Originalklausur Mit Musterlösung

Originalklausur mit Musterlösung

Abitur Englisch

Textaufgabe I: Dollywood Values (newspaper article) Textaufgabe II: A Temporary Matter (Jhumpa Lahiri)

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Für die Fächer Deutsch, Englisch, Mathematik, Geschichte, Biologie, Chemie, Physik sowie Politik und Wirtschaft 14790

ENGLISCH

als Leistungskursfach

-Aufgabenteil

Arbeitszeit: 270 Minuten

Der Prüfling hat ein e Textaufgabe seiner Wahl zu bearbeiten. Abiturprüfung 2008 Leistungskurs 2- Textaufgabe os maximum number of WORKSHEET: Dollywood Values 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.

Describe Dolly Parton's background and her outstanding 20 professional achievements. W hat makes her career a typical example of the American Dream?

2. Show in detail that Dollywood represents typical. conservative 20 American values. Give evidence from the text.

Describe "w hat insiders call 'destination' parks" (I. 26). To w hat 10 extent do they differ from Dollywood?

4. Analyse the writer's attitude towards Dollywood. How do 30 language and tone express his view?

5. Examine Dolly's personality. 15 it reflected in her park? 20

II. Composition 50

Chaase an e af the fallawing tapics. Write abaut 250 ta 300 wards.

1 Can cr shculd pecple be fcrced tc adcpt a healthy lifestyle?

2. Duty or pleasure? Write a speech with this title given by a student representative at an American or British graduation ceremony.

3. W hat are the values that constitute the essence of Western ,.ivili,""tinn? Abiturprüfung 2008 Leistungskurs -3 Textaufgabe I

4. Comment on the cartoon.

Aus urheberrechtlichen Gründen kann der Cartoon von Andy Singer an dieser Stelle nicht veröffentlicht Aus werden.urheberrechtlichen Sie finden ihnGründen unter kann der Cartoon von www.politicalcartoon.com,Andy Singer an dieser Stelle indem nicht Sie veröffentlicht bei der Suche werden.den TitelSie finden „invading ihn unter new markets“ eingeben. Zu sehen www.politicalcartoon.com,sein sollte eine Art „Wimmelbild“ indem Sie mitbei Walt-Disney-der Suche den Figuren,Titel „invading die gerade new inmarkets“ ein Land eingeben. (Küste) Zu sehen seineinmarschieren. sollte eine Art „Wimmelbild“ mit Walt-Disney- Figuren, die gerade in ein Land (Küste) einmarschieren.

Invading new markets

From: www.politicalcartoons.com

PLEASE TURN OVER Abiturprüfung 2008 Leistungskurs 4- T extaufgabe I

III. Translation 50

Translate the following text into German:

During the research for this book, I was often asked what was the point in my wrjting about Englishness when the inexorable spread of American cultural imperialism would soon make this an issue of purely historical interest. The economic influence of American corporate gjants may indeed be overwhelming, and even pernicious, but their cultural impact is perhaps less significant than either they or their enemjes would like to believe. Given increasing evidence of fragmentation of nations into smaller and smaller cultural units, it does not make sense to talk of a world of six billion people becoming a vast monoculture. The spread of globalization is undoubtedly bringing changes to the cultures it reaches, but change does not necessarily mean the abolition of traditional values. Within Britain the fervour and power of Scottish and Welsh nationalists does not seem to be much affected by their taste for American soft drinks, junk food or films. Ethnic minorities in Britain are increasingly keen to maintain their distinctive cultural identities, and the English are becoming ever more fretful about their own cultural 'identity crisis'. In England, regionalism is escalating, and there is considerable resistance to the idea of being part of Europe, let alone part of any global monoculture.

From: Kate Fox, Watching the English: the Hidden Ru/es of Eng/ish Behaviour, 2004

~nn AbiturprüfunQ 2008 Leistungskurs -5- Textaufgabe II

WORKSHEET: Lahiri, "A Temporary Matter" maximum number of points attainable

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.

Sum up w hat happened in September and examine Shukumar's 20 role in these events: does the text imply that he neglected his wife?

2. Analyse the ideas and feelings about future parenthood that the 10 cab ride stirs in Shukumar's mind.

3. Compare Shukumar's and Shoba's attitude towards work before 20 and after the events of last September .

4. How have these events changed their relationship and their daily 20 lives?

5. How does the narrator gradually prepare the reader tor the 10 revelation ot w hat happened in September? Reter to !ines 1-32.

6. Analyse the narrative technique. How does it determine the way 20 the reader sees both the narrator and his wife?

11.Composition 50

Chaase an e at the tallawing tapics. Write abaut 250 ta 300 wards.

1. Treasure your relationships, not your possessions.

2. Family affairs. Choose a work of literature by an English- speaking author and show how this topic is treated.

PLEASE TURN OVER Abiturprüfung 2008 Leistungskurs 6 Textaufgabe II

3. Write up Shoba's entry in her diary six months after the death of her baby. W hat are her secret thoughts and wishes concerning her relationship with Shukumar?

4. 15 thi5 correlation inevitable?

Aus urheberrechtlichen Gründen kann der Cartoon von Noel Ford an dieser Stelle nicht veröffentlicht werden. Sie finden ihn unter www.cartoonstock.com, indem Sie bei der Suche in der Rubrik „keyword“ die Referenznummer „nfo0124“ eingeben. Zu sehen sein sollte ein Mann am Schreibtisch, an der Wand dahinter ein Chart mit zwei gegenläufigen Diagrammen und der Aufschrift „State of Work – State of Marriage“.

Frnm" wwwr:~rtnnn"tnr:k r:nm

~~ Abiturprüfung 2008 Leistungskurs 7- Textaufgabe II

III. Translation 50

The text is an excerpt from an interview with Jhumpa Lahiri after she had been rewarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Translate the following text into German

When I was growing up in Rhode Island in the 1970s I feit neither Indian nor American. Like many immigrant offspring I feit intense pressure to be two things, loyal to the old world and fluent in the new. Looking back, I see this was generally the case. But my perception as a young girl was that I fell short at both ends, shuttling between two dimensions that had nothing to do with one another. When I first started writing I was not conscious that my subject was the Indian-American experience. W hat drew me to my craft was the desire to force the two worlds I occupied to mingle on the page as I was not brave enough, or mature enough, to allow in life. My first book was published in 1999, and since then the term "lndian-American"1 has become part of this country's vocabulary. I've heard it so often that these days, if asked about my background, I use the term myself, pleasantly surprised that I do not have to explain further. W hat a difference from my early life, when there was no such way to describe me, when the most I could do was to clumsily and ineffectually explain.

Frorn: Newsweek, March 6, 2006

Annotation

1 "lndian-American' not to be translated here

200 14790

EN GLISCH

als Leistungskursfach

-Textteil -

Arbeitszeit: 270 Minuten

Der Prüfling hat ein e Textaufgabe seiner Wahl nach den Arbeitsanweisungen des beiliegenden Aufgabenteils zu bearbeiten. Abiturprüfung 2008 Leistungskurs -2 - Textaufgabe

Textaufgabe I

Dollywood Values

No one goes hungry at Dollywood. The cake stands at Dolly Parton's1 theme park in Tennessee seIl slices of apple pie that weigh three pounds each, and that's before you bury them in ice cream. The mixed appetisers at the best restaurant consist of a heap of battered2 and deep-fried cauliflower florets3, a mound of deep-fried cheese sticks and a pile of potatoes slathered in melted cheese. The next course might be a vast platter of southern-fried chicken. On Iy a real man still has room for apple pie after such a feast, but there are plenty of real men at Dollywood. And real women, too. Dolly Parton's father was a semi-Iiterate sharecropper, and she grew up in a one-room shack with ten siblings and no indoor plumbing. Yet by the time 10 she was in her late 205, she was in a position to teIl Elvis Presley to get stuffed. The King wanted to cover one of her songs~"1 Will Always Love You". His agent demanded the usual terms, which included signing over half the rights to the tune itself. Ms Parton said no; a bold snub that made her millions.

15 Her composition was a global smash. Whitney Houston's cover alone sold more than 10m copies. Saddam Hussein used an Arabic version as a campaign song in 2002, though it would be unfair to blame Ms Parton for his

victory , since there was no one else on the ballot. Having made a fortune from music and occasional movies, Ms Parton

20 has ploughed achunk of it back into the land where she grew up, near Pigeon Forge in the Great Smoky Mountains. The central attraction is Dollywood, which lures some 2m visitors a year. That is hardly world-beating -the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World had nearly 17m visitors last year. But

Dollvwood is a dIfferent kind of enterprise. Abiturprüfung 2008 Leistungskurs 3- Textaufgabe I

25 The theme-park industry has two tiers. The really big money is in what jnsjders call "destination" parks. These are so fancy and expensive that people fly thousands of miles to visit them. Asian governments invite Disney and Universal Studios to bujld ever-bigger parks on their terrjtory in the hope that this will spark a tourist boom, whjch it usually does. Because they aim for a

30 global audience, Hollywood theme parks tend to be spectacular but self- consciously inoffensive to all nationalities. To learn about the real America. you have to look at its smaller theme parks -the ones only Americans visit. People do not fly to Dollywood; they drive there in big cars full of squabbling children. East-coast accents, let alone foreign ones. are rare. The

35 park is thus an excellent window on what people in this part of the Amerjcan heartland like. One thing they appear to like a lot is their country. The Liberty gift shop seIls a staggering array of patriotic paraphernalja. You can buy a stars-and-stripes-decorated statuette of the Liberty Bell4 with an eagle perched on it. There are CDs of Ms Parton, also in red, white and blue. singing "God

40 bless the USA". and "My mom is a soldier" photo frames for kids whose mothers are in Iraq. The park even has a sanctuary for bald eagles jnjured in the wild. Another thing visitors to Dollywood feel strongly about is God. The park has a chapel, named after the doctor and part-tjme preacher who delivered

45 baby Dolly for a bag of cornmeal. A bookshop manned by trainee preachers seIls Bibles and Christjan-themed novels. Employees at Dollywood are "not discouraged" from sharing their faith wjth customers, says a guide. And there is no alcohol on sale. Lastly. the folks at Dollywood like to celebrate their own folk culture and

50 music. Parts of the park look like a 19th-century Appalachian town. You can watch real artisans blowing glass, making Iye soap5 and carving chairs the old- fashioned way. Some have developed a country sales banter. "No cameras," says Tom, who makes wooden wagons. "The law in Mississippi.s still looking for me."

PLEASE TURN OVER Abiturprüfung 2008 Leistungskurs .4 Textaufgabe I

55 Indigenous music is everywhere. In one corner is the Smoky Mountain String Band -three guys in blue dungarees with a banjo, fiddle and upright bass. In another is a bluegrass band called Naomi and the Wood Brothers. In Europe, exhibitions of traditional music and crafts tend to be subsidised and unpopular. At Dollywood, they are neither.

60 Sophisticates sneer at Ms Parton's theme park. The Dtiily Express, a British paper owned bya man who also peddles pornography, calls it "tacky". But the values it represents are as American as a three pound slice of apple pie. Dollywood's calorific abundance is quite healthy compared with Hershey Chocolate World in Pennsylvania. Its patriotism seems restrained next to the

65 nearby Patriot Park, with its annual Patriot Festival. Its brand of Christianity is less in-your-face than, say, the Holy Land Experience in Florida. It is tolerant, too. Ms Parton has many gay fans, who hold unotticial get-togethers at her park. Her grandfather was a hellfire preacher, but Ms Parton has an empathy for sinners. As a girl, she thought the town hooker in her make-up and stilertos

70 was the prertiest thing she had ever seen. "She was trash," Ms Parton teIls interviewers, "And I thought: That's w hat I want to be when I grow up." Most important, Dollywood otters a rags-to-riches tale with a simple happy ending. Ms Parton was born among the poorest whites in America. She had talent. She worked hard. She became fabulously rich and famous. The

75 world's first cloned sheep was named after her (it was cloned from a mammary cell). Yet despite all the adulation, she is still married to the man she met outside a laundrerte in Nashville 43 years ago, when she was 18. And her husband is such a down-to-earth fellow that he shuns the limelight entirely. If reporters arrive at the couple's front gate while he is in the garden and want to

80 talk to hirn, he pretends to be the gardener. That may be too corny for Hollywood, but it resonates in the Great Smoky Mountains.

From" The Economist. November 1oth 2007 Abiturprüfung 2008 Leistungskurs 5 - Textaufgabe

Annotations

1 Dolly Parton tamous country music singer also known tor the size ot her bosom

2 battered covered in a mixture of milk, flour and egg

3 florets small flower-Iike parts of a vegetable

4 Liberty Bell American bell of great historic significance; symbol associated with the American Revolutionary War

~ Iv~ ~n;=1n tradition~1 form of so~o Abiturprüfung 2008 Leistungskurs -6 - Textaufgabe II

Textaufgabe II

He ran his tongue over the tops of his teeth; he'd forgotten to brush them that morning. It wasn't the first time. He hadn't left the house at all that day, or the day before. The more Shoba stayed out, the more she began putting in extra hours at work and taking on additional projects, the more he wanted to stay in, not even leaving to get the mail, or to buy fruit or wine at the stores by the trolley stop.

Six months ago, in September, Shukumar was at an academic conferencein Baltimore when Shoba went into labor, three weeks before her due date. He hadn't wanted to go to the conference, but she had insisted; it

10 was important to make contacts, and he would be entering the job market next year. She told hirn that she had his number at the hotel, and a copy of his schedule and ftight numbers, and she had arranged with her friend Gillian for a ride to the hospital in the event of an emergency. When the cab pulled away that morning for the airport, Shoba stood waving good-bye in her robe,

15 with one arm restirlg on the mound of her belly as if it were a perfectly natural part of her body.

Each time he thought of that moment, the last moment he saw Shoba pregnant, it was the cab he remernbered most, a station wagon, painted red with blue lettering. It was cavernous compared to their own car. Although

20 Shukumar was six feet tall, with hands too big ever to rest comfortably in the pockets of his jeans, he feit dwarfed in the back seat. As the cab sped down Beacon Street, he imagined a day when he and Shoba might need to buy a station wagon of their own, to cart their children back and forth from music lessons and dentist appointments. He imagined hirnself gripping the wheel,

25 as Shoba turned around to hand the children juice boxes. Once, these images of parenthood had troubled Shukumar, adding to the anxiety that he Abiturprüfung 2008 Leistungskurs -7 - Textaufgabe II

was still a student at thirty-five. But that early autumn morning, the trees still heavy with bronze leaves, he welcorned the image for the first time.

A mernber of the statt had found hirn sornehow among the identical

30 convention rooms and handed hirn a stift square of stationery. It was on Iy a telephone number, but Shukumar knew it was the hospital. When he returned to Boston it was over. The baby had been born dead. Shoba was Iying on a bed, asleep, in a private roorn so small there was barely enough space to stand beside her, in a wing of the hospital they hadn't been to on the tour for

35 expectant parents. Her placenta had weakened and she'd had a cesarean, though not quickly enough. The doctor explained that these things happen. He smiled in the kindest way it was possible to smile at people known on Iy professionally. Shoba would be back on her feet in a few weeks. There was nothing to indicate that she would not be able to have children in the future.

41! These days Shoba was always gone by the time Shukumar woke up. He would open his eyes and see the long black hairs she shed on her pillow and think of her, dressed, sipping her third cup of cottee already, in her office downtown, where she searched for typographical errors in textbooks and marked them, in a code she had once explained to hirn, with an assortment

45 of colored pencils. She would do the same for his dissertation, she promised, when it was ready. He envied her the specificity of her task, so unlike the elusive nature of his. He was a mediocre student who had a facility for absorbing details without curiosity. Until September he had been diligent j f not dedicated, summarizing chapters, outlining arguments on pads of yellow

50 lined paper. But now he would lie in their bed until he grew bored, gazing at his side of the closet which Shoba always left part Iy open, at the row of the tweed jackets and corduroy trousers he would not have to choose frorn to teach his classes that semester. After the baby died it was too late to withdraw frorn his teaching duties. But his adviser had arranged things so

55 that he had the spring semester to hirnself. Shukumar was in his sixth year of

PI I=A~I= TIIRN n\/I=R Abiturprüfung 2008 Leistungskurs -8 Textaufgabe II

graduate school. "That and the summer should give you a good push," his adviser had said. "You should be able to wrap things up by next September."

But nothing was pushing Shukumar. Instead he thought of how he and Shoba had become ext>erts at avoiding each other in their three-bedroorn

60 house, spending as much time on separate floors as possible. He thought of how he no longer looked forward to weekends, when she sat for hours on the sofa with her colored pencils and her files, so that he feared that putting on a record in his own house might be rude. He thought of how long it had been since she looked into his eyes and smiled, or whispered his name on those

65 rare occasions they still reached for each other's bodies befor~ sleeping. In the beginning he had believed that it would pass, that he and Shoba would get through it all sornehow. She was on Iy thirty-three. She was strong, on her feet again. But it wasn't a consolation. It was offen nearly lunchtime when Shukumar would finally pull hirnself out of bed and head downstairs to 70 the coffeepot, pouring out the extra bit Shoba leff for hirn, along with an ern pt y mug, on the countertop.

From: Jhumpa Lahiri, "A Temporary Matter", in: The Interpreter of Maladies. 2000

Musterlösungen für die Prüfungsaufgaben Abitur

Prüfungsfach: Englisch (Bayern 2008) Autor: Ulrich Bauer

Textaufgabe I

I. Questions on the text

1. Dolly Parton was born into a poor white family, her father being a semi-literate sharecropper. She had 9 brothers and sisters and grew up in a one-room shack without indoor plumbing. Her career is a typical example of the American Dream because it represents a successful rags-to-riches tale. Because of her talent and her determination, she became of of the world's most successful singers. She sold a lot of records, but also made lots of money when other artists covered her songs. Her song “I Will Always Love You” was covered by Whitney Houston and sold over 10 million copies, generating a huge revenue for Dolly Parton. That same song – in an Arabic version – was also used by Saddam Hussein as a campaign song in 2002.

2. Dollywood presents the following typical, conservative American values: Plenty of „American“ food to eat (apple pie and ice cream l.2/3) Patriotism (Liberty gift shop ll.36ff.; patriotic CDs l.40) Religion (chapel l. 44; religious bookshop l.45) Folk culture and music (artisans l.51)

3. “Destination” parks like Disneyland are fancy and expensive. They attract millions of visitors from all over the world every year. Since they aim for a global audience, they are rather spectacular, but also inoffensive, trying to appeal to all nationalities. Dollywood is different in this respect. It concentrates on “American” values and attracts American visitors, mainly form the American heartland.

4. The author seems to be rather fond of Dollywood and Dolly Parton. This clearly shows in his language and tone: „No one goes hungry at Dollywood“ (l.1) sets the tone. It's like describing a hospitable family. It's ordinary Americans that visit Dollywood (they drive there in big cars full of squabbling children“ l. 33/34). Although the author could be critical of the fact that patriotism and religion play an important role in Dollywood, he describes these things in a rather neutral way

© Dudenverlag, Bibliographisches Institut & F. A. Brockhaus AG, Mannheim, 2008 1 He defends the theme park against „sophisticates“ who sneer at Dollywood. He calls its patriotism „restrained“ (64) and its Christianity „tolerant“ (l.66). He also points out that Ms. Parton has many gay fans.

5. Dolly Parton seems to be a down-to-earth character, still grounded in the values she grew up with. When she was a young girl, she thought that the town's only prositute in her make up and high-heels was the prettiest thing she had ever seen. She, of course, later realized that the hooker was trash, but Ms. Parton still told interviewers that at the time that's exactly what she wanted to be. This connection to her roots is reflected in her theme park, which is also very down-to-earth, offfering ordinary Americans the sort of attractions they want and expect.

II. Composition

1. Students may use the following arguments:

People should be forced to adopt a healthy lifestyle: Unhealty lifestyles (food, alcohol, drugs, no sports) put a heavy financial burden on health systems and therefore on everybody. An unhealthy lifestyle can also seriously reduce somebody’s quality of life, i.e because of gross obesity or a risk of a heart attack. If people live healthier, their life expectancy will be increased.

People should not be forced to adopt a healthy lifestyle: In a free society, people should be able to make individual choices. Forcing a particular lifestyle on somebody is contrary to the ideas of a free society.

Society can, however, put a certain pressure on people to adopt a healthier lifestyle. This can be done through information in the media and/or through financial incentives. People could for example pay lower health insurance if they give up smoking and alcohol or take up sports. If social attitudes towards certain lifestyles change, this could also influence many people.

2. Dear fellow students, dear members of staff, dear parents, We have assembled here to mark our graduation day. School is behind us and we are looking forward to the ‘real’ life, not really knowing what it will hold for us or what we are expected to contribute to it. Will it hold mostly pleasure for us or are we expected to do our duty, implying, of course, that duty is not always pleasurable. Or should we attempt to bring duty and pleasure together? Perhaps there is no antagonism between pleasure and duty. What do we take pleasure in? Although this is certainly up to the individual, there probably are a number of things we all find pleasurable. Having good friends and caring for them might be one of them. A pleasant holiday, a good night at the movies or falling in love with somebody are others. And what will our duties be? Finding a job to make a living, perhaps marrying and bringing up children or taking part in the democratic process. I said duties, but aren’t these duties also sources of pleasure? If you do find a good job and really like it, it will – at least mostly – be a pleasure, despite the pressure a job puts on you. If you decide to have a family and bring up children, this cannot be fun all the time, as we all know already. But think of the pleasure a child can bring to your life. All of us must remember those – admittedly rare – occasions when we made our parents happy. And can’t we even draw pleasure from such a mundane thing like voting, knowing we have contributed a small thing to the democratic process of our country?

© Dudenverlag, Bibliographisches Institut & F. A. Brockhaus AG, Mannheim, 2008 2 I belive that duty and pleasure can, at least occasionally, come together. That, of course, doesn’t mean that I don’t want you to have great fun today. Going wild on graduation day is not a duty, it’s pure pleasure. Here we go ...

3. The values that constitute the essence of Western civilisation are mostly based on the political concepts and ideas of the 17th and 18th century. The Age of Enlightenment did away with the medieval belief in authorities and religion and replaced it with reason. Kant’s dictum “Sapere aude” (Learn how to use your own mind) can be considered to be the motto of the Age of Reason. The following ideas can be considered to be the most important values of Western civilisation: Human rights. Everybody has universal, ‘undeniable’ rights, regardless of his/her birth, race or gender. These are – among others – the right to life, freedom, property, self-determination, equal chances and freedom of speech. It is up to the state to protect these rights. Individual freedom. This implies the right to choose freely between alternatives. Religious freedom. Every human being should be free to choose what he/she believes in and should be allowed to practice his/her religion. The rule of law. The law is for everybody. Nobody should stand above the law. Democracy. In a well-known definition of Abraham Lincoln democracy is „the government of the people, by the people, for the people“. This definition includes the most important aspects of modern democracy. The people should take part in the decision-making process, should elect those that govern them, and those that govern should make their decisions in the interests of the people. Equality. This is mostly understood as equality before the law. Some have an extended understanding of equality, including social equality.

4. The cartoon shows the invasion of a country by a military force. Armed troops are landing on a beach; the natives are fleeing in horror. The cartoonist makes it quite clear that this is an American invasion: The soldiers are all Disney characters, Micky Mouse and Donald Duck among them, and what they bring with them are very American things, i.e. Coke, Microsoft, Shell, Texaco and McDonald’s. The topic of the cartoon is a globalised world where invasions are not what they used to be. Countries are no longer invaded by the military with battle ships, planes and guns. The guns do no longer shoot deadly shells, but rather coke bottles; the planes no longer drop bombs but rather television sets. And the soldiers do not erect the American flag like in Iwo Jima, but rather the Microsoft Windows logo. This is how new markets are won in a gobalised economy. The cartoonist takes a critical view of this by using the well known method of exaggeration, best seen in the cartoon by the use of the Disney characters. He wants the reader to realise that, although ‘real’ wars are becoming outdated in the fight for domination in a golbalised world, there still are ‘invasions’ happening, only using different means. Just like the U.S. used to ensure its domination by using military force, it continues this policy today through economic means.

III. Translation

Während der Recherchen für dieses Buch wurde ich oft gefragt, warum ich über das Englischsein schreibe, wenn die unerbittliche Ausbreitung des amerikanischen Kulturimperialismus dies bald zu einem Thema machen würde, das lediglich von historischem Interesse ist. Es mag sein, dass der wirtschaftliche Einfluss amerikanischer Großkonzerne tatsächlich überwältigend, vielleicht sogar schädlich ist, aber ihr kultureller Einfluss ist vielleicht weniger bedeutend, als sie selber oder ihre Feinde glauben mögen. Angesichts zunehmender Belege

© Dudenverlag, Bibliographisches Institut & F. A. Brockhaus AG, Mannheim, 2008 3 für die Zersplitterung von Nationen in immer kleinere kulturelle Einheiten macht es keinen Sinn, davon auszugehen, dass aus einer Welt mit 6 Milliarden Menschen eine einzige, riesige Monokultur wird. Die Ausbreitung der Globalisierung bringt zweifellos Veränderungen für die Kulturen mit sich, die sie erreicht, aber Veränderung bedeutet nicht zwangsläufig die Abschaffung traditioneller Werte. In Großbritannien scheinen die Leidenschaft und die Kraft der schottischen und walisischen Nationalisten nur wenig durch ihre Lust auf amerikanische Limonaden, Junkfood oder Filme eingeschränkt zu werden. Ethnische Minderheiten in Großbritannien wollen ihre besonderen kulturellen Identitäten behalten, und die Engländer werden immer reizbarer im Hinblick auf ihre eigene kulturelle 'Identitätskrise'. In England nimmt der Regionalismus zu und es gibt beträchtlichen Widerstand gegen die Vorstellung, ein Teil Europas, ganz zu schweigen davon ein Teil irgendeiner globalen Monokultur zu sein.

Textaufgabe II

I. Questions on the text

1. Shoba is pregnant at the time and only a few weeks away from giving birth. Shukumar is due to attend an academic conference out of town. He doesn’t want to go, but Shoba wants him to go. She tells him that it is important to meet the people at the conference; making the right contacts might help him find a job. She also tells him not to worry about the birth; she has made all sorts of preparations and would contact him in the event of an emergency. When Shumumar is at the conference Shioba goes into labour three weeks before she is due. There is nothing in the text which implies that he neglected his wife.

2. When Shukumar sits in the cab that takes him to the airport, he is surprised how big it is. This triggers off a number of feelings and ideas in Shukumar. He imagines how it would be if one day he and Shoba would have a similarsized car to accomadate themselves and their children. He thinks of car rides to take the children back and forth from music lessons and dentist appointments. He sees himself at the wheel and Shoba attending the children. These feelings show that Shukumar wants children and has rather conventional ideas of parenthood.

3. Before the events of September, both Shoba and Shukumar are working quite hard. He is a student in graduate school, she works as a publisher’s reader. She probably takes her work more seriously than he does; he is described as a “diligent, if not dedicated” (l.48/49) student. It seems that they are quite happy together. The events of September change all this. While Shoba recovers and goes back to work, working harder than before, Shukumar stays in bed for long hours in the morning, not doing much more during the rest of the day.

4. Their personal relationship suffers. They avoid each other in the house, there isn’t much they do together, not even during the weekends they used to look forward to before the September events. They lead more or less separate lives.

5. The narrator prepares the reader right in the first paragraph, though without giving the story away. In the first paragraph, the readers only learn that something is wrong. In the following paragraphs, there are more hints: “He hadn’t wanted to go to the conference, but she had

© Dudenverlag, Bibliographisches Institut & F. A. Brockhaus AG, Mannheim, 2008 4 insisted” (l.9). Shakumars thoughts in the cab are part of the preparation, as well. When the reader finally learns that the baby has been born dead, he is suprised, but not too much so.

6. The story is told mostly from Shakumar’s perspective. We learn more about his feelings and ideas. Even the description we get of Shoba is seen through Shakumar’s eyes. So it is not surprising that the reader feels more empathy with him. In a way, the reader suffers with Shakumar, while Shoba remains a rather detached character. This is reflected by the fact that we do not really learn much about Shoba, except that she works hard and likes her work. (ll. 43-47).

II. Composition

1. „Treasure your relationships, not your possessions“ is a good, but difficult motto in a society that treasures possessions so much. Why should one treasure relationships more than possessions? Relationships are about people, possessions about things. While it’s certainly nice to own attractive or valuable things like computers, cars or real estate, these things often tend to lose their attraction after a while. Admittedly, relationships can also become less attractive over the years, but relationships can also develop and become more attractive. There is so much more satisfying interaction in a relationship with a person than with an object. If somebody is unhappy or in emotional trouble, things don’t usually help much; it is much better if people can turn to their friends or family for help. The same is true if somebody feels lonely. If you are lonely, your money won’t buy you companionship; you need friends or family you can turn to. Treasuring your relationships more than your possessions requires a lot of effort, however. It is all too easy to neglect your friends and, by neglecting them, lose them. While it is sufficient to have a car serviced once a year to kept it in good shape, this is not so easy with relationships. They need more care and attention if they are expected to work over a long time. So it is best to treasure your relationships by devoting a considerable amount of your time to making them work well.

2. Family affairs play an important role in Paul Auster’s Moon Palace. Marco, the main protagonist, is in search of his family and his identity. Marco never knew his father and loses his mother through an accident when he is still a boy. He grows up at his mother’s brother’s, Uncle Victor, who dies when Marco is a teenager. So Marco, whose family has never been complete, is now in a situation where he has no family at all. After a difficult time in New York – he takes to living in Central Park, where he nearly dies – he starts a job with Effing, an eccentric old man. It is Marco’s job to write down the story of Effing’s life. After Effing’s death, Marco goes west to experience some of the places that were important in Effing’s past. He meets Solomon, Effing’s son, and learns that Solomon is his father and Effing his grandfather. Standing at his mother’s grave with Solomon, he realises that Solomon is his father; ironically, he loses his father almost the moment he realises who he is, because Solomon falls into an open grave and dies later on. Having found his family roots and part of his identity, Marco is, again, without a family. In Moon Palace, Auster concentrates on Marco’s search for his identitiy. This identity can only become complete through Marco finding out about his family roots and his father.

3. It’s six months to the day since I lost my baby. I have a feeling that I have not only lost a child but also my life. It’s so different with Shukumar and me these days. We have never really found a common ground again since last September. Now it’s only work for me. I go to the office in the morning and work hard till it’s time to go home. I even take my work home over

© Dudenverlag, Bibliographisches Institut & F. A. Brockhaus AG, Mannheim, 2008 5 the weekends, just to make sure no other thoughts enter my head. I look at Shakumar in the morning while he is still asleep, and I realize that something is terribly wrong. I know he probably won’t get up before noon and won’t do much for the rest of the day. He is not even looking forward to seeing me in the evening, and neither am I looking forward to seeing him. Shukumar must feel terribly guilty because he went to that conference, he must think that it is his fault I lost the baby. But it was me who sent him away in the first place. I don’t know how to get through to him. I want to tell him it’s not his fault. But I concentrate on my work instead. I want to make a new start, but I don’t know how. I want to make love to him, but mostly I can’t. If this goes on for much longer we will lose each other. I simply don’t know what to do ...

4. It’s hard to tell whether there really is a correlation between the state of work and the state of marriage. What the cartoon suggests is that marriages suffer if one or both of the partners are successful in their jobs. The cartoon might also suggest that there are fewer marriages these days because more people – especially women – decide for their careers and against marriage. The cartoonist certainly is in touch with social reality here. His thesis might be a bit exaggerated, but this is a cartoon, after all. If we look at the statistics of divorce – and that is certainly one important factor in the state of marriage – there is no denying that marriage is in a fairly bad shape overall. In many countries, roughly half of all marriages end in divorce. There is also no denying that the fact that both partners have a job in many marriages these days has something to do with it. The degree to which this is true remains open, however. One can assume that many marriages suffer or end because women get fed up with their double role of both following a career and being a mother, especially if there is an unsupporting husband. One can also assume that more men and women decide against marriage and a family these days and concentrate on their careers instead. But then there are also many couples who manage to bring career and family together successfully. It certainly helps if they have a high income and can afford to have their children looked after. Those with lower incomes must rely on provision by the state or by society.

III. Translation

Als ich in den 70ern in Rhode Island aufwuchs, habe ich mich weder als Inderin noch als Amerikanerin gefühlt. Wie so viele Nachkommen von Einwanderern sah ich mich einem starken Druck ausgesetzt, zwei Dinge gleichzeitig zu sein: loyal der alten Welt gegenüber und geläufig im Umgang mit der neuen. Zurückblickend denke ich, dass dies im Allgemeinen der Fall war. Aber meine Wahrnehmung als junges Mädchen war die, dass ich beides nicht schaffte und mich zwischen zwei Dimensionen hin und her bewegte, die nichts miteinander zu tun hatten. Als ich mit dem Schreiben anfing, war mir nicht bewusst, dass mein Thema die indisch- amerikanische Erfahrung war. Was mich zu meinem Handwerk hinzog, war der Wunsch, die beiden Welten, in denen ich mich bewegte, gewaltsam auf einem Blatt Papier zusammenzubringen. Ich war nicht mutig oder nicht reif genug, dies im wirklichen Leben zu packen. Mein erstes Buch erschien 1999, und seit damals gehört der Ausdruck „Indian- American“ zum Vokabular dieses Landes. Ich habe ihn so oft gehört, dass ich ihn – wenn ich heute zu meinem Hintergrund befragt werde – selber verwende und mich darüber freue, dass weitere Erklärungen überflüssig sind. Das ist schon ein großer Unterschied zu meinen jüngeren Jahren, als es diese Art und Weise, mich zu beschreiben, noch nicht gab, als das Beste, was ich tun konnte, darin bestand, alles umständlich und fruchtlos zu erklären.

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