21. According to the passage, which of the following is the author’s opinion?
A) All criminals should be required to carry cards read : “Fragile : Handle with Care.”
B) Capital punishment is the only way to deter criminals.
C) Society is to blame.
D) All criminals need hospital treatment.
22. The tone taken by the author towards these defenders of crime in the passage is .
A) ironicalB) criticalC) agitatedD) controversial
23. “Capital punishment” most probably means .
A) life sentenceB) severe punishmentC) fineD) sentence of death
24. Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A) There has been a marked trend in society towards the humane treatment of less fortunate members.
B) Everyone in society thinks it reasonable that all criminals should be punished.
C) The author sympathizes with all criminals.
D) Robbers usually think twice before shooting.
25. What conclusion can be drawn from the passage?
A) Professional killers should not be treated with humane treatment.
B) The violent robbers should think twice before pulling the trigger.
C) We should give the poisoner time to ponder about while he is shaking up or serving his arsenic cocktail.
D) Severe punishment,even death penalty, should be given to criminals.
Passage Two
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
For about three centuries we have been doing science, trying science out, using science for the construction of what we call modern civilization. Every dispensable item of contemporary technology, from canal locks to dial telephones to penicillin, was pieced together from the analysis of data provided by one or another series of scientific experiments. Three hundred years seems a long time for testing a new approach to human interliving, long enough to settle back for critical appraisal of the scientific method, maybe even long enough to vote on whether to go on with it or not. There is an argument.
Voices have been raised in protest since the beginning, rising in pitch and violence in the nineteenth century during the early stages of the industrial revolution, summoning urgent crowds into the streets any day these days on the issue of nuclear energy. Give it back, say some of the voices, it doesn’t really work, we’ve tried it and it doesn’t work, go back three hundred years and start again on something else less chancy for the race of man.
The principle discoveries in this century, taking all in all, are the glimpses of the depth of our ignorance about nature. Things that used to seem clear and rational, matters of absolute certainty—Newtonian mechanics, for example—have slipped through our fingers, and we are left with a new set of gigantic puzzles, cosmic uncertainties, ambiguities; some of the laws of physics are amended every few years, some are canceled outright, some undergo revised versions of legislative intent as if they were acts of Congress.
