The line graphs show the average monthly amount that parents in Britain spent on their
children sporting activities and the number of British children who took part in three different sports from 2008 to 2014.

It is clear that parents spent more money each year on their children’s participation in sports over the six-year period.

In terms of the number of children taking part, football was significantly more popular than athletics and swimming.

In 2008, British parents spent an average of around £20 per month on their children sporting activities.

Parents spending on children sports increased gradually over the following six years, and by 2014 the average monthly amount had risen to just over £30.

Looking at participation numbers, in 2008 approximately 8 million British children played football, while only 2 million children were enrolled in swimming clubs and less than 1 million practised athletics.

The figures for football participation remained relatively stable over the following 6 years. By contrast, participation in swimming almost doubled, to nearly 4 million children, and there was a near fivefold increase in the number of children doing athletics.

Without capital punishment (the death penalty) our lives are less secure and crimes of violence increase.

Capital punishment in essential to control violence in society. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

model answer:

Before talking about the essential role of death penalty, you have to think about the meaning, and the purpose, of any kind of punishment.

If you consider that the purpose is to prevent the guilty from being nasty again, you can be seduced by an argumentation in favour of the suppression of capital punishment.

But you have to think about another aspect of the problem: a punishment is also useful to impress people, to make them fear the law.

In fact, let's take the example of a young misfit, which has grown in a violent atmosphere, influenced by older delinquents, etc ...

He lives in the streets, he's got no aim but to survive.

This is the kind of person who could possibly kill someone for money, or even for fun ...

Why would he fear prison? Life would be easier for him there.

In addition, in many cases, when you behave normally, you can benefit from penalty reductions.

This young misfit needs to be impressed, he needs to know that the law is a frontier.

When you cross it, you can lose your life.

That is why capital punishment helps keeping a distance between robbery and murder.

If you abolish it, you suppress the difference between these two types of crime, which are completely different.

But there is also a limit to define: even if death penalty is unavoidable, it would be a crime to apply it to inadequate cases.

If there is no premeditation or past facts which can justify such a punishment, it is far too strict to apply death penalty.

That is why the lawmakers have to establish precisely the context in which capital punishment car be pronounced.

That is the price to pay to limit violence without using excessive violence.