L’être humain et la nature

You have studied two documents: an extract from the 1964 US Wilderness Act and a page from the UK national parks authorities. In English, explain how the two texts define what a national park protects, and what this difference reveals about each country.

1. 01Name the two documents and their dates

   Ouvrez par l’identification, jamais par un avis : « The first document is an extract from the Wilderness Act, passed by the US Congress in 1964. The second one presents the fifteen national parks of the United Kingdom, created under the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act. » Deux dates, deux pays, deux textes : le correcteur sait immédiatement que vous maîtrisez le corpus.

2. 02Quote the American definition and gloss it

   Citez court et expliquez : « The American text defines wilderness as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. In other words, protection means keeping people OUT: the land belongs to the federal government and no one lives there permanently. » La glose (« in other words ») est ce qui transforme une citation en analyse.

3. 03Set the British model against it

   Marquez l’opposition avec un connecteur B1+ : « Whereas the American act removes human presence, the British parks are built on it. Their own website states that people live and work in the UK’s national parks, and that anyone can visit at any time for free. Most of the land is privately owned and farmed, so the park is a planning regime rather than a reserve. »

4. 04Draw the cultural conclusion

   Concluez sur ce que la différence révèle : « This contrast reflects two different histories. The United States could set aside vast federal territories in the nineteenth century, even though indigenous peoples had lived on and managed them. Britain, on the other hand, had no empty land left, so it chose to protect a landscape shaped by centuries of farming — which is why the Lake District was listed by UNESCO in 2017 as a cultural landscape. »

Résultat : Une réponse complète identifie les deux textes avec leurs dates (1964 ; 1949-1951), cite brièvement la définition américaine de la wilderness et la glose, oppose explicitement le modèle britannique du paysage habité avec whereas ou on the other hand, et conclut sur la raison historique de l’écart (des terres fédérales disponibles d’un côté, un pays entièrement façonné par l’agriculture de l’autre), sans oublier la présence autochtone effacée par le premier modèle.

In English, explain to a classmate what cultural burning is, how it differs from the burning carried out by fire services, and why it came back into the Australian public debate.

1. 01Define the practice before naming any date

   Commencez par la définition, en la rapportant à une source : « Cultural burning is a fire practice used by First Nations people in Australia to look after Country. The Australian Museum describes it as a way of improving the health of Country and its people, and dates it back more than sixty thousand years. »

2. 02Describe the technique concretely

   Rendez la pratique visible : « The fires are deliberately small and cool. Practitioners protect the canopy, which is considered sacred, and let the fire move slowly through the undergrowth. What is left is a patchwork of burnt and unburnt ground, so a later bushfire has no continuous fuel to run through. » Trois détails concrets valent mieux qu’un adjectif enthousiaste.

3. 03Contrast it with hazard-reduction burning

   Marquez la différence explicitement : « This is not the same as hazard-reduction burning. Fire services burn in order to remove fuel before the fire season; cultural burning also asks WHEN and WHERE the land is ready, by reading the plants, the animals and the season. The aim is care, not only prevention. »

4. 04Say why it matters now

   Reliez à l’actualité sans forcer le trait : « After the 2019-2020 fires, Australians started asking whether this knowledge had been ignored for too long. Practitioners such as Victor Steffensen, whose book Fire Country came out in 2020, now run workshops for farmers, firefighters and government agencies. »

Résultat : Une bonne explication définit d’abord la pratique en citant une source institutionnelle, la décrit concrètement (feux petits et froids, canopée épargnée, mosaïque), l’oppose nettement au brûlage dirigé (objectif de soin contre objectif de prévention, lecture du terrain contre calendrier), puis en montre l’actualité (les incendies de 2019-2020, les ateliers de praticiens). La langue reste au présent simple, qui est le temps des pratiques vivantes.

You are given a short National Weather Service bulletin. In English, say what level of alert it announces, what it asks people to do, and how you can tell the difference from the previous level.

1. 01Identify the level from the verb, not from the tone

   Le mot décisif est le verbe : « The bulletin uses the word WARNING, which means that hurricane conditions are EXPECTED in the area, not merely possible. A watch would have been issued about forty-eight hours ahead; a warning is issued about thirty-six hours ahead. » On identifie un niveau d’alerte par sa définition officielle, jamais par l’impression que fait le texte.

2. 02Extract the instructions and name their grammar

   Relevez la forme, pas seulement le contenu : « The instructions are all imperatives — complete your preparations, secure loose objects, leave immediately if told to do so. There is no modal and no politeness marker, which is typical of emergency English: the message must be unambiguous. »

3. 03Locate the third, non-meteorological level

   Cherchez qui décide : « The bulletin does not order an evacuation. That decision belongs to local officials, and it may be mandatory or voluntary. The forecaster describes the hazard; the authorities decide what people must do about it. »

4. 04Say what the reader should conclude

   Terminez par l’action attendue : « So the correct reading is: the storm is now considered likely, the time for preparation is over, and the household should be ready to leave as soon as an order is issued. » Une lecture d’alerte se conclut toujours par une conduite, pas par un commentaire.

Résultat : Une lecture correcte identifie le niveau par le verbe officiel (possible pour un watch, expected pour un warning), relève l’impératif comme la grammaire propre au message d’urgence, distingue l’acteur météorologique de l’autorité locale qui ordonne l’évacuation, et se conclut par la conduite à tenir. Les délais indicatifs de 48 et 36 heures sont ceux du National Weather Service et se citent tels quels.

Look at Thomas Cole's 1836 painting The Oxbow. In English, describe what you see, explain how the canvas is organised, and say what question the painting asks its viewer.

1. 01Identify the work before describing it

   Trois informations suffisent : « This is an oil painting by Thomas Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School. It was painted in 1836 and it hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Its full title is View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm, but it is usually called The Oxbow. »

2. 02Describe by planes, using the fixed phrases

   Servez-vous du vocabulaire imposé : « In the foreground, on the left, a broken tree and dark rocks catch the last of the storm. In the middle ground, the Connecticut River makes a wide U-shaped bend — the oxbow that gives the painting its popular name. In the background, on the right, the cultivated valley opens out under a clear sky. »

3. 03Name the composition, not just the content

   Passez de ce qui est peint à la façon dont c’est peint : « The canvas is split down the middle. The left half is wild, dark and stormy; the right half is farmed, bright and orderly. The diagonal that separates them is the real subject of the picture. »

4. 04State the question the painting asks

   Concluez sur l’enjeu, sans plaquer une morale : « Cole does not tell us which half to choose. He shows an America that could go either way, and he paints the moment of hesitation. That is why the picture still works as a document about what a country decides to protect. »

Résultat : Un commentaire réussi identifie l’œuvre (Cole, 1836, Metropolitan Museum of Art, titre complet et titre d’usage), décrit par plans avec les tournures figées (in the foreground / middle ground / background), nomme la COMPOSITION — la toile coupée en deux, sauvage à gauche, cultivée à droite — et formule la question posée au spectateur au lieu de conclure par un jugement de goût. Le présent simple est le temps du commentaire d’image.

Write a balanced paragraph in English answering the question: should communities have the right to refuse a waste facility? Use the Warren County case, and show that you can weigh both sides.

1. 01Open with the concrete case, not with an opinion

   Le fait d’abord : « In 1982, the state of North Carolina buried soil contaminated with PCBs in Afton, in Warren County, a rural community with the highest proportion of African American residents in the state. About five hundred people were arrested trying to stop the trucks. The landfill went ahead. »

2. 02State the first side and back it with the official definition

   Une thèse étayée par une source : « Those protests are usually described as the beginning of the environmental justice movement, which the Environmental Protection Agency defines as the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, colour, national origin or income. If a community is never consulted, that definition is simply not met. »

3. 03Concede the opposite side honestly

   Une concession réelle, pas décorative : « On the other hand, the waste has to go somewhere. If every community could veto every facility, the sites would end up wherever resistance is weakest — which is precisely the mechanism the movement denounces. A right to refuse, on its own, does not solve the problem of where. »

4. 04Close on a conditional that names the missing condition

   Une conclusion qui tranche par une condition : « So the real question is not refusal but procedure. Unless communities are involved early and the burden is shared across a whole state, the same siting decisions will keep falling on the same people. » Le connecteur unless fait ici tout le travail argumentatif.

Résultat : Un paragraphe équilibré part du cas daté et localisé (Warren County, 1982, environ cinq cents arrestations), appuie la première thèse sur la définition officielle de l’EPA, concède honnêtement l’objection (les déchets doivent bien aller quelque part, et un droit de veto généralisé déplacerait la charge vers les plus faibles), puis conclut par une phrase conditionnelle en unless qui nomme la condition manquante. Le passif — the community was never consulted — sert à désigner l’absence d’acteur.