How does a country decide what risks are acceptable in everyday life?

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Giles Watson
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1 Département LANSAD ANGLAIS niveau 2 EXAMEN DE SESSION 1 1 er semestre Samedi 16 décembre 2017 Durée : 2 heures aucun document autorisé How does a country decide what risks are acceptable in everyday life? 1. When I moved to China nearly two years ago, one of the first things I 1 was a bicycle. I live on a university campus, where everyone rides, and the bike was cheap: $17 for an ancient Five Rams cruiser. I 2 cycle to work when I lived in New York, dodging tourists and threading in between delivery trucks. But the moment I pulled out onto a street in China, it became clear that this was going to be a different experience. 1. bought / have bought / did 2. use to / using to / used to 2. In New York, the key to road safety is predictability. Make eye contact with drivers, 3 they can see your intentions. Use hand signals when you want to turn. Avoid sudden, erratic movements if drivers can see where you re going, they ll be less likely to hit you. The first time I use a hand signal in China, angling my arm leftward to show a truck driver that I am about to turn in front of him, he looks to see what I m pointing at, 4 accelerating. Every time I make eye contact, other cyclists and drivers barrel right on through, instead of letting me pass in front of them. Eventually I adapt to a new reality, learn the new rules, and I discover that they are as simple in China as in the United States. Actually, there s only one rule: Ignore everyone. 3. as / or / so 4. for / while / during 3. When I am out on my bike, I am responsible for the area immediately around me, maybe 12 inches in every direction. The rest of the road is not my problem. I do not make eye contact with other bicyclists or motorists hurtling toward me, 5 they are in my 12 inches. By not looking at them, I am making it their problem to not hit me, which of course they don t. The drivers do the same thing. We are an army of high-speed somnambulists, purposefully behaving as though we are the only ones on the road. 5. unless / provided / because 4. It feels ridiculously dangerous, riding around those first few months no one, me included, is wearing a helmet, 6 my excuse is that I haven t been able to find a bicycle shop that sells them. But it becomes more and more evident that this is a normal, accepted level of risk here in China. 6. also / since / although

2 5. It s easy to feel as if safety has a universal definition. Freedom from want, freedom from fear aren t those what people mean when they think of safety? Perhaps, but the routes through the world to that state of being are circuitous and varied. Smoke alarms, for instance, 7 required in every American bedroom since We rarely think about them, except to complain when they go off while we re cooking. France, however, only began requiring residential smoke alarms in Switzerland, rated the safest country in the world in 2015 by one consumerresearch firm, has not mandated them at all. There is not a simple, one-way progression from a state of nature to a state of safety. 6. Deciding what dangers to avoid sounds like a supremely rational process. You calculate the risk of an event (house fire, 8 ), the probability of the bad outcome (death), multiply them together, and get a number that tells you how likely the worst-case scenario is. Then you decide how you might defend against it. Get a smoke alarm. Wear a helmet. 7. have had / have done / have been 8. bicycle s crash / bicycle crash / crash bicycle 7. The truth is, though, that at this point a number of things come between us and a rational decision. Over the last half century, researchers have uncovered systematic biases built into how we decide. Some psychologists, for example, hypothesize that humans have a personal-risk budget: When we make ourselves safe in one way, we allow ourselves more risk in another. Buy a safe car, drive it faster. Go skydiving, pack an extra parachute. 8. On my bicycle, for 9 months, I manage to avoid any clear evidence of danger. It is amazing how disaster continues to avoid me. I am still not wearing a helmet. I m getting something out of this risk, too the freedom of leaping on my bike without thinking, the joy of the wind in my hair. Maybe the world is not as dangerous as it seems. 9. Still, as the months pass, it becomes clear that while I may have the freedom to behave like a maniac on the road, there are other downsides to this local culture of risk. It s no secret that the air quality in China leaves something to be desired. Some 10, for days at a time, I don t leave the house without a pollution mask. 10. There is also the matter of food safety avoiding foods with contaminants, whether solvents or bacteria. In China a number of serious scandals have made people wary of food; in one, melamine was mixed into baby formula 1 to disguise the watering down of milk and boost profits, 11 hundreds of thousands. As a result, I buy all my food from a grocery store an hour away by bus that claims to use a strict control protocol for food safety. 9. more / few / many 10. seasons / reasons / treasons 11. thickening / sequining / sickening 11. By the end of my first year in China, I m frustrated and surprised at myself. This is what it has come to. This is my life. I describe my experience bicycling, and filtering air, and buying food, to 12. if / where / how 1 Baby formula : powdered milk for babies

3 Lynette Shaw, a sociologist at the University of Michigan who studies 12 we decide what is valuable. She laughs. It sounds like a situation with low social capital, she says. What s missing is trust. 12. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development defines social capital as the links, shared values, and understandings in society that enable individuals and groups to trust each other and so work together. The 1916 paper 13 which the phrase social capital first appears presents it even more simply: goodwill, fellowship, sympathy, and social intercourse among a group of individuals and families who make up a social unit. 13. in / of / from 13. This is the idea that you and the members of your community are more or less on the same page that you agree on the rules and that they matter. The sociologist Robert Putnam and colleagues, who helped bring the concept of social capital to prominence in the 14 20th century, compared the regional governments of northern and southern Italy in the book Making Democracy Work. They found that the governments that functioned best adopted budgets on time, made loans to farms, answered their mail promptly were those of the northern areas that had historically been ruled by their inhabitants. In the south, Norman 2 rulers had imposed order from above in true autocratic fashion in the Middle Ages: To question orders from the nobility was sacrilege, and rules were inflicted, rather than instated. In the modern 15 far less orderly. 14. History may have shaped a region s modern allocations of social capital. Collective life in the civic regions is made easier by the expectation that others will probably follow the rules. Knowing that others will, you are more likely to go along, too, thus fulfilling their expectations, Putnam writes. The least civic regions are the most subject to the ancient plague of political corruption. They are the home of the Mafia and its regional variants. It s every man for himself (and those close to him) and against outsiders you can t trust the government to do what s best, so you come up with your own ways around, more often than not based on a profound mistrust of others. 14. last /least/late 15. area, these areas were / era, these areas were / era, these eras were 15. This unlocks, for me, the story of the rules of the road in my new home. People cut me off because they do not trust me to let them pass when it s their turn. To signal one s intent is to ask to be taken advantage of. In societies with low trust, there isn t much incentive to, for instance, abide by clean-air laws, or follow regulation to make food safer. People do not trust that others will do it. And in both cases, it s cheaper to not / not to / to note Excerpted and edited from Veronique Greenwood, The Atlantic, Nov 1, 2017 QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT A. For each gap in the text numbered 1 to 16, choose the correct missing form from the lists on the right-hand side. 8 pts Pour chaque blanc numéroté de 1 à 16, choisissez la forme manquante parmi les trois proposées dans la colonne de droite. 2 Norman : Normands, issus des lignées Viking ayant envahi l actuelle Normandie avant de conquérir l Angleterre (avec Guillaume le Conquérant) puis de s établir en Sicile, dans le sud de l Italie et jusqu en Afrique du Nord et au Proche-Orient.

4 B. Multiple Choice Questions. Only one answer is correct for each item. 10 pts Q1. Selon l article, comment les usagers partagent-ils la route en Chine? A. They carefully navigate the streets using GPS. B. They purposefully ignore everyone and everything not in their immediate vicinity. C. They shout and signal and fight all the time. D. They always pack an extra parachute. Q2. Les exemples cités au paragraphe 5 prouvent que A. the French are more rational than the Swiss. B. no one knows for sure whether smoke alarms are useful or not. C. Americans tend to cook food in their bedrooms. D. notions of safety vary from one country to the next. Q3. Les paragraphes 6 and 7 suggèrent que A. the decisions we make about our safety are not always rational. B. people negatively adapt to better risk protection by engaging in more reckless behaviour C. both A and B D. none of the above Q4. Le paragraphe 4 démontre que la perception du risque A. varies over time B. is conditioned by ridiculous excuses C. depends on whether or not you are wearing a helmet D. is mostly shaped by local culture Q5. Les paragraphes 8 and 9 laissent à penser que l auteur A. enjoys her new freedom unconditionally B. now feels a hundred percent safe all the time C. knows there will be a price to pay later D. now refuses to cycle to work without a mask on Q6. Les paragraphes 12, 13 et 14 portent sur A. early historical examples of risk-generating attitudes in Italy B. early historical examples of risk-adverse cultures in OECD countries C. correlating political power patterns and traditions with the prevalence of interpersonal trust D. the superiority of medieval/autocratic structures of government over modern, corrupt ones Q7. Le capital social A. generates trust B. requires trust C. is the opposite of trust D. annihilates trust Q8. Quel est l effet recherché par le paragraphe 15? A. it exposes a realization based on previously introduced elements B. it leaves the reader to wonder about irreconcilable cultural differences C. it questions a cultural sterotype D. it adds a novel, pessimistic touch to the demonstration Q9. Quel est le message produit par le paragraphe 15? A. you should always take advantage of people who trust you B. trust achieves nothing without money

5 C. China is a low-trust society D. mutual trust is expensive and takes long to build Q10. Laquelle de ces propositions correspond le mieux à l idée générale de l article? A. You can t trust the government to do what s best. B. Maybe the world is not as dangerous as it seems. C. In societies with low trust, there isn t much incentive to follow regulation. D. Ignore everyone. C. Choisissez la traduction la plus appropriée de l expression française donnée à gauche parmi les trois propositions se trouvant dans le texte au paragraphe indiqué entre parenthèses. 5 pts NB : par commodité, l expression française est donnée sous sa forme générique (infinitif, singulier...etc) C1. Couper la route ; faire une queue de poisson = dodging ( 1) / hurtling toward ( 3) / cut me off ( 15) C2. Inconvénient = downsides ( 9) / allocations ( 14) / incentive ( 15) C3. Probable, plausible = likely ( 2, 6, 14) / purposefully ( 3) / wary ( 10) C4. Affirmer, prétendre = hypothesize ( 7) / claims ( 10) / instated ( 13) C5. Respecter ; être en conformité avec = claims ( 10) / eased ( 14) / abide ( 15) D. What does the author mean? Rephrasing, explaining =23 pts D1. Choose the best equivalent to the following passages (underlined in the text ; 4 pts). D1.1 «other cyclists and drivers barrel right on through» ( 2) a. other road users turn right when they see me b. other cyclists slow down for a very short time only c. other road users keep going as if I didn t exist D1.2 «the routes through the world to that state of being are circuitous and varied» ( 5) a. there are many different, indirect ways of reaching this condition b. it s a destination that is impossible to reach worldwide c. nobody in the world can understand what being in that state means D1.3 «researchers have uncovered systematic biases built into how we decide» ( 7) a. research has established that nobody makes purely rational decisions about risk b. scientists doing research about risk are far from objective c. there has been an effort to introduce bias in research about risk D1.4 «you come up with your own ways around» ( 14) a. people rarely reach their destination in a straight line b. people develop strategies to obtain what they want c. you substitute fear of government to fear of other people D2. What does the author mean? Reformulate in order to clarify. [4 points] D2.1 «...the joy of the wind in my hair» ( 8) D2.2 «This unlocks, for me, the story...» ( 15)

6 D3. Answer the following questions in 15 to 20 words. Use your own words to give a direct and simple answer. [15 points] D3.1 What are the basic rules of survival for road users cyclists, motorcyclists, car drivers...etc in China? D3.2 Why does the author feel frustrated and surprised at herself after a year in China? D3.3 What does the history of political regimes in southern and northern Italy prove? D3.4. Describe a situation or a context with high social capital. D3.5 Explain how you understand the story and the theory developed in this text. E. Grammar, syntax, tenses 4+10=14 points E1. Posez une question portant sur la partie soulignée de la phrase. Ecrivez la question en entier jusqu au point d interrogation. (4 points) Exemple : She started her business ten years ago. When did she start her business? a. I buy all my food from a grocery store an hour away by bus. b. I buy all my food from a grocery store an hour away by bus. c. France began requiring residential smoke alarms in d. France began requiring residential smoke alarms in E2. Error spotting and revising. [10 pts] Corrigez les erreurs contenues dans les extraits de ce journal tenu par un.e expatrié.e français.e en Chine écrivant à un.e ami.e anglais.e. (NB : Vous pouvez faire cet exercice même si vous êtes personnellement opposé.e à l utilisation de l écriture inclusive dans les consignes d examen). Les erreurs se trouvent dans les passages soulignés de chaque phrase numérotée. Il n y a qu une seule erreur par section soulignée. Indiquez sur votre copie le numéro de phrase suivi de votre proposition de correction. DAY SEVEN. 1. Last week I have arrived here in China from London. 2. I am so happy to be here at last! I wait for this moment a long time. 3. There is too many pollution and not enough wind. 4. Many of my European friends are frustrated with the traffic congestion, but me not. I am from Paris after all! DAY SEVENTY-FIVE 5. The city of Shangzhou is beautiful in the sunlight! But it s the first time I could see the sun since I arrived. 6. My friends were right! The roads are packed all the time! There is about 5,000 people per square foot of road, I would say. 7. I have to pay attention and avoid others cyclists who seem oblivious to everything around them. 8. Ride a bicycle here is even more dangerous than in Paris! DAY THREE HUNDRED 9. I get tiring of life in Shangzhou. It is monotonous and probably not very good for my health. 10. I miss France and I can t stand the stress and danger anymore. I have to sale my bike and go home! END OF N2 EXAM DEC 17 TOTAL POINTS 60

Proof. Département LANSAD Anglais niveau 3. EXAMEN (session 2) 1 er et/ou 2 ème semestre 2012/2013 Samedi 22 juin 2013

Proof. Département LANSAD Anglais niveau 3. EXAMEN (session 2) 1 er et/ou 2 ème semestre 2012/2013 Samedi 22 juin 2013 UFR d Etudes Interculturelles de Langues Appliquées Département LANSAD Anglais niveau 3 EXAMEN (session 2) 1 er et/ou 2 ème semestre 2012/2013 Samedi 22 juin 2013 5 10 15 Durée : 2 heures - aucun document