L1TD07 - A Virtual Girlfriend
Transcription
L1TD07 - A Virtual Girlfriend
LICENCE 1 | ANGLAIS TD07 Niveau : intermédiaire OBJECTIFS > COMPREHENSION GENERALE ET DETAILLEE D’UN ARTICLE DE PRESSE EN ANGLAIS > LEXIQUE : TRADUCTION, VERBES A PARTICULES (PHRASAL VERBS) > SYNTAXE : LES TYPES DE PROPOSITIONS (COMPLETIVES, RELATIVES, CIRCONSTANCIELLES), DO EMPHATIQUE, QUESTIONS INDIRECTES, MOTS DE LIAISON, PROPOSITIONS CONDITIONNELLES (TEMPS) 1. Overall comprehension: read the passage and tick the right answer(s) Sad and Lonely: Download a Virtual Girlfriend By KEITH BRADSHER - NYT 5 HONG KONG, Feb. 18 - Men, are you tired of the time, trouble and expense of having a girlfriend? Irritated by the difficulty of finding a new one? Eberhard Schöneburg, the chief executive of the software maker Artificial Life Inc. of Hong Kong, may have found the answer: a virtual girlfriend named Vivienne who goes wherever you go. Vivienne likes to be taken to movies and bars. 40 At an Internet game parlor here, packed with 45 young men busily shooting or chopping apart a wide variety of villains and monsters, there was no clear consensus on whether people would pay to exchange valentines with Vivienne. 10 She loves to be given virtual flowers and 15 chocolates, and she can translate six languages if you travel overseas. She never undresses, although she has some skimpy outfits for the gym, and is a tease who draws the line at anything beyond blowing kisses. 20 If you marry her in a virtual ceremony, you even end up with a virtual mother-in-law who really does call you in the middle of the night on your cellphone to ask where you are and whether you have been treating her daughter right. 25 She may sound like a mixed blessing, decidedly high maintenance and perhaps the last resort of losers. But she is nonetheless a concept that cellphone system operators and handset manufacturers are starting to embrace. 30 35 Vivienne, the product of computerized voice synthesis, streaming video and text messages, is meant not only to bring business to Artificial Life (she will be available for a monthly fee of $6, not including the airtime costs paid to cellphone operators or the price of virtual chocolates and flowers). But she is also meant to be a lure for the new, higher-tech, third generation, or 3G, cellphones. clothing, hair style and other features of doll-like images of people. Vivienne - and similar games that are likely to follow from other companies - is distinctive in that she is a figurine who appears to be three-dimensional and moves through 18 different settings like a restaurant, shopping mall and airport. "It's a little bit for the losers," said Rick Wong, 50 a 32-year-old off-duty security guard, who nonetheless added that, "even people who have girlfriends, well, girlfriends are not perfect, so they may play anyway." Vivienne's largest database is for processing 55 those difficult conversations about romance and intimacy. "People will see that they can't have sex with her, but they'll try to," and Vivienne has many ways to hold them off, Mr. Schöneburg said. 60 65 70 Cellphone games are already available in Korea and Japan that allow users to change the 1 Vivienne is fairly prudish, partly because Artificial Life is hoping the market will include teenagers from affluent families. She is now scheduled to become available, so to speak, in Singapore and Malaysia by the end of April, in Western Europe by late spring and possibly in a few American cities by the end of the year. Artificial Life is not suggesting Vivienne is any substitute for a flesh-and-blood girlfriend. "I hope they think of her as a companion," said MaryAnna Donaldson, the company's creative content editor, "and will see her as a practice round before the real one. 1. "She has some skimpy outfits for the gym" (l.13) implies that: The clothes she wears for the gym are too short The clothes she wears for the gym are not so sexy 2. In the context of the article, "tease" (l.14) means: Plaisantine Séductrice Manipulatrice Moqueuse 3. "Mixed blessing" (l.21) means: She has advantages and disadvantages She only brings trouble 4. "Decidedly" (l.22) is the equivalent of: Definitely Undoubtedly Partly Certainly Completely 5. "Likely" (l.39) is synonymous with: Possibly Pleasantly Probably Friendly 6. "To hold them off" (l.58) means: To struggle with them To retain them To insult them 7. "Scheduled" (l.63) means: Previewed Cancelled Delayed Programmed 2. Vocabulary a. Find the equivalents in the text of the following French words. Outremer Appât Riche Centre commercial Belle-mère Combiné téléphonique Relativement Tenues affriolantes Néanmoins Caractéristique b. Pick up 2 phrasal verbs and translate them into French. .................................................................................................................................................................. 3. Translate into French the passage from line 26 (Vivienne,...) to line 43 (...airport) .................................................................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................................................................. 4. Syntaxe : les 3 grands types de propositions Une proposition est un segment qui comprend un verbe. 1. LES PROPOSITIONS COMPLETIVES : SUBORDONNEES A UN VERBE Elles occupent la place d'un nom. En ce sens elles complètent un verbe à gauche (=sujet) ou à droite (=objet). On dit qu'elles sont nominalisées, puisqu’elles sont aptes à occuper une place de nom. Il en existe trois catégories : a) Les propositions complétives en That : on parle de nominalisation externe car on se contente d'ajouter that devant la proposition pour l'imbriquer à une proposition de rang supérieur. ex : I knew that Mary was celebrating her birthday yesterday night. Le segment souligné est une proposition complétive objet du verbe know. ex : That he refused to come is quite astonishing. Dans ce cas la proposition est une complétive sujet de is. b) Les propositions infinitives : le verbe subit une modification puisqu'il n'est plus conjugué mais à l'infinitif. Le sujet change lui aussi de forme et il est introduit par "for". ex : He likes (for) his wife to dress well. ex : I want (for) you to come home before noon. Les segments soulignés sont des propositions complétives infinitives objets des verbes like et want. ex : For him to do such a crazy thing is unbelievable. Le segment est une prop. complétive infinitive sujet. 2 c) Les propositions complétives gérondives : le verbe est au gérondif (=forme -ing). Le sujet est au cas génitif. ex : Do you mind my smoking in this room? Le segment souligné est une proposition complétive gérondive objet. ex : Going to the beach is fun ! Le segments souligné est une proposition complétive gérondive sujet. 2. LES PROPOSITIONS RELATIVES : SUBORDONNEES A UN NOM Contrairement aux complétives ces propositions sont subordonnées (=rattachées) à un nom. La connexion se fait grâce à un pronom relatif (déterminé par l'antécédent). ex : The book that I read the other day was exciting. Le segment souligné est une proposition relative dont l'antécédent est book. ex : I love the car which/that is white and red. Le segment souligné est une proposition relative dont l'antécédent est car. ex : The man who looks weird is my neighbour. Le segment souligné est une proposition relative dont l'antécédent est man. 3. LES PROPOSITIONS ADVERBIALES (CIRCONSTANCIELLES) : NON SUBORDONNEES Ces propositions sont des propositions circonstancielles qui renseignent sur les circonstances de l'évènement, comme des adverbes. On pourrait les supprimer, la phrase resterait correcte au plan grammatical. Elles ne dépendent d'aucun élément de la proposition principale, elles ne font qu'apporter des informations complémentaires et non-nécessaires au bon fonctionnement de l'énoncé. ex : They said they would come when they are ready (temps) / in order to help us (but) ▪ Les circonstancielles sont aussi appelées adverbiales car elles ont le même rôle que certains adverbes. ▪ Il existe des circonstancielles de temps (when, before, after, while, since), de concession (although, though, while), de cause (because, as, since), de but (so that, in order to), de conséquence (so that) et de comparaison (as, like). ▪ Les subordonnées conditionnelles sont introduites par les conjonctions if, unless, provided that. a. Relever dans l'article deux relatives et une complétive. .................................................................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................................................................. b. Relever une subordonnée concessive et deux questions indirectes. .................................................................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................................................................. c. Relever deux subordonnées conditionnelles et une circonstancielle de cause. .................................................................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................................................................. d. Nommer les circonstancielles ou conditionnelles après les avoir délimitées. 1. Although they left rather late, they got to the station on time. 2. If you got there too late, there wouldn't be any seats left. 3. Since they were in a hurry, they took a taxi. 4. They took a taxi in order to get there on time. 5. They weren't as late as they thought. 6. After they left, they discovered they had forgotten the tickets. 7. The train was late so that they finally had to wait. 8. While they were waiting, they ate a sandwich or two. 9. Since I've stopped smoking, I've felt stronger and healthier. 10. You'd better take some money so that you can pay for the meal. 11. They intend to visit Birmingham while they are in England. 12. He didn't act as though he had a lot of money. 13. As she had paid for the meal, he felt he had to pay for the concert. 14. As long as they don't disturb me, I don't pay attention to what the neighbours do. 15. They intend to visit Birmingham even though some friends told them it wasn't a beautiful city. 16. While I understand their reasons, I can't agree with them. 17. While they were travelling through the desert, they kept thinking about forests and streams. 18. Since you won't follow my advice, I wonder why you asked. 3 e. Mots de liaisons : relier les termes anglais avec leurs équivalents français. 1. Actually 2. Anyway 3. As 4. Since 5. Basically 6. By the way 7. Compared to 8. Either... or... 9. Fortunately 10. Given 11. Hopefully a. Ou bien... ou b. Par rapport à c. Puisque d. Etant donné que e. En fait, au fond, ben f. Heureusement g. De toute façon h. Puisque i. Avec un peu de chance j. En fait k. A propos 12. Incidentally 13. Mind you 14. Nevertheless 15. Obviously 16. On the other hand 17. On top of that 18. Provided 19. Therefore 20. Unlike 21. Whereas, while 22. However l. Contrairement à m. Tandis que n. En plus o. Par conséquent p. Pourvu que q. Néanmoins r. Par contre s. Evidemment t. Entre parenthèses u. Remarque, n'empêche v. Cependant, pourtant f. Question complémentaire : quelle remarque pouvez-vous faire sur la présence de l'auxiliaire does à la ligne 18 ? .................................................................................................................................................................. 5. Rewrite according to the following example Concordance des temps dans les propositions conditionnelles : 1. If + present > Futur (will + BV) 2. If + preterit > Conditionnel present (would + BV) 3. If + past perfect > Conditionnel passé (would + have + participle passé) Ex: Paul is rich. Paul buys a car. a. Paul will buy a car if he is rich b. Paul would buy a car if he was rich. c. Paul would have bought a car if he had been rich a. Paul is reading a book. Paul has his glasses. b. Mary has a car. Mary goes to London tomorrow. c. The children can swim. The children go to the swimming pool. d. The dog sees the cat. The dog barks. e. The rain has stopped. The children go to the mountain for a walk. f. The sun is shining. The birds sing. 6. Translate into English a. Qu’auriez-vous dit si l’on vous avait demandé votre avis ? b. Que lui auriez-vous donné s’il vous avait demandé de l’argent ? c. Qu’auriez-vous compris si l’on vous avait dit cela ? d. Qu’auriez-vous répondu si vous aviez été dans ma position ? e. Quelles langues étrangères auriez-vous apprises si vous aviez pu ? f. Quel type de problèmes auriez-vous abordés si la réunion avait eu lieu ? 4