Anglais LV1 - Série ES-S - juin 2012 aide - Izi-Bac

Anglais LV1 - Série ES-S - juin 2012
aide
COMPREHENSION
Le texte :
L’action se déroule juste après la deuxième guerre mondiale. La scène décrit le retour de Jamie, qui
était parti combattre en Europe, dans son village familial. On assiste aux retrouvailles entre deux
frères, leur père et la femme de l’un d’eux.
Vocabulaire :
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plusieurs verbes qui décrivent une façon de crier : to holler (l.1), to whoop (l.4), to bellow (l.31),
to blurt out (l.50)
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to pelt forward (l.5)= courir à toutes jambes
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flustered (l.27)= énervé, agité
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stark (l.43)= brut
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to sigh (l.55)= soupirer
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to soothe (l.59)= calmer, apaiser
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weary (l.60)= las, fatigué
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to dim (l.62)= affaiblir
EXPRESSION
Sujet 1
Peu importe le plan que vous décidez d’adopter, il est très important d’organiser votre présentation
(introduction, plan en 2 ou 3 parties et conclusion). L’introduction doit présenter la question. Les
différents paragraphes doivent apporter des éléments de réponse à cette question. Enfin, la
conclusion doit répondre de façon synthétique à la question posée en introduction.
Sujet 2
Il s’agit d’écrire une page de journal intime. La forme doit être respectée (date, « Dear diary ») mais
aussi le contenu ; on doit y exprimer des sentiments intimes. Ici, Laura doit parler de ses sentiments
pour les deux frères. A vous d’imaginer pour qui va sa préférence, quelles sont les conditions de
leurs rencontres et l’avancement de leurs relations.
proposition de corrigé
I-
COMPREHENSION
1.
a)
The characters present in the text are: Pappy, Henry, Laura, Jamie and Isabelle.
b)
Pappy is Henry and Jamie’s father.
Henry is Pappy’s son, Laura’s husband and Jamie’s brother.
Laura is Henry’s wife, Pappy’s daughter-in-law and Jamie’s sister-in-law.
Jamie is Pappy’s son, Henry’s brother, Laura’s brother-in-law and Jamie’s niece.
Isabelle is Jamie’s niece, so probably Henry and Laura’s daughter.
c)
Laura is telling the story.
2.
a) The scene takes place in a farm, in Mississippi (in the United States of America).
b) Jamie is coming back to his family town after being absent for a while.
c) Jamie went away to fight in World War II, in Europe.
d) He has been travelling “overseas”. He probably decided to visit Europe once the war was
over and before coming back home in the USA.
3. Jamie’s appearance has changed during the war. He has lost weight and he doesn’t look as
cheerful as before.
(l.13) “You need to put some meat on those bones of yours,”
(l.25) “He felt light against me, insubstantial. His ribs protruded like the black keys of a piano”
4.
a) Henry is very happy to see his brother.
(l.3-4) “He whooped, dropped the bucket and broke into a run”
(l.5) “He pelted forward with the joyous abandon of a schoolboy.”
b) Despite his limb, Henry breaks into a run. This reveals that he is so excited to see his brother that
he forgets about his handicap. (25 words)
5.
a) The change in Jamie’s smile reveals that his experience at war has changed him. He has lost his
cheerfulness and looks tired. He may have witnessed terrible suffering or have suffered himself. (32
words)
b) It is not clear but we can guess that Laura and Jamie had a love affair or at least had feelings for
each other “so many years before”.
6. The narrator still has feelings for Jamie. When they say hello she feels like hugging him for
longer but she is embarrassed and let go of him. (l.26-27) “I could pick him up, I thought, and I had
a sudden irrational urge to do so. I stepped back hastily, flustered.”
Moreover, she wants to help him to recover and look after him as a mother, or a lover would do:
(l.59) “I would heal him, I thought. I would cook to strengthen him, play music to soothe him, tell
stories to make him smile.”
7.
a) According to the narrator Henry is a very easy-going man. He loves his life in the farm and is
ready to help others without questioning. He also seems to be happy as his opinions are easily
made. Although the narrator says she envies him, Henry is described as a very predictable man.
(l.42) “How simple things were for Henry!”
(l.43-44) “his stark, right-angled world, where everything was either right or wrong and there was
no doubt which was which.”
b) From the description the narrator makes of her husband, we can understand that she is the
opposite. The narrator seems to envy her husband because his vision of life is simple and he can
make decisions easily whereas she has to think a lot when she has to make decisions (l.44-45)
“What a luxury, never to wrestle with whether or why, never to lie awake nights wondering what
if”.
Moreover, they don’t seem to have the same interests: (l.48) “Henry was the only one of us who
seemed impatient with Jamie’s stories.”
II-
EXPRESSION
Sujet 1
Most people’s aim in life is to be happy. How can we reach happiness? It can depend on the way
people consider life. Does the fact of having a simple vision of life contribute to happiness? We will
try to answer this question analyzing two different definitions of happiness.
Even if everybody aims at being happy, this notion does not have the same definition for everybody.
If happiness is feeling good with your relatives, being in your everyday routine and not taking risks
in life then yes, having a simple vision of life contributes to it because you handle everything
around you and nothing is unexpected or complicated. This happens to be the case of Henry in the
text. As Laura says, it seems obvious to him that he was to help his father (when this did not seem
so obvious for his brother Jamie). Moreover Henry is good at making straightforward decisions as
his mind is not embarrassed by complicated ideas.
On the other hand, for people who are more open-minded happiness lies in discovering things and
always broadening their knowledge and experiences. This is the case of Jamie who went to Europe
to fight in the war and who, once the war over, stayed there for a while to visit the place.
In this case, a simple vision of life does not contribute to happiness as these people are eager to be
confronted with differences. But this perpetual wondering can also be the cause of unhappiness as
in Laura’s case.
To conclude, it seems easier to find happiness if you have a simple vision of life as there are less
risks for you to ask yourself too many questions and the to be unhappy because it is hard or
impossible to find the answers to these questions. But some people need things to be a bit
complicated as their happiness resides in facing and solving challenges.
(318 words)
Sujet 2
Saturday, May 13th, 1936
Dear Diary.
It was such a lovely evening. I expected Jamie to be there at the ball, and he was! As soon as I saw
him my heart throbbed. I couldn’t get my eyes off him. He’s so handsome and he always looks
cheerful.
Of course Henry was here too. We had planned to meet at half past eight in front of the restaurant.
But it’s not the same with him. He’s duller.
Oh, dear Diary, I’m in a dilemma… Why does this situation happen with two brothers? It’s all the
more delicate. I wish they didn’t know each other. Henry is so nice and thoughtful to me that I can
ignore his interest. He always invites me for walks or coffees. But he doesn’t seem very openminded. Everything seems simple for him.
He and his brother are actually like cheese and chalk. Jamie is much more distant and the fact that
he lives and works in Greenville makes it worse. But I fell much more attracted to him. Physically
first. He is more athletic (and at least he doesn’t have Henry’s limb). But also mentally. I think he is
more broad-minded. He seems eager to discover things from elsewhere. I wouldn’t be surprised if
he enrolled in the army if there happened to be a second world war.
So, what am I to do? Who am I to choose? Henry the more accessible one but the simplest or Jamie,
the distant but more interesting one?
I still had doubts about Jamie’s feelings and interest in me but since tonight, after we danced at the
Peabody Hotel and he gave me such a radiant smile these doubts are thinning. But then why isn’t he
more straightforward? Maybe because of Henry who started courting me first.
I will sleep on it…
(304 words)