SESSION 2003
BACCALAUREAT
GENERAL
ANGLAIS LANGUE VIVANTE 1 SERIE L
Durιe : 3 heures Coefficient
: 4
L'usage du dictionnaire
et des calculatrices est interdit
L'ensemble du sujet est
ΰ agrafer a la copie d'examen
Avant
de composer, le candidat s'assurera que le sujet comporte bien 9 pages
numιrotιes de 1 ΰ 9.
Comprιhension/Expression 140 oints
Traduction
60 points
Tom doesn't own a Gameboy. I
knew this, and so did David, and we watched him playing with it all through breakfast,
and the impossibility of what we were seeing didn't register with either of us.
And nor did I get to work and become suddenly distracted by a puzzling image,
something slightly odd that I couldn't quite put my
5 finger on. I would like to claim that a
mother's intuition made me pick up the phone in order to put my mind at rest,
but that is not the case: I only pick up the phone because it is ringing, and I
only realize Tom doesn't own a Gameboy when David calls to tell me that we have
been invited to the school, to talk to his headteacher about our son's recent
spate' of thieving.
10 'What's he stolen?' I ask David. 'That
Gameboy, for starters,' he says. Only then does my maternal-detective instinct
kick in.When we get to the school at four, there is an array of stolen goods
displayed on the headteacher's desk, like one of those memory games: there's
the Gameboy, but also a couple of videotapes, an S Club 7 CD, a Tamagotchi, a
whole load of Pokιmon
15 stuff, a Manchester United shirt, some half-eaten
bags of sweets and, somewhat bizarrely, a paper wallet containing a classmate's
holiday snaps.
'What did you want
those for?' I ask Tom, but he doesn't know, predictably, and he just shrugs. He
knows he has done wrong, and he's hunched up in the chair, hugging himself, but
there is some part of him that is angry, too.One of the things
20 that has always broken my heart about Tom is
that when he is in trouble he stares very intently at you, and one day I
realised that what he was looking for was softness, evidence that, despite your
disapproval of his misdemeanour, you still loved him. Today, however, he's not
interested. He won't make eye contact with anyone in the room.
25 'He's basically been pinching
anything that wasn't nailed down, says the head. 'He's not very popular with
his schoolmates at the moment, as you can imagine.' She's a nice, intelligent,
gentle woman, Jeanie Field, and she's always been very
complimentary
about our kids, partly, I suspect, because they demand so little of her. They
come to school. They enjoy their lessons. They don't hit anyone. They
30
go home. Now Tom has become just another drain on her time and her
energy, and it is that as much as anything that is making me feel
wretched.'Have his home circumstances changed in any way?
'Where would one begin? The
discussion about which parent he would live with in the
event of a divorce? The appearance of
GoodNews? I look at David, to let him know
35 that it is his unhappy task to explain the
events of the last few months in a way that will embarrass nobody in the room,
and he shifts uncomfortably in his seat.
'We have had some
difficulties, yes.' I realise with horror that since he met
GoodNews, David
regards the avoidance of embarrassment as a bourgeois hang-up
with which he will
have no truck 3.
40 'Tom, will you wait
outside, please?' I say quickly. Tom doesn't move, so I
grab him by the hand, pull him to his
feet, and march him outside. David starts to
protest, but I just shake my head, and
he shuts up.
'I'm
sure Katie won't mind me saying that she had an affair,' David is saying as
I
come back into the room.
45 'I do mind you
saying that, actually.' I want him to know, just for the record.
'Oh,' says David, baffled 4. 'It was my fault, though.] was an inattentive and ill-
tempered husband. I didn't love her
enough, or appreciate her properly. But I ...
well, I ... My shortcomings were
revealed to me when I met a spiritual healers, and I
think I've changed. Wouldn't you say, Katie?'
50
'Oh, you've changed,' I say wearily.
'And the spiritual
healer is currently staying with us, and we're ... we're re-
examining a lot
of our lifestyle choices, and ... Maybe, thinking about it, some of this has
unsettled Tom.'
There is a knock on the door, and Tom comes back in.
55
'Have you finished?' he says. 'I mean, have you finished the stuff that
I can't
hear? About Mum's boyfriend and everything.'
We all stare at our feet.
1 a
spate : a series
2 misdemennour
: bad behaviour
3
to have no truck with: not to get involved with
4
baffled . perplexed
Nick HORNBY, How To Be Good: Penguin 2001
Comprehension / Expression
Answer all questions in your own words and in full
sentences when possible. 1.
Say whether the following characters are present or only mentioned in the text,
and specify who they are, how they are related or give their occupation.
2. Whose point of view is the
episode told from?
..
3. True or False? Tick the right
box and justify by quoting the text.
KATIE
(40 words)
a.
Does she know her son well ?
b.
Comment
on line 50 "Oh, you've changed', I say wearily."
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4. For each of the following
characters, write a short paragraph to answer the questions.
TOM (60 words)
a.
How
old do you imagine him to be? b. What has he been doing?
b.
Focus
on lines 17 to 24. How do you interpret Tom's present attitude? d. What event
in his life could account for Tom's actions?
.
e. What do his words at the end reveal?
DAVID (50 words)
a. What is his reaction to the incident?
b. What are and were his relationships with his wife?
c. What made him change?
DAVID AND TOM (30 words)
They both have problems.
a. What are they?
b. What do they do about them?
5. Lines 33 and 34. What do the mother's questions
reveal about the situation?
6. Line 43. Comment on David's words and the fact that
he says them while his wife is not in the room.
7. Line 45. Justify the use of the operator DO in the line "I do
mind you saying that, actually"
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8.
Read the last line of the
text: "We all stare at our feet". What does this reveal about the
adults' state of mind? (50 words)
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9.
Answer ONE of the two
following questions
a.
Imagine what Jeanie Field could have written to Social Services after the
interview (what she has learnt about Tom's parents that throws light on his
recent behaviour, etc ...) (200 words)
c. Why do you think communication is sometimes so
difficult between children and adults? (200 words)
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Translate into French from Line 19 one of the things that
to Line
31 ..making me feel wretched
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