N2 janvier 2013 v3

UFR d’Etudes Interculturelles de Langues Appliquées
ANGLAIS niveau 2
Département LANSAD
EXAMEN (session 1)
1er semestre 2012/2013
Samedi 12 janvier 2013
Durée : 2 heures - aucun document autorisé.
Battleground America
One nation, under the gun.
By Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, April 23rd 2012
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 threequarters 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 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.
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.
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT
30 points in all
PART A - GENERAL AND DETAILED COMPREHENSION (6 points)
CHOISISSEZ LA REPONSE CORRECTE
JUSTIFIEZ CHACUNE DE VOS REPONSES EN CITANT QUELQUES MOTS DU TEXTE OU
EN EXPLIQUANT VOTRE CHOIX
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
-
on the rise
decreasing
stable
can’t say
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
PART B – VOCABULARY, SYNTAX, GRAMMAR
B1 In the text, find the English for : (2 points)
B1.1 appartenir
B1.2 accusation, motif d’inculpation
B1.3 possession
B1.4 chuter
B2 - Choose the best equivalent (2 points)
B2.1 : works out to = se stabilise à / équivaut à / donne du travail à
B2.2 : roughly one in two = environ un sur deux / environ un chacun / entre un et deux
B2.3 : nationwide = à l'extérieur du pays / à l'échelle du pays / dans la plupart des états
B2.4 : was allowed to expire = est arrivé à expiration par hasard / est arrivé à expiration
parce que personne n'a rien fait contre / est arrivé à expiration par voie légale
B3. Réecrivez en utilisant le début de phrase imposé, sans changer le message. (2 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 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.
-> It’s because …
B4. Posez une question portant sur la partie soulignée de la phrase. Ecrivez la question en entier
jusqu’au point d’interrogation. (2 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.
B5 – Transformez la phrase selon les instructions. (2 pts)
B5.1 Lane found the gun in his grandfather’s barn Mettez à la forme interrogative.
B5.2 No civilian population is more powerfully armed. Dites le contraire.
B5. Identifiez dans le texte. (2 points)
B5.1. Un verbe conjugué au present perfect.
B5.2 Un verbe à la voix passive.
PART C – WRITING, EXPLAINING. Answer both. (8 + 4 points)
Guns don’t kill people: people kill people. Discuss in 120 words or more.
AND
Expliquez en anglais quels sont trois des facteurs qui font la spécificité des Etats-Unis en matière
d’armes. Utilisez les informations du texte sans le recopier de manière extensive.