ENGLISH TEST DATE:

NAME: CLASS: MARK: /20

COMMENTS:

READING COMPREHENSION
(Document 1)

 Choose and write down the right answer (s).

This document is : an extract from a novel  a newspaper article  an extract from a diary 

This document deals with : - Gun ownership 

- Gun violence awareness 
- Gun crime statistics 
- Gun shootings in the USA 

 Pick out information about :

Mr. Allen ( his age / his job / where he lives / what happened to him )
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Veronica Moser Sullivan ( her age / what happened to her )
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Mr Allen’s years at school ( where he went to school / what he had in hs school bag / what for / how he got it )
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What happened later in his school
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 RIGHT or WRONG ? Justify your answer by quoting from the text .

a- His gun had been bought legally. RIGHT  WRONG 

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b- Not many students carried guns when he was in High School . RIGHT  WRONG 
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c- He used to carry a gun to protect himself from his bullies. RIGHT  WRONG 
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d- Mr Allen is still a gun supporter . RIGHT  WRONG 

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 Explain why Mr Allen says , “ My mother saved my life “ (l.10) (20 words)

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 Judging by what Mr allen says in the next sentence “ Mr.Allen said he remained plagued by guilt “(l.13),
briefly explain how he felt at the time.
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 Describe his evolution about guns and explain the title of the text . (30 words )

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(Document 2)

 Give the following information : type of document , source.

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 Tick the correct answer(s)  . The main issues raised are :

Violence and gun-bearing in America.  Gang-related crime .  Mass shootings in America . 

The need for gun control and gun laws in the USA. 

 Complete the table with some of the elements related to the 2 mass shootings mentioned in the
document. Put a X in the box if the information is not given.

Mass Year Time Place About the Number of Information about Gunman’s
shooting victims victims the gunman equipment

N°1

N°2
 RIGHT or WRONG ? Answer the question and justify by quoting the text.

a- A massacre happened at a movie theater in the USA. RIGHT  WRONG 

………………………………………………………………………………..…………………

b- The killer was an uneducated man who lived locally. RIGHT  WRONG 
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c- The killer dressed up as The Penguin – a character from Batman. RIGHT  WRONG 
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d- The Paris premiere of the new Batman movie was cancelled. RIGHT  WRONG 
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e- It was declared a national tragedy. RIGHT  WRONG 

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f- The guns used in the killing were bought illegally. RIGHT  WRONG 
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g- This latest massacre happened near the scene of a 1999 gun massacre . RIGHT  WRONG 
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h- There are around 192 million gun-related deaths in the USA. RIGHT  WRONG 
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(Document 1 and Document 2)

 What topic is common to the two documents?

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 To what extent do both documents illustrate the bloody consequences of gun-bearing ? (50 words)
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(Document 1)
" I could have saved lives! "

Several years ago, Mr. Allen, 46, an emergency room technician, was held up at gunpoint in Brooklyn
in the middle of the day by three teenagers. (...)
But it took seeing a portrait of Veronica Moser-Sullivan,6, the youngest victim of the movie-theater shooting in Aurora, CO, (...)
eating an ice-cream cone with a child's joyful abandon to galvanize him into action.
He showed the little girl's picture, which he carried with him.(...)
Mr. Allen admitted that he had not always been against guns. For years, Mr. Allen said, he carried a gun every day. To high school.
The gun, which he had bought on the street for $150, went to class, along with his pencils and notebooks, at Thomas Jefferson
High School in Brooklyn - his bully deterrent, he said. He was hardly the only one who had a firearm, he said. Those were the days
before metal detectors at high school doors, he added, and he carried the weapon until his mother found it in his sock drawer. She
gave him the dressing down of a lifetime, he said. The gun was gone ."My mother saved my life." In 1992, after Mr. Allen
graduated, a 15-year-old, Khalil Sumpter , fatally shot Tyrone Sinkler , 16, and Ian Moore, 17, in the second-floor hallway of his
high school. (...)
Mr. Allen said he remained plagued by guilt that he never told the authorities about what some of his peers had carried in their
knapsacks. "I felt I could have saved those lives, if they had known we all had guns at school," he said.
Sarah Maslin Nir, The New York Times, January 21st, 2013

(Document 2)

12 killed in Batman shooting in U.S. – 21st July, 2012

From http://www.BreakingNewsEnglish.com/1207/120721-gun_control.html

A gunman killed 12 people and wounded 59 at a Colorado cinema early Friday morning. Police
apprehended the killer and identified him as James Eagan Holmes, 24, a former neuroscience
PhD student. He armed himself with an assault rifle, a shotgun and a pistol and fired at random
at moviegoers attending the midnight premiere of the new Batman movie "The Dark Knight
Rises”. Holmes had dyed his hair red, just like Batman’s nemesis the Joker, and wore full body
armour and a gas mask. Many initially thought he was part of a stunt for the movie screening.
Cinemas in New York got police protection after the shooting to prevent copycat
killings. The premiere in Paris was immediately cancelled. U.S. President Barack Obama has led
the mourning after the massacre, ordering flags to be lowered to half-mast. He said: "There are
going to be other days for politics. This, I think, is a day for prayer and reflection."
The shooting has once again reignited the debate on gun control in America. All the weapons
used in the killings were bought legally in a local gun store. The shooting brings back memories
of the 1999 Columbine High School murders, just 25km from the cinema, in which 13 people
lost their lives. Tragedies like this are becoming all too common but do little to get tighter gun
controls enforced. Gun ownership is a right in the USA. There are an estimated 192 million
firearms in the country.