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Get ready for the bac! (Bac L LV1)
The exam :
You will have to read a text, answer questions about it, write an essay which will or will not be related to the content of the text (14 points total) and translate a part of this text (6 points).
Revision of instructions :
Instruction
1 What sort of narrative is this text?
2 Tick the right answers and justify by quoting the text.
3 Tick the right statements.
4 Among the following items, tick the one which applies to the situation.
5 Pick out phrases which best describe the character's state of mind.
6 Who or what do the underlined elements / words / adjectives / pronouns refer to?
7 Say whether the characters in this text are present or mentioned.
8 Who are the characters involved in this passage?
9 How are the characters related?
10 Give the characters' names and occupations.
11 Quote a line which shows that the character is affected by the situation.
12 According to the narrator, who is responsible for this situation?
13 Justify in your own words.
14 Support your answer with elements from the text.
15 Focus on the character's behaviour between lines 8 and 16.
16 What does the character's reaction reveal?
17 Comment on the character's reaction.
18 Account for the character's reaction.
19 What happens to the narrator at line 5?
20 Contrast the two characters' opinions.
21 Say how the character felt at that particular moment.
Prepare for the bac:
Activity 1 :
First reading :
Read the text and highlight the elements related to the basic WH- questions. Then fill in the grid.
Classify the information you have :
Characters
Place(s)
Time
Main topic
-Mr (Milton) & Mrs Stephanides → Greek family :
Two children including the narrator + Milton's parents
-Miss Jane Marsh (estate agent)
-Hudson Clark (mentioned : architect)+ Frank Lloyd Wright (architect too)
-Grosse Pointe in the suburbs of Detroit
-House visited/ Property
-Greenhouse
-After the riots (l.1) of the summer of 1967.
-After two month of searching (l. 9)
-One September afternoon (l. 13)
-Looking for a house
- discrimination
Activity 2 :
Questions :
Read from line 1 to 11
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a. In what country and what region does the story take place?
It takes place in the north east of the USA, in the great lakes area, near the town of Detroit.
b. In your own words, say where Grosse Pointe is situated and what sort of people live there.
It's situated in the suburbs of Detroit, next to the lake and the people who live there seem to be well off.
c. What is the name of the narrator's father?
Milton Stephanides.
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a. What do the narrator's parents want to do in Grosse Pointe?
They want to buy a house there.
b. In your own words, explain why the narrator's father is becoming suspicious (l. 10/11) (20/30 words)
He has been looking for a house in the area for 2 months and every time he wants to buy one, it turns out impossible. It's not related to his wealth so he suspects it's related to his origins.
(the Detroit riots of the summer of 1967 :
Originally, black people living in the southern states moved to the northern states in search of freedom and jobs. A lot settled in the Detroit area because of the thriving auto mobile industry there. They mainly got menial jobs and, as a result, the white population, who had the best jobs, were better off and the black population remained poor.
When the auto mobile crisis began in the 60s, the situation got worse and tension grew between the two groups. In the end extremely violent riots broke out with fires and people taking advantage of the situation and stealing from shops. Some 5000 people died in the process.)
READ FROM LINE 12 to 47
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Explain what Miss Marsh's job consists in.
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What is Milton' s opinion of the house?
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a. l.13/14 : “It takes a buyer with a little vision”. What does Miss Marsh mean? (20/30 words)
b. l. 15 : “It was designed by Hudson Clarke.” What effect does she think that name will have on Milton?
c. Why does Milton nod dubiously? (l.17)
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Focus on Milton' s answers to Miss Marsh's questions.
What exactly do we learn about Milton and his family? (origin, religion, job, household) (30/40 words)
your comment
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Doris Lessing is a British writer. She was born in Persia (Iran nowadays) in 1919 and moved to Southern Rhodesia when she was 5. She left her family when she was still very young. She moved to Britain in 1949 and has lived there ever since. She is the author of more than 30 books and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007.
Lessing has described her childhood as an uneven mix of some pleasure and much pain. Her mother, obsessed with raising a proper daughter, enforced a rigid system of rules and hygiene at home, then installed Doris in a convent school, where nuns terrified her with stories of hell and damnation. Lessing was later sent to an all-girls high school in the capital of Salisbury, from which she soon dropped out. She was thirteen; and it was the end of her formal education.
She made herself into a self-educated intellectual.
For more information, visit the following site :
http://www.dorislessing.org your comment
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Étude de document iconographique : la couverture du roman au rétroprojecteur.
En groupes, identification du type de document, description rapide en se concentrant sur les couleurs dominantes et le style.
Mise en commun des observations faites en groupe.Focus on your impressions and feelings as you look at this picture, describe them and, judging from this painting and your feelings, imagine what the book could be like and what it could be about.
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Compréhension écrite. Étude de documents en groupes: La 4ème de couverture du roman, une critique parue dans le Times à l'occasion de la sortie du roman, 3 critiques de lecteurs prises sur internet et choisies pour leurs approches différentes (analytique pour l'une, descriptive pour la seconde et basée surtout sur l'opinion du lecteur pour la 3ème).
Prise de parole en continu. Partage des informations relevées dans les documents étudiés. Mise en réseau dans un tableau où apparaissent les catégories suivantes :type / style / genre :
Horror story
Psychological drama.
Domestic drama.
TragicCharacters :
Harriet & David
Ben (the 5th child / monster / beast / odd...born to a loving environment)
4 children (siblings : normal, educated) your comment
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When describing a painting, proceed in the following steps :
- Identify the painting : portrait, self-portrait, landscape, still life
- describe the painting : elements which compose the painting, colours, shapes, textures, lines and vanishing point...
- analyse the symbols, the meaning of the general direction... Make hypotheses... (We may assume that... We can consider that...)
- give your impressions, feelings... when you look at the painting, the general atmosphere, mood...
- give your opinion.
your comment
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