It’s a quintessentially American sight: freshly-hewn grass, blue skies, vibrant flowers, a white picket fence. In a short documentary from RadioWest, we explain how lawns are endemic to America—and emblematic of the country’s hypocrisies.
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Watch
Link to this The Atlantic news story about culture: The American Front Lawn Is Absurd.
Glossary
- proclivity – a tendency to choose or do something regularly; an inclination or predisposition towards a particular thing
- lawn – an area of short, regularly mown grass in the garden of a house or park
- conceit – a fanciful notion
- irrigated – (land or crops) supplied with water to help growth, typically by means of channels
- crop – a cultivated plant that is grown on a large scale commercially, especially a cereal, fruit, or vegetable
- peculiar – different to what is normal or expected; strange
- to take sth for granted – to not show that you are grateful for someone or something, and forget that you are lucky to have them
- expanse – a wide continuous area of something
Watch and listen
Answer the questions below.
- What does grassland remind us of and why? (00:10)
- Who does the front yard belong to? (00:45)
- What is the link between lawn care and your entire neighbourhood? (01:15)
- How much bigger is the US combined lawn surface area than that of corn crops? (01:30)
- Why don’t Americans spend time on their front lawns? (01:45)
Practice Makes Perfect
Fill in the blanks with the correct word. Go to: RADIO WEST to find out more.
TREATMENTS SCARCE RAISES MOWS GRASS LAWN CROP
In the opening scene of David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, a man 1)______ his front lawn.
And yet, Pollan explains, despite the fact that lawns are the largest irrigated 2)______ in the country, Americans tend to avoid spending time on them.
“Pollan 3)______ this question in the film about what our relationship with our front 4)______ says about our relationship with our neighbors,”
But as water becomes more 5)______ and chemical 6)______ more toxic, an anti-lawn movement has sprouted.
Some are questioning whether we should keep our finely-manicured 7)______ or plant gardens instead.
Answers:
1. mows 2. crop 3. raises 4. lawn 5. scarce 6. treatments 7. grass
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