Oral Bac / 4

[AmandineB]

Bonjour, voici mon oral d'anglais, j'aimerais savoir s'il y a des fautes, merci d'avance !

 

Today my presentation is going to deal with places and faces of power. Power can be defined as the abilty to influence or to control people, events, environment or resources. It’s also the ability to make things happen despite obstacles, resistance or opposition. There are as well counter-powers. Indeed, a counter-power is a force that can be used by the oppressed to counterbalance or erode the power exercised by someone.

We can wonder if counter-powers are really effective.

First and foremost, we’ll talk about the haves’ power and then the social and political activism exercised by the have nots.

 

To begin with, according to The Independant, we live in a world where the «combined wealth of the world’s richest 1 per cent will overtake that of the remaining 99 per cent by 2016». In recent years, much attention has focused on the question of the distribution of wealth throughout the world and throughout society.

In the excerpt from Gavin Esler’s novel A Scandalous Man, we’ll see how the power is exercised by the wealth holder, how it manifests itself and its consequences.

The scene takes place in London. The narrator Harry is British and works as an interpreter for an arrogant New York corporate lawyer. Actually, the narrator feels guilty about helping the corporate lawyer put thousands of Czech workers out a job. Indeed, the lawyer wants to buy Czech companies. He is quite insensitive, he is venal for he appears to be motivated solely by the greed for more money and also amoral as he lacks a moral sense. On the contrary, Harry is both frustrated and angry, he considers that the corporate lawyer is an arrogant, evil man whose only aim is to make a fortune whatever the cost. Working for such a man makes him feels ill-at-ease . He clearly has grudge against a who is rolling money and who has just ruined the lives of so many people in the stroke of a pen. He must feel that he has betrayed his principles by helping a man that he despises. Thus, this document shows us that there are two sorts of people in our society : those who are successful, the winners, the sharks and those who fail, the losers, those who are left aside. However, some people have decided to stand up for equality and moral values.

 

This leads to my second part where we’re going to study the counter-powers. From los indignados of Spain to the Occupy Wall Street! Movement, a number of rencent protest movements have sought to raise awareness that the world is increasingly divided between the rich and the poor and have tried to restore a measure of social justice. «We are the 99% is a political slogan chanted by the protesters of the «Occupy Wall Street Movement», referring to the 99 % of Americans who have almost nothing compared to the wealthiest 1 % who have everything. On the cartoon «OWS arrest» we studied, a policeman is arresting a demonstrator. The scene is set in the street before the New York Stock Exchange. The arrested man has a sweater with «Occupy Wall Street» written on it. The policeman is trampling over a placard with the word «GREED» barred on it, which the man must have been holding, so it indicates that the demonstrators are protesting against greed. In the background, there are a few masked robbers standing in front of the Stock Market. Each of them is carrying a bagful of money.

The cartoonist’s message is clear. The demonstrator is being arrested simply for occupying the street and disturbing the peace. Meanwhile, the thieves go unpunished . They can go on stealing money without being disturbed or arrested.the thieves obviously stand for the world of finance, bankers and traders, who can make huge profits by speculating and sometimes even by mounting fraudulent or illegal activities. In fact, the cartoonist has chosen to use pale grey to show that their activities go unnoticed. Therefore, he wants to show that those who are in positions of political or financial power tend to slip through the net as opposed to the rest of population, who work hard for a living and have no choice but to take to the streets to bring about change. The contrasting colours underline the unfair situation. Similarly, Greenpeace has been a visible presence and influence in our society, making its voice heard in favour of the environment, using direct action tactics to counter moves by industrialists or the military that could harm or impact nature. Indeed, in the document Watchdogs of the sea, a big boat is about to be stopped by two smaller inflatable boats. The men on the inflatable boats are holding a giant net or banner on which the word «STOP» is written in block letters. These men are Greenpeace activists who want to stop the boat from taking part in oil exploration operations off the Alaskan coast. Thereby, their goal is to stop oil exploration in that region at all costs. In addition, the message « STOP » seems to be adressed to the viewers, via the photographer. By staging a photo op, Greenpeace are obviously making use of the media to convey their message. Hence, they can raise environmental awareness. They are called watchdogs since every time they find evidence of wrong-doing, like a good watchdog, they try to alert the public in any way they can. Even though many people think that today it’s no use even trying to fight big polluting multinationals, if there is no counter-power to fight against greed,, things will get worse. Here we have a perfect illustration of powers and counter-powers working on different levels. The picture shows an archetypal situation which reminds us of the fight of David against Goliath. It seems the boat of big business can only win against small inflatables of Greenpeace. Nevertheless, the real battle is being fought elsewhere. The dinghies can’t stop the boat but maybe the photo can. The power of big business and big money is being countered by the Citizen power of a non-governmental-organization and the media, and on this terrain, the balance of power is more equal.

 

In a nutshell, we can see that powers are vey present in our society today. Yet, thanks to counter-powers, we can see stability. Indeed, it can be dramatic of one them becomes too powerful. We can delve into a dictatorial regime or anarchy.

 

[Jean B]

Bonjour,

Ce 5ème texte serait-il le dernier ?

il y a 57 minutes, AmandineB a dit :

Bonjour, voici mon oral d'anglais, j'aimerais savoir s'il y a des fautes, merci d'avance !

 

Today my presentation is going to deal with places and faces <?> forms of power. Power can be defined as the abilty to influence or to control people, events, environment or resources. It’s also the ability to make things happen despite obstacles, resistance or opposition. There are as well counter-powers. Indeed, a counter-power is a force that can be used by the oppressed to counterbalance or erode the power exercised by someone.

We can wonder whether/if counter-powers are really effective.

First and foremost, we’ll talk about the haves’ power and then the social and political activism exercised by the have nots.

 

To begin with, according to The Independent, we live in a world where the «combined wealth of the world’s richest 1 per cent will overtake that of the remaining 99 per cent by 2016». In recent years, much attention has focused on the question of the distribution of wealth throughout the world and throughout society.

In the excerpt from Gavin Esler’s novel A Scandalous Man, we’ll see how the power is exercised by the wealth holder, how it manifests itself and its consequences.

The scene takes place in London. The narrator Harry is British and works as an interpreter for an arrogant New York corporate lawyer. Actually, the narrator feels guilty about helping the corporate lawyer put thousands of Czech workers out a job. Indeed, the lawyer wants to buy Czech companies. He is quite insensitive, he is venal for he appears to be motivated solely by the greed for more money and also amoral as he lacks a moral sense. On the contrary, Harry is both frustrated and angry, he considers that the corporate lawyer is an arrogant, evil man whose only aim is to make a fortune whatever the cost. Working for such a man makes him feels ill-at-ease . He clearly has grudge against a man who is rolling money and who has just ruined the lives of so many people in the stroke of a pen. He must feel that he has betrayed his principles by helping a man that he despises. Thus, this document shows us that there are two sorts of people in our society: those who are successful, the winners, the sharks and those who fail, the losers, those who are left aside. However, some people have decided to stand up for equality and moral values.

 

This leads to my second part where we’re going to study the counter-powers. From Los Indignados of Spain to the Occupy Wall Street! Movement, a number of recent protest movements have sought to raise awareness that the world is increasingly divided between the rich and the poor and have tried to restore a measure of social justice. «We are the 99% is a political slogan chanted by the protesters of the «Occupy Wall Street Movement», referring to the 99 % of Americans who have almost nothing compared to the wealthiest 1 % who have everything. On the cartoon «OWS arrest» we studied, a policeman is arresting a demonstrator. The scene is set in the street before the New York Stock Exchange. The arrested man has a sweater with «Occupy Wall Street» written on it. The policeman is trampling over a placard with the word «GREED» barred on it, which the man must have been holding, so it indicates that the demonstrators are protesting against greed. In the background, there are a few masked robbers standing in front of the Stock Market. Each of them is carrying a bagful of money.

The cartoonist’s message is clear. The demonstrator is being arrested simply for occupying the street and disturbing the peace. Meanwhile, the thieves go unpunished . They can go on stealing money without being disturbed or arrested. The thieves obviously stand for the world of finance, bankers and traders, who can make huge profits by speculating and sometimes even by mounting fraudulent or illegal activities. In fact, the cartoonist has chosen to use pale grey to show that their activities go unnoticed. Therefore, he wants to show that those who are in positions of political or financial power tend to slip through the net as opposed to the rest of population, who work hard for a living and have no choice but to take to the streets to bring about change. The contrasting colours underline the unfair situation. Similarly, Greenpeace has been a visible presence and influence in our society, making its voice heard in favour of the environment, using direct action tactics to counter moves by industrialists or the military that could harm or impact nature. Indeed, in the document Watchdogs of the sea, a big boat is about to be stopped by two smaller inflatable boats. The men on the inflatable boats are holding a giant net or banner on which the word «STOP» is written in block letters. These men are Greenpeace activists who want to stop the boat from taking part in oil exploration operations off the Alaskan coast. Thereby, their goal is to stop oil exploration in that region at all costs. In addition, the message « STOP » seems to be adressed to the viewers, via the photographer. By staging a photo op, Greenpeace are obviously making use of the media to convey their message. Hence, they can raise environmental awareness. They are called watchdogs since every time they find evidence of wrong-doing, like a good watchdog, they try to alert the public in any way they can. Even though many people think that today it’s no use even trying to fight big polluting multinationals, if there is no counter-power to fight against greed, things will get worse. Here we have a perfect illustration of powers and counter-powers working on different levels. The picture shows an archetypal situation which reminds us of the fight of David against Goliath. It seems the boat of big business can only win against small inflatables of Greenpeace. Nevertheless, the real battle is being fought elsewhere. The dinghies can’t stop the boat but maybe the photo can. The power of big business and big money is being countered by the Citizen power of a non-governmental-organization and the media, and on this terrain, the balance of power is more equal.

 

In a nutshell, we can see that powers are vey present in our society today. Yet, thanks to counter-powers, we can see stability. Indeed, it can be dramatic if one of them becomes too powerful. We can delve into a dictatorial regime or anarchy.

 

Toujours de la même veine, bravo !