N4 janvier 2013 V3

UFR d’Etudes Interculturelles de Langues Appliquées
ANGLAIS niveau 4
Département LANSAD
EXAMEN (session 1)
1er semestre 2012/2013
Samedi 12 janvier 2013
Durée : 2 heures - aucun document autorisé.
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Battleground America
One nation, under the gun.
By Jill Lepore
a. There are nearly three hundred million privately owned firearms in the United States: a
hundred and six million handguns, a hundred and five million rifles, and eighty-three million
shotguns. That works out to about one gun for every American. The gun that T. J. Lane
brought to Chardon High School1 belonged to his uncle, who had bought it in 2010, at a gun
shop. Both of Lane’s parents had been arrested on charges of domestic violence over the
years. Lane found the gun in his grandfather’s barn.
b. The United States is the country with the highest rate of civilian gun ownership in the
world. (The second highest is Yemen, where the rate is nevertheless only half that of the U.S.)
No civilian population is more powerfully armed. Most Americans do not, however, own
guns, because three-quarters of people with guns own two or more. According to the General
Social Survey, conducted by the National Policy Opinion Center at the University of Chicago,
the prevalence of gun ownership has declined steadily in the past few decades. In 1973, there
were guns in roughly one in two households in the United States; in 2010, one in three. In
1980, nearly one in three Americans owned a gun; in 2010, that figure had dropped to one in
five.
c. Men are far more likely to own guns than women are, but the rate of gun ownership among
men fell from one in two in 1980 to one in three in 2010, while, in that same stretch of time,
the rate among women remained one in ten. What may keep that rate steady in an age of
decline is the aggressive marketing of handguns to women for self-defense, which is how a
great many guns are marketed. Gun ownership is higher among whites than among blacks,
higher in the country than in the city, and higher among older people than among younger
1
In February 2012, T.J. Lane, a student at Chardon High School in Ohio, shot and killed five people on the
school grounds before he was arrested.
people. One reason that gun ownership is declining, nationwide, might be that high-school
shooting clubs and rifle ranges at summer camps are no longer common.
d. Although rates of gun ownership, like rates of violent crime, are falling, the power of the
gun lobby is not. Since 1980, forty-four states have passed some form of law that allows gun
owners to carry concealed2 weapons outside their homes for personal protection. (Five
additional states had these laws before 1980. Illinois is the sole exception.) A federal ban on
the possession, transfer, or manufacture of semiautomatic assault weapons, passed in 1994,
was allowed to expire in 2004. In 2005, Florida passed the Stand Your Ground law, an
extension of the so-called castle doctrine, exonerating from prosecution citizens who use
deadly force when confronted by an assailant, even if they could have retreated safely; Stand
Your Ground laws expand that protection outside the home to any place that an individual
“has a right to be.” Twenty-four states have passed similar laws.
Excerpted from The New Yorker, April 23rd 2012
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT
40 points in all
PART A - GENERAL AND DETAILED COMPREHENSION (8 points)
CHOOSE THE CORRECT ANSWER BASED ON THE INFORMATION FOUND IN THE TEXT
A1. What is the main purpose of the document?
-
to present a general picture of gun ownership in the US today
to exonerate the pro-gun lobby
to point out parental responsibility
to blame older white women
A2. Every American owns a gun of some kind.
-
True
False
Can’t say
A3. Gun ownership is
-
2
on the rise
decreasing
stable
unknown
carry concealed : droit de porter une arme dissimulée ; s’oppose à d’autres réglementations où le porteur d’une
arme doit la garder visible.
A4. On average, men:
-
own more guns than women
are more likely to own guns than women
own fewer guns than women
are less likely to own guns than women
A5. One factor explaining the stability of female gun ownership is :
-
stricter policing
better profiling
more aggressive marketing
cheaper prices
A6. One factor explaining the general trend is :
-
lower exposure to recreational/educational use of weapons
higher exposure to recreational/educational use of weapons
more stringent bans on gun ownership and transfer
less stringent bans on gun ownership and transfer
A7. Illinois is the only state that:
-
has never banned gun ownership
has never passed some form of law that allows gun owners to carry
concealed
has never allowed gun ownership
used to authorize owners to ‘carry concealed’ before 1980
A8. The ‘Stand Your Ground’ law:
-
bans the possession, transfer, or manufacture of semiautomatic assault
weapons
replaces a ban on the possession, transfer, or manufacture of semiautomatic
assault weapons
makes the use of weapons legal in the case of confrontation by an assailant
outside the home
makes the use of weapons legal in the case of confrontation by an assailant
outside the home AND guarantees that the person under attack will NOT be
prosecuted
PART B – VOCABULARY, SYNTAX, GRAMMAR
B1 In the text, find the English for : (3 points)
B1.1 appartenir
B1.2 accusation, motif d’inculpation
B1.3 possession
B1.4 chuter
B1.5 enquête
B1.6 interdiction
B2 - Choose the best equivalent (2 points)
B2.1 : works out to = stabilizes at OR amounts to OR gives work to
B2.2 : roughly one in two = approximately every other OR approximately one each
OR
somewhere between one and two
B2.3 : nationwide = outside the country OR nationally OR in most states
B2.4 : was allowed to expire = expired because no one did anything OR could not
expire until someone did something OR expired because someone did something
B3. Rewrite, using the prompt. Réecrivez en utilisant le début de phrase imposé, sans changer
le message. (4 points)
B3.1 The United States is the country with the highest rate of civilian gun ownership
in the world
-> No other country in the world …
B3.2 Most Americans do not, however, own guns, because three-quarters of people
with guns own two or more
->Since 75% of people who own guns …
B3.3 One reason that gun ownership is declining, nationwide, might be that highschool shooting clubs and rifle ranges at summer camps are no longer common.
-> It’s because …
B3.4 Although rates of gun ownership are falling, the power of the gun lobby is not.
-> Contrary to …
B4. Posez une question portant sur la partie soulignée de la phrase. Ecrivez la question en
entier jusqu’au point d’interrogation. (6 points)
B4.1. Both of Lane’s parents had been arrested on charges of domestic violence over
the years.
B4.2. Both of Lane’s parents had been arrested on charges of domestic violence over
the years.
B4.3. Lane’s parents had been arrested on charges of domestic violence over the years
B5. Identifiez dans le texte. (3 points)
B5.1. Une forme du present perfect
B5.2 Une forme du past perfect ou pluperfect
B5.3 Une forme du passif
B6. Rewrite in order to clarify. Dites la même chose pour clarifier, en utilisant vos propres
mots : (4 points)
B6.1 “The second highest is Yemen, where the rate is nevertheless only half that of the
U.S” (paragraph B, line 2)
B6.2 “which is how a great many guns are marketed.”(paragraph C, line 5)
PART C – Writing. Choose TWO of the three. Write 150 words for each. (10 points)
C1. Guns don’t kill people: people kill people. Discuss.
C2. “A man’s home is his castle”. Discuss this common saying, in the light of the
gun-control controversy and the ‘castle doctrine’ referred to in the text.
C3. What do you think makes the issue of gun ownership far more crucial for
Americans than for French or other European citizens?