52% of Americans keep guns at home. But some gun owners turn out to be potential criminals. Some people demand that strict law for gun control be enforced; but others oppose the ban of gun. No decision is in sight.?

　　Some experts said poverty, unemployment and racial discrimination are the cause of crime. They cited figures to show that 47% of crime cases were committed by the black, though they account for only about 12% of the population of the nation. Others argued that about 54% of convicted criminals came from families associated with these evils.?

　　The American state government and federal government spend billions of dollars each year in maintaining the police departments and jails. But police authorities complain that they have not sufficient well?trained hands and advanced equipment to detect and stop crimes. Several cases of criminal insurgence were reported as a result of resentment at overcrowded prisons. Taxpayers complain that they pay more and more tax but receive less and less protection from crime for their lives and property.?

　　Though the host of the live TV programme made great efforts to search for a solution, so far no participant could put forward a measure that was approved by most of the attendants.

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