ABITURPRÜFUNG 1997 Arbeitszeit: 180 Minuten
ENGLISCH
als Grundkursfach
Textaufgabe I
THE WEST AT WAR
Each summer, in every culture with a cow, a man and a mountain,
the same thing happens: the man drives the cow up the mountain to
fresh pasture. Rod Lucas, 76, who ranches outside Jackson Hole,
Wyoming, has been doing it for decades - taking his cattle from
5 the valley to alpine meadows. No more. He tried, for the last
time, a year ago. But before Lucas was half a mile down the road,
there was a line of cars in both directions, and their drivers
were screaming at him and his herd to get out of the way. "That
was it," says Lucas. "The cow business as everybody knew it is
10 gone. I need to get out of this tourist country."
Cows against cars: one of many skimishes unfolding across the
mountain West. Clashes that pit survivalists1 against the
government are dramatic, political and well-known. Other economic
and cultural conflicts are less sensationel but equally important
15 in this, Americaīs fastest-growing region. Ranchers lose grazing
land to California software writers buying up real estate; small
towns with shared values are swamped by chic new settlers. The
West is at war with itself.
And so an old song continues. Despite the myths, the West has
20 never been a peaceful idyll.Indians against settlers; sheep against
cows; union men against the company - there has never been a
single conception of what "the West" means.
Yet history doesnīt make the current conflicts any less
disturbing. For established Westerners, everything is fundamen-
25 tally changing - and fast, as thousands of newcomers consume the
available property. The Westīs traditional industries - mining,
ranching and logging2 - are clear losers in the new order. That
old economy, based on "extracting" wealth from rocks, grass and
trees, is dying, pushed aside by market forces (itīs a lot cheaper
30 to raise cows on feedlots3 in Florida than on poor pasture in
Wyoming), replaced by highly skilled workers in high-tech com-
panies. Currently, the region's most rapidly expanding employers
are museums, amusement parks and fitness clubs. The steepest
declines are in the traditionel extractive jobs. So cowpats and
35 coal mining are out; cappucino and cilantro4 are in.
The old West wonīt go quietly. Its stalwarts will fight, and
fairly or not, one of their main targets is the federal govern-
ment, blamed for regulating the old extractive industries to
death. Throughout the West, federal rangers have been threatened;
40 in some towns, militiamen5 openly swagger, guns in holsters.
Why canīt traditional Westerners live and let live? Largely
because of an unprecedented population increase over the last 10
years. At first glance, this shouldnīt matter. Between the Mexican
and Canadian borders, and between the Front Range of the Rockies
45 to the east and the Cascades and Sierra Nevada to the west, live
fewer than 20 million people. In Western Europe - about the same
size - there are more than 300 million. Surely, thereīs room
enough for everyone who wants to live there.
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Perhaps not, for in the West, "space" isnīt quite what it
50 seems. Yes, there are vast empty reaches. But almost all of the
mountain West is arid; much of it as steep as it is waterless; and
in some states two thirds or more of the land is owned by the
federal government. So the land actually available for private
development is very limited. That has made the West an "oasis"
55 civilization, with its people clustered mainly in towns and
cities.
Take St. George, Utah (population: 35,000, for now), where, one
morning this spring, Jeff Knowles was busy running cable-TV
hookups6 into new houses in a development called The Legacy. About
60 40 such subdivisions7 are being built in St. George. "You drive by
one day, and a hillside is wide, open pasture land," says Knowles.
"Next time you go by, itīs all cleared off8, and they've got
housing lots laid out." That means plenty of work for cable-TV
installers - but signals a profound change in the town. "Whatever
65 was unique about St. George," says 20-year resident Bob Owens, "is
being lost." Or, as it says on a bumper sticker9 in Silver City
(where one planned development would double the size of the town):
WELCOME TO SILVER CITY. NOW PLEASE GO HOME.
From: Newsweek, 31 July 1995
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Annotations:
1 survivalists: here: people fiercely defending their traditional
way of life
2 logging: cutting down trees for timber
3 feedlot: land on which cattle are fattened for the market
4 cilantro: a strong-tasting plant used in Mexican cooking
5 militiamen: men who are hostile to the government and who have
formed a private army
6 hookup: link between pieces of electronic equipment
7 subdivision (AmE): housing estate (BE)
8 cleared off: here: freed from trees and bushes
9 bumper sticker: a label stuck on the back bumper of a car,
usually containing a message or a slogan
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ENGLISCH als GRUNDKURSFACH - Textaufgabe I
WORKSHEET: The West at war
maximum number of
points attainable
I. Questions on the text
Read all the questions first, then answer them
in the given order.
Use your own words as far as is appropriate.
1. Describe Rod Lucas's experience. What conclusion
does he draw from it? 10
2. What conflicts, past and present, have left their
mark on the mountain West? (Refer to 11. 11-22.) 20
3. Describe the changes the West's economy has
undergone in the past few years. 10
4. In what ways do Westeners react to these changes? 10
5. Explain in detail how the present demographic
crisis in the mountain West has come about. 10
6. What means does the writer use to make his
text interesting and convincing? 10
II. Composition 40
Choose o n e of the following topics.
Write about 120 to 150 words.
1. Economy and ecology: can they be reconciled?
2. In the past, the American West was another name
for unlimited opportunity. Where do you see
opportunities for young people today?
III. Translation 40
Translate the following text into German:
_____
160
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One of the great themes of American history emerges from the
story of Americans confronting a huge wild country. Quite unlike
the Old World, where people had occupied the land for as long as
history could recall, Americans' encounter with their land was
abrupt and often violent, consuming much of the nations's
energies. It has been said that America is a nation with an
abundance of geography but a shortage of history, and there is
some truth in both statements. It took less than four hundred
years to subdue more than three million square miles of terri-
tory; in fact, Americans occupied the bulk of their national
domain within the last century and a half. Even today much of the
United States remains only semi-populated and semi-tamed. It is
no wonder that the struggle to conquer America's wilderness looms
so large in the nation's memory.
From: Peirce Lewis, "America's Natural Landscapes", in
Luther S. Luedtke (ed.), Making America, 1992
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