Bowling for Columbine: a brief history of the USA

Avant de distribuer le script, leur proposer de ragarder l'extrait. Etant donné la difficulté du message oral, les élèves se concentreront davantage sur les impressions données par le support et par le rythme des paroles.

A Brief History of the United States of America Which two elements do you see first?........................................       ........................................... What type of document is it?           a documentary            a cartoon         a commercialà What impression does it convey, regarding the adressee? (who is it adressed to? what type of message is given?)..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Who is speaking?      a man               a bullet             a dogà Imagine why the author chose this type of character:.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. Where do the Pilgrims come from? .........................................................................................What is the New World? ........................................................................................................... What do you notice about the rhythm of the speech, from the beginning to the end?......................................................................................................................................................à Imagine why the author chose this rhythm: what is your impression on the history of the USA? .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. Number the following peoples or organizations in the order you hear them: .........NRA      .........pilgrims               ...............Samuel Colt              ............black woman .............savages ........KKK            ................British          .............witches............freed slaves                 .............. black people

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 What do the pilgrims do in the following dates? Match the event to the corresponding date: 

1775183618711955  The Pilgrims killed the BritishBirth of the NRAThe beginning of the Civil Rights movementSamuel Colt invented a weaponThe KKK became illegal

Le travail se fait ensuite comme une compréhension écrite normale. Touefois, il semble évident que l'on doit faire des retours fréquents sur la forme utilisée par Michael Moore.

 

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A Brief History of the United States of America,Michael Moore, 2002

   “Now it’s time for a brief history of the United States of America. Hi, boys and girls, ready to get started?Once upon a time, there were these people in Europe called pilgrims and they were afraid of being persecuted. So they all got a boat and sailed to the New World where they wouldn’t have to be scared ever again.“Oh! I’m so relaxed!”“I feel so much safer!”But as soon as they arrived, they were greeted by savages and they got scared all over again. “Oh! Indians!” So, they killed them all.Now, you’d think wiping out a whole race of people would calm’em down. But no! Instead they started getting frightened of each other.“Witch! Witch!”So ooh they burned witches.In 1775 they started killing the British so they could be free... and it worked! But they still didn’t feel safe. So they passed a second amendment which said every white man could keep his gun.“I love my gun, loves my gun.”Which brings us to the genius idea of slavery.You see, boys and girls, the white people back then were also afraid of doing any work, so they went to Africa, kidnapped thousands of Black people, brought them back to America and forced them to work very hard for no money and I don’t mean no money like “I work at Walmart and make no money”, I mean zero dollars, nothing, nada, zip; doing it that way made the USA the richest country in the world. So, did having all that money and free help calm the white people down? No way, they got even more afraid. That’s because after 200 years of slavery, the black people now outnumbered the white people in many parts of the South. Well, you can pretty much guess what came next. The slaves started rebellion. There were hundreds of them running after their masters, their heads got chopped off.When the white people heard this, they were freaking out and going “Oh! No way! I want to live. Don’t kill me, big Black man!”Well, just in the nick of time came Samuel Colt who in 1836 invented the first weapon ever that could be fired over and over without having to reload. And all of a sudden, whites were like “yee-ah!”. But it was too late, the North had won the Civil War and the slaves were free. Yep, they were free now to go chop all of the masters’heads off and everybody was like “Oh no! We’re gonna die!” But the freed slaves took no revenge, they just wanted to live in peace, but ya couldn’t convince the white people of this, so they formed the Ku Klux Klan and in 1871, the same year the Klan became an illegal terrorist organization, another group was founded, the National Rifle Association. Soon, politicians passed one of the first gun laws, making it illegal for any black person to own it. It was a great year for America: the KKK and the NRA. Of course they had nothing to do with each other and it was just

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a coincidence: one group legally promoted responsible gun ownership and the other group shot and lynched black people.That’s the way it was all the way to 1955 when a black woman broke the law by refusing to move to the back of a bus. White people just couldn’t believe it:“Why won’t she move?”“What’s going on?”“Man, all hell broke loose”Black people everywhere started demanding their rights and white people had a major freak and fear downtown and they were all like: “Run away! Run away!”And they did it, they all ran fleeing to the suburbs where it was all white and safe and clean and they went out and bought a quarter of a billion guns and put locks on doors, alarms in houses, and gates round the neighborhoods. And finally they were all safe and secure and snug as a bug.And everyone lived happily ever after."

 

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A Brief History of the United States of AmericaWorksheet

          Line 1 à 9 

1. “Once upon a time”: in which literary genre do you usually read this expression?

        ...............................................................................................................................................

2. Who speaks between brackets? ...................................................3. Is it true that they feel

safer?......................................................................................4. What scares them in this passage?

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5. What is the logical consequence of feeling scared for a pilgrim?

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............. Line 10 à 17 

1. Find the translations of “sorcière”................................, “exterminer”: .........................

2. What is the logical consequence of not feeling safe in this passage? ........................................................................................................................................

3. “I love my gun, loves my gun!”: remember what you see in the cartoon: .........................................................................................................................................

4. So, the gun could be compared to

a teddy bear                a trophy                       a treasure      5.   What scares them in this passage?......................................................................................................................................... Line 18 à 31

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1. What scares the white people in this passage?

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2. What is the allusion to the modern American culture?

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3. What does it show about slavery, today in the USA?

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4. What was the consequence of slavery for the country? ...........................................................................................................................................

5. Explain in English:

“outnumbered”:......................................................................................................................“their heads got chopped off”: ...............................................................................................

6. l. 30-31: compare the physical appearance of the white people and the black people ...........................................................................................................................................

7. What impression does it give concerning the white people? ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

       Line 32 à 45 

1. Explain in your own words why Samuel Colt’s invention is a luck for the white people: ...........................................................................................................................................

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2. How do the white people feel now? Explain “Yee-ah!”: what aspect of the American culture does it remind you of? ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

3. How does the gun law work? How is it linked to the KKK? .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

4. “it was just a coincidence”. Comment on this statement: ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

5. What scares white people in this passage? ...........................................................................................................................................

       Line 46 à 57 

1. Which law did the black woman break? ...........................................................................................................................................

2. Describe the reaction of the white people: ...........................................................................................................................................

3. Can you imagine what happened to the black woman eventually? ...........................................................................................................................................

4. How would you qualify the link between the crime and its punishment? ...........................................................................................................................................

5. Find the translations of:

-“c’est infernal”: ....................................             - “quartier”: ....................................-“tranquille”: ................              -“verrou”: .........................     –“banlieue”: .......................

6. What scares the white people in this passage? ...........................................................................................................................................

7. What do the white people do now? How does it help you describe the typical American city? .................................................................................................................

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............................................8. “And everyone lived happily ever after”: find another phrase in the text

alluding to the same cultural reference:

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.............  Conclusion: Pick out the major themes for an oral presentation (think of comparisons, lexical fields, cultural representations, visual effects, comical elements, reactions expected by the author etc.) 

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