Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions on it.
Do the present policies on those who commit crimes reflect a class war? For long, people have alleged that certain laws discriminate against some members of the society while such laws favour others. Besides, some sociologists also claim. that .some members of the society are more prone to some specific crimes than others. So, our opening question is pertinent.
When we realize that armed robbery and similar offences require the use of brute force, it immediately becomes clear that these are offences almost exclusive to the masculine world. The offences are thus sex bound. Besides, the need to be physically strong and agile tends to exclude the upper middle-age and the elderly; so, age is also a factor, Moreover, members of the working class, who at least have some financial returns to rely on, hardly ever have the urge to resort to violence.. This tends to limit violent crimes to the unemployed, poor and desperate males in their late teens, twenties, or early thirties. Indeed, if elderly citizens are involved, they function as the barons, the financiers, who sit back at home while they let loose the dogs of vandalism and death. They provide the money and tools for the front line criminals.
Similarly, drug pushing tends to be more prevalent among the weaker sex, especially ladies in their twenties. They are biologically more attractive, and hence more likely to wade through the airport and border post while hiding deadly gramms of hard drugs within one or other of their bodily crevices. Again if older citizens are involved it is more as the barons, shielding the carriers from prosecution if they are caught. So, this is another crime that is largely sex-bound.
Punishments for offences limited to the citizens on the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder appear to be harsher. So, robbery with violence attracts death, and pushing hard drugs attracts long jail terms. Meanwhile, pen robbery and large-scale fraud, offences which are invariably specific to the high class officials, do not attract severe penalties. Indeed, most culprits at this level manage to wriggle out of the net of the law.
There thus appears to be sufficient reasons to answer our original question in the affirmative.
(a) Mention any two yardsticks used by the writer to categorize those who commit violent crimes.
(b) What two roles do the barons of the identified crimes play?
(c) Among what group of people are violent crimes most common?
(d) (i) Does the writer consider the punishment for the various crimes mentioned in the passage as fair?
(ii) Support your answer with a brief description of the writer’s argument.
(e) …they let loose the dogs of vandalism and death. (I) What figure of speech is the above expression?
(ii) What does the expression mean?
(f) For each of the following words, find another word or phrase which means the same and can replace it as used in the passage: (i) pertinent: (ii) agile; (iii) desperate; (iv) prevalent; (v) severe.
Explanation
(a)(i) Age (ii) Sex
(b)(i) The barons provide money and tools for (violent)/armed robbers
(ii) They shield drug-couriers from being prosecuted when caught.
(c) The unemployed, the poor and males between teenage age and early thirties
(d)(i) No (ii) The writer argued that crimes committed by people on the lower socio-economic strata attract severe penalties while offences limited to people from high socio-economic ladder attract less severe penalties.
(e)(i) Metaphor (ii) They train and send out or make use of people who kill others and destroy lives and property in the society.
(f)(i) Pertinent - relevant, crucial, necessary (ii) Agile - Active, able, smart (iii) desperate - impatient, lawless prevalent - common, commonly found (v) severe - harsh, serious.