Cette série de conversations en anglais suit une famille qui part en voyage aux États-Unis. Allez avec elle à la découverte des passe-temps et de l’histoire associés aux lieux qu’elle visite. Ces conversations s’adressent à des personnes ayant un niveau d’anglais intermédiaire, voire plus avancé.
Si vous voulez suivre toute la leçon exclusivement en anglais, cliquez ici.
La famille est maintenant dans la ville de Washington. Elle visite des musées et le zoo.
Cliquez sur le lien audio et écoutez la conversation tout en la lisant ci-dessous. Les mots importants sont expliqués à la fin, en anglais, de façon à favoriser une immersion totale dans la langue. Certains sont suivis d’une brève traduction ou explication en français.
Sam: Now that we’re in Washington, D.C., I must know — what does D.C. mean?
Paul: It stands for District of Columbia. It shows that it is a special area and not a U.S. state.
Gina: And it’s a really special area. It’s home to all three branches of the U.S. government.
Claudine: Plus 16 Smithsonian museums and galleries and the National Zoo. And they’re all free!
Gina: That’s right. Did you choose which museums you want to go to today?
Sam: I want to go to the zoo. They have four giant pandas, including a new cub.
Paul: I read about that. Two of the pandas are on a 10-year loan from China.
Claudine: After we go to the zoo, I’d like to go to the National Museum of the American Indian. It has displays about the history of many indigenous cultures throughout the Americas.
Gina: This sounds like a plan for the day. And both the museum and the zoo are easy to get to via public transport.
Un peu de vocabulaire
The three branches of the U.S. government are the executive (the president), the legislative (Congress) and the judicial (the Supreme Court). (Les trois pouvoirs du gouvernement)
Smithsonian museums are a group of museums managed by the U.S. government. There are 19 Smithsonian museums (plus the National Zoo), and 16 of them are located in Washington, D.C. All of the museums and the zoo are free to enter. (Tous les musées du Smithsonian sont gratuits.)
A gallery (or art gallery) is a room or building in which people look at works of art (paintings, sculptures, etc.) and is usually open to the public.
A cub is a baby bear, in this case a baby panda bear. Cub also means a baby of other animals, such as lions, leopards and wolves. (Le petit, chez certaines espèces animales)
A loan is the permission to use or keep something for a period of time. In this conversation, the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., has permission to keep two pandas for 10 years. (Un prêt)
In a gallery, a display is an arrangement of objects in order to inform people about something.
Indigenous means living naturally in a certain place or region; native.
Culture is the customs, beliefs, art, etc., of a particular group or country.
Via means by means of; by using something.
Public transport (public transportation) is the system of transportation, such as buses or trains, provided by the government for people to use to travel from one place to another. (Les transports en commun)
[table id=102 /]
