American Suburbs

Thèmes abordés

Etats-unis, urbanisation, urban planning, banlieues, suburbs, american society

Résumé du document

3 exercices d'anglais corrigés sur le thème de l'apparition et du développement des banlieues aux États-Unis durant le XXe siècle.

Extraits

[...] Edge city 3. Gentrified enclave 4. Central business district 5. Theme park Exercice 3 1. Fill the blanks Throughout the 20th century, for many Americans, suburbia was the dream, the American dream of homeownership, your own little utopia, with all it entails. And guess what, the wonderful home comes with appreciation and equity. This is Dorothy Brown, a professor at Emery University School of Law. And she says suburbs didn't start out with a reputation of blandness and emptiness, quite the opposite. [...]

[...] What amenities can you find in a Levittown house? You could find a completely equipped kitchen, a fireplace, a washing machine, a built-in TV and heated floors. 5. What made the purchase of a house easy for a White family after WW2? The US government wanted to build a nation of homeowners, so the Federal Housing Administration created a new mortgage product: a long-term, low-interest mortgage. 6. Why was it more difficult, if not impossible, for a Black family to purchase a house? [...]

[...] The suburbs where I grew up were pretty white. So, this benign language of encouraging homeownership as the American thing to do is really code for "It's what we want white people to do." At the centre of the American dream is some very American institutionalized racism, and this is when the vision of suburbs went off the rails. And it makes you wonder if it's possible to forge a new path on the same old tracks. 2. How many Levittowns were created and where? [...]

[...] American Suburbs Exercice 1 1. What factors explain the growth of suburbs before WW2 in the USA? First, the development of automobiles and highways encouraged commuting, so cities could grow outward. The automobile became an actual lifestyle for people living in the suburbs. Besides, several socioeconomic factors such as an increase of incomes and leisure time for blue collar workers, cheaper cars and governmental financial help made suburbs accessible to working-class families. 2. How does the author qualify the growth of cities in the 20th century? [...]