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Compréhension orale et prononciation - Exercices gratuits

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Le support de ces exercices, qui sont libres d'accès et gratuits, est un article paru en janvier 2010 dans le journal The Independent :
"The end of consumerism: our way of life is 'not viable' "

1. Exercices de compréhension orale :

a - Ecoutez cet article deux ou trois fois. Il est très souhaitable de ne pas lire le script ci-dessous lors de cet exercice.
Cependant, vous pouvez, si vous en ressentez le besoin, et lors de la 1ère écoute seulement, y jeter un coup d'oeil (cadre bleu ci-dessous).
Si un mot vous empêche de comprendre une phrase, consultez un dictionnaire anglais-français. Notez-le.
A terme, vous devriez comprendre une grande partie du texte (au moins 75%) à la seule écoute.
The effects of hurricane Katrina

b - Answer the questions, and check your answers by hovering your mouse over 'Check' (vérifiez vos réponses en passant la souris sur 'Check') :
1. What does the new report say? Check
2. What countries are most concerned? Check
3. What danger may we have to survive? Check
4. What does Muhamad Yunus call our current cultures, and the next ones? Check
5. What is being decimated? Check
6. On what condition may government action succeed? Check
7. Give examples of the new behaviours the report recommends. Check
8. Why are these recommendations unrealistic, according to the Global Warming Policy Foundation? Check

c - Give an oral summary of this article. It should last 3 to 4 minutes.

2. Exercice pour améliorer la prononciation et l'intonation en anglais :

Vous allez maintenez entendre ce même article en 'lecture éclatée', c'est à dire découpée en membres de phrases qui font unité de sens.
Si vous en ressentez le besoin, suivez des yeux le script ci-dessous : chaque ligne est un membre de phrase.
Après chaque membre de phrase (et donc à la fin de chaque ligne), il y aura un silence de quelques secondes.
Pendant ce silence, répétez le membre de phrase que vous venez d'entendre.
ATTENTION : ne vous laissez pas 'influencer' par l'orthographe, et REPETEZ EXACTEMENT ce que vous avez entendu, en reproduisant, non seulement la prononciation des mots, mais aussi l'intonation du membre de phrase.

A terme, il vaut mieux faire ces répétitions sans lire le texte : c'est le but à atteindre.
Mais, si vous en ressentez le besoin, le voici ci-dessous.
Lancez cette lecture éclatée.

THE END OF CONSUMERISM:
OUR WAY OF LIFE IS ‘NOT VIABLE’

A new report says
we must embrace a basic future
to survive.
Ditch the dog;
throw away (sorry, recycle)
those takeaway menus;
bin bottled water;
get rid of that gas-guzzling car
and forget flying to far-flung places.
These are just some of the sacrifices
we in the West
will need to make
if we are to survive climate change.

The stark warning
comes from a Washington-based organisation
regarded
as the world’s pre-eminent environmental think tank.

Its State of the World 2010 report
published this week
outlines a blueprint
for changing our entire way of life.
“Preventing the collapse
of human civilisation
requires nothing less
than a wholesale transformation
of dominant cultural pattems.
This transformation would reject consumerism...
and establish a new cultural framework
centred on sustainability,”
states the report.

“Habits that are firmly set
— from where people live
to what they eat —
will all need to be altered
and in many cases
simplified or minimised...
From Earth’s perspective,
the American or even the European way of life
is simply not viable.”

Nobel prize winner
and microfinance expert Muhammad Yunus
describes the report
as calling for
“one of the greatest cultural shifts imaginable:
from cultures of consumerism
to cultures of sustainability”.

Almost seven billion people
are demanding
ever greater quantities of material resources,
decimating the world’s richest ecosystems,
and dumping billions of tons
of heat-trapping gases
into the atmosphere.

 And any actions taken by governments,
or scientific advances
to deal with climate change,
are doomed to failure
unless individuals
get back to a basic way of life,
concludes the report
which recommends things like
borrowing books and toys
from libraries
instead of buying them,
choosing public transport
over the car,
and growing food
in community gardens.
All products
should be designed
to last a lifetime
and be completely recyclable.

To thrive long into the future,
human societies must shift their cultures
so sustainability becomes the norm.

But the report’s findings
were attacked
by the Global Warming Policy Foundation.
“Let’s face it,
by 2050,
the combined population of China and India alone
will have grown to three billion.
By then,
most Chinese and Indians
will have adopted an urban lifestyle.
This makes demands
for radical curbs in consumerism
and C02 emissions
utterly unrealistic.”

People need to be persuaded
of the benefits of tackling climate change,
rather than be presented
with a “defeatist
and doomsday scenario”.
Questions around consumption
are not so much about the rate of it,
but the fact
that the full environmental impacts
are not yet fully taken into account,
not yet reflected
in what is consumed.
We need behaviours
and production methods
to change.

Adapted from The Independent,
January 2010

Très bientôt, seront en ligne d'autres articles servant de supports à vos exercices.
Pour toute question, contactez-nous.
Bon travail.