The First Test Of The Second Trimester
PART ONE: READING (14pts)
A /Comprehension: (7pts)
• Read the following text then do the activities.
White Collar Crimes
The illegal acts committed by middle or upper-class people in conjunction with their ordinary occupational pursuits are called White-Collar Crime. The term was first popularized in 1940 by the American criminologist Edwin Sutherland in his classic paper “White-Collar Criminality”. Sutherland argued that important sociological differences exist between conventional crimes such as burglary and murder, which are defined without reference to the social status or occupation of the criminal and white-collar crimes such as fraud, embezzlement, tax evasion, misuse of public funds, and abuse of political power. In general, the latter are committed by people of relatively high social status, and are treated by the authorities more leniently than are conventional crimes
Historically, the chief sanctions against white-collar criminals have been loss of position and public trust, loss of professional licence, and the levying of fines. Jail sentences were rarely imposed. This leniency in prosecution stemmed partly from the perception that a high-status individual implicated in criminal activity was sufficiently punished by the presumed loss of social esteem or occupational prospects; and partly from the fact that most white-collar crimes are victimless offences. Only recently has this attitude begun to change.
White-collar crime has become an increasing problem in the latter part of the 20th century. Authorities in the United States, in particular, are dealing with such crimes more severely because of the growing feeling that an effort must be made to establish equality before the law for all citizens – without regard to money, power, or social status.
Adapted from: English step by step 3AS
1. Match the following ideas with their corresponding paragraphs.
Titles Paragraphs
1. Different sorts of sanctions against White-collar criminals.
2. Definition and aspects of White-Collar Crime.
3. White -Collar Crime has increased sharply. § n°1
§ n°2
§ n°3
2. Answer the following questions according to the text.
a) What is meant by ‘White-Collar Crime’?
b) Who popularized this term?
c) Were White-Collar criminals sentenced to prison? What was that leniency due to?
d) Has that attitude remained to the present time?
e) Why do authorities in the USA deal with White-Collar Crimes more severely?
3.Pick out information from the 1st § to fill in the table with the main sociological differences between conventional and white-collar crimes:
White-Collar crimes Conventional crimes
…………………………..
…………………….
……………………. …………………..
…………………..
4. What or who the underlined words refer to in the text ?
their (§1) the term (§1) which (§1) this (§2)
5. In which paragraph is it mentioned that there is an increasing sense to equalize between people with denial to social status ?
B/ Text Exploration (7pts)
1. Match words with their corresponding definitions.
WORDS DEFINITIONS
1-Burglary
2-Embezzlement
3-levying fines a. Crime of breaking into a house to steal.
b. imposing sums of money as a penalty for breaking a law or rule
c. use of money placed in one’s care in a wrong way for one’s own benefit
2. Complete the table below:
Adverbs Adjectives Comparatives Superlatives
Leniently ……………… More leniently than ………………..
Severly ……………… More severly than ………………..
3. Complete sentence “b” so that it means the same as sentence “a”.
1a) White-collar crimes are committed by people of relatively high social status and are treated by the authorities more leniently.
b) People of ……………………………and the authorities……………………..
2a) Authorities in the USA are dealing more severly with such crimes.
b) Such crimes …………………………………………..
4. Divide these words into roots and affixes: illegal – criminality – leniently – victimless
Prefixes Roots Suffixes
5. Fill in the gaps so that the passage makes sense.
The global anti-corruption organization Transparency International (TI) has reported corruption is increasing ……………. the world. A TI press release reports there is serious corruption in ……………… of the world’s countries. TI’s yearly survey questions business people and public officials to find …………… how corrupt a country is. Bangladesh and Chad finished bottom as the most corrupt countries, while Iceland finished top. Finland and New Zealand were the second and third cleanest nations. Corruption is declining in Turkey and Nigeria, but …………….. in Russia and Canada.
6. Underline the stressed syllables in the following items: classic / political / sociological / public
PART TWO: WRITING (06pts)
Topic: complete the following dialogue:
A1: ………………………………………………………….?
B: Oh yes, there are a great many cases of white-collar crimes in Algeria.
A2: ………………………………………………………….?
B: Bribery is an example of that
A3: ………………………………………………………….?
B: Bribery is the illegal payment made to a person in order to persuade her/him to do you a favour.
A4: ………………………………………………………….?
B: Yes, of course. It is a practice which is forbidden by law.
A5: ………………………………………………………….?
B: We can fight bribery by teaching children early on about ethics and morality.
GOOD LUCK/ YOUR TEQCHER
Or
Topic two: Write a composition of about 100 words on the following topic.
The role of whistle-blowing has become important in today’s society. Do you think it is important to denounce illegal practices? How do you think this can make a change in the societ
y?