Bac/places and forms of power
Cours gratuits > Forum > Forum anglais: Questions sur l'anglais || En basMessage de floriandx posté le 24-04-2016 à 22:59:39 (S | E | F)
Bonsoir !
Je passe bientôt mon oral Bac d'anglais et j'ai préparé mon texte sur la première notion, qui est spaces and forms of power. J'aimerais cependant avoir une correction ou des avis sur mon texte qui est sûrement loin d'être parfait. En effet, je sais que j'ai quelques difficultés dans la langue mais j'aimerais tout de même y gagner un bon résultat pour mon Bac. Merci d'avance pour votre aide!
I'm going to discuss the notion of places and forms of power, to begin with I'd like to give a definition of this notion. « Places » could be important buildings or institutions that represent a certain form of power, for example Buckingham Palace (which is a symbol of the British monarchy), or the White House (which is a symbol of the American presidency). A place can also be a country or a state, for example the USA is a state which is powerful enough to influence events throughout the world (it's a superpower) and China is a major economic power in today’s world. From another part, « Power » is the ability to control others, events, or resources; the ability to make things happen despite obstacles, resistance, or opposition. This of course leads to conflict between those who have power and those who don’t.
In this notion, I will talk about the guns in the US. Indeed, in this country, the guns are really importants. In my presentation I will try to respond at these questions : Why is America called a gun nation ? Why do Americans love guns and what is the social cost of gun ownership ? First, I'm going to talk about why America is called a gun nation and why Americans love guns and after I will talk about the social cost of gun ownership.
Firstly, we can say that gun ownership is part of the American culture and is inherited from the Wild West. It is protected by the Constitution and State Laws. For example in an audio document named "getting a gun in Colorado" we can hear that in Colorado especially you are allowed to buy a firearm when you are 18 years old and you don't have a criminal record. Besides you can open carriage which means you can have your gun visible to all in a holster, in a handbag, and in your car's front locker. You don't have to registrer for any type of weapon, handgun or rifle, unless you want to have it cancealed. However automatics weapons are forbidden.
From another part, indeed, gun ownership is protected by the Second Amendment to the American Constitution. In fact, as we can see on a document named "what do you know about... basic gun facts", in the Second Amendment it is written "[a] well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed". By the way, a militia is an army composed of ordinary citizens (rather than professional soldiers).
Moreover, gun ownership is protected by pressure groups, the lobbies of guns, like the "National Rifle Association of America" (N.R.A.) or the "Gun Owners of America" (G.O.A.). The lobbies of guns are very powerful at the United States. The most powerful lobby of guns at the United States is the N.R.A.. It was founded in 1871. The members of the N.R.A. want people to defend the second amendment to the U.S. Constitution (the right to own a gun). Furthermore they provide gun training and shooting courses for the public, including children. For them guns are fact of everyday life, and guns are no more dangerous swimming pool or electrical appliances. They give a lot of money to political candidates to support the right to carry guns and they react when they feel the right of citizens is threatened.
Besides, as I said earlier, gun ownership is part of the American culture and is inherited from the Wild West. In fact, when the United States had been simply a gathering of British colonies, they had colonial laws, and these colonial laws required each household to posses a firearm for service in the militia and other civil defense. And the American revolution was in part assisted by America's well developed gun culture because the people who wanted the independence of the United States had to fight the British and therefore they needed to have guns. Then, in 1776, the American State Constitution have included a right to arms provision. Americans consider guns as symbols of independence and liberty. The right to own a gun and defend oneself is considered by many to be central to the American identity. This is the wild west mentality, and this mentality is still evident in the U.S. psyche today. Many American people think that a gun in itself is not dangerous, and that only in the hands of a bad person does a gun become a very dangerous thing.
Now I will talk about the social cost of gun ownership. In fact, the gun ownership has a social cost because people can be killed or injured by guns, including children who might accidentally pull the trigger of a loaded gun. Furthermore, the suicide and homicide rates are higher where guns are allowed. For example, a poster of the organization for gun control and against gun violence named Brady Campaign shows the number of people murdered by guns in one year in various countries around the world. We can notice that most countries have less than a hundred guns murders a year. On the other hand, the U. S. has an incredibly higher rate with nearly ten thousands people murdered with guns every year.
With the gun ownership, hay an important gun violence at the United States of America, and especially in public places. We can take the example of the mass shooting occurred inside of a movie theater in Aurora in Colorado on 2012, or we can take the example of Lloyd Morgan, a four years old boy shot and killed in the Bronx which is the northernmost of the five counties of New York City in the state of New York.
With all this gun violence we can ask who is really responsible, who's to blame? A song by Jack Johnson named "cookie jar" deal with this subject. This song is about a murder commited by a young boy. The singer tries to find out who is responsible of this tragedy. Each protagonist lays the responsability on somebody else. It seems that nobody is to blame. The murderer explains that he has had a difficult life and that he bacame a murderer because he was frustrated. He couldn't help pressing the trigger. His father claims that he himself is innocent and accuses the media and particularly the T.V. of showing violent images. The media man says that he was simply filming an event which happend to be violent. He adds that people enjoy watching violence. And the movie maker and the singer argue that it is only because they wish to entertain people that they show violence scenes or think about them. According to Jack Johnson, society as a whole is to blame, everyone is guilty. He believes that if our society is violent, it is because that is what we want.
To conclude, we can say that there is a real gun culture in the U.S.A.. The U.S.A. is often called a gun nation for several reasons. The main reason is that in most states in America it is to own a firearm as a method of self protection. The right to bear arms is written in the American Constitution. It is defended in the second amendment. Therefore it is defined and protected by the Constitution and also by state laws. And it is protected too by pressure groups, the lobbies of guns, like the "National Rifle Association of America" (N.R.A.) or the "Gun Owners of America" (G.O.A.). Many Americans view the possesion of firearms as the norm rather than the exception. Furthermore gun ownership is part of the American culture and is inherited from the Wild West. This is why Americans love guns. But we have seen too that gun ownership has a social cost because people can be killed or injured by guns. So the debate about guns is often relaunched, but every time the lobbies of guns are opposed to a revision of the second amendment. But the laws are not the only reason of this gun violence, because all the society is responsible too. In my opinion, this is a bad thing that they have an easy access to gun in the U.S.A. in general, because anybody can walk into a store and get a gun, and the dangerous people too. And I think too that the society as a whole is responsible of gun violence.
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Modifié par lucile83 le 25-04-2016 08:18
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