Compréhension
1. It is an extract from an essay 2. • Nationality: American (l. 1) “My first real encounter with the world outside the United States...” • Jobs: – journalist (l. 2) “... I spent several months working for an anti-government newspaper in South Africa.”
– teacher (l. 27) “From the classes I’ve taught and experienced abroad...” • Marital status: married (l. 15) “... my wife ...” • Trips abroad: – South Africa (l. 2) “... working for an anti-government newspaper in South Africa.”
– India (l. 15) “... my wife and I lived for six months in India...” • Approximate age: (l. 1) “... in 1962...” + (l. 4) “... a nineteen-year-old...” The narrator was born in 1942 or 1943. The text was published in 2005. Adam Hochschild was 62 or 63 when he wrote this essay. 3. Part 1: from l. 1 to l. 25: “An arrogant country” / “The dark side of the USA”... Part 2: from l. 26 to the end: “The most vibrant civil society” / “The bright side of the USA”... 4. The narrator understood that his country was on the wrong side in South Africa, i.e. that the USA supported / cooperated with the apartheid regime in South Africa. Contrary to what he had previously thought, the USA was not on the side of freedom in South Africa. (46 words) 5. a. The war in Vietnam made the narrator and millions of other Americans aware that America was not defending freedom. b. The USA exerts its economic power over developing countries (India for instance). c. The USA has refused to sign most international agreements. 6. a. False (l. 13)”Despite President Bush’s cowboy foray into Iraq, the way most nations experience American might these days is not military, but economic.” b. True (l. 15) “I had not thought much about globalization until my wife and I lived for six months in India in the late 1990s.” c. True (l. 17) “Indians were outraged by American corporate attempts to patent basmati rice...” d. True (l. 21) “When it comes to a different kind of international agreement, those of which the human race