Reading - Cloze

The Affluenza Defence

Read the text below about a court case in the USA.  After you have read it once to get the gist of the text.  Read the sentences that have been removed from the text and re-read the text once more trying to decide in which places you should insert the removed sentences.  Be careful, there is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.

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NEW YORK – It is on everyone's lips. Even if the word-processor grammar checker insists on underlining the word in red: affluenza does not exist in the dictionary. Popular television and radio shows, papers and websites, and the most active social media are roaring with opinions about what is called The Affluenza Defence.
On June 15^th a rich teenager from Texas drove his father's Ford F-350 with seven friends to a mall, stole two cases of beer, mixed it with Valium, raced at 112 km per hour in a 65 km/hr road and lost control of the vehicle killing four people and injuring two of his teenage friends, one of whom has become paralyzed and can only communicate by blinking one eye. The adolescent driver's blood alcohol level was three times the limit for adults. Let alone to enhance their booze with psychoactive drugs.
The district attorney requested the maximum of 20 years in juvenile hall, with the possibility of parole in two years, given the driver is a minor. However, the District Judge ruled that the teenager did not need punishment but rehabilitation and sentenced him to 10 years of probation and one - at least – of treatment.
Nine years ago, the same judge had said something very different when sentencing another troubled 16-year-old who lived with his grandfather because he had no father and his mother was completely absorbed by addiction.  The boy, who had asked money from his grandfather saying he wanted to rent a movie, bought a bottle of vodka, got drunk, stole a pickup and drove away to crash into the car of a young man, who was killed in the accident.  "The court is aware you had a sad childhood but you are fortunate to have a grandfather who is so committed and loves you," the judge said. "I hope you take advantage of the services (of state custody) and turn your life around," she added.
Why has the judge, who had thrown the book at several other respondents before, taken this decision? Apparently, she seems more open to innovative arguments now, such as that of the affluence pathology put forward by the defence attorney.
The defence called an expert witness, psychologist, who made a pitch about the teenager being a victim of a privileged upbringing in a home torn by arguments about divorce terms, with a cohercive father and a mother who could not set limits to her child. He described the condition as affluenza: reckless behaviour provoked by weath.
Therefore, she decided that he must commit himself into an exclusive, U$S450,000 a year centre at Newport Beach, in California (suggested by the defence attorneys, paid by the family), where treatment includes horse-riding, cooking classes (with organic ingredients), martial arts practices and -as rewards for progress- beach and TV hours.

Adapted from Buenos Aires Herald – Jan 2, 2014 – originally written by Gabriela Esquivada.

1. The boy was sentenced to 20 years behind bars, with the possibility of parole in three.
2. For this reason, the doctor recommended that the boy was treated as a victim and not a criminal.
3. But it is at the centre of a national controversy in the United States.
4. The judge regretted that the programmes available in the Texas juvenile justice system cannot provide the intensive therapy this boy affected by affluence pathology needs.
5. Under-21Texan drivers are not allowed to drink alcohol at all.
6. The doctor added that the child never learned to apologize to people but to send them money if he hurt someone.