Compréhension écrite

I fell in love with it at first sight, parked outside the showroom, low and streamlined, sculpted out of what looked like mist with the sun shining through it, a very very pale silvery grey, with a pearly lustre. I kept finding reasons to drive past the showroom so that I could look at it again, and each time I felt a pang of desire.

I knew I could walk into the showroom and buy the car without having to think if I could afford it. But I hesitated and hung back. Why ? Because, when I couldn't afford a car like that, I disapproved of cars like that : fast, flash, energy-wasteful and Japanese. I always said I'd never buy a Japanese car, not so much out of economic patriotism (I used to drive Fords that turned out to have been made in Belgium or Germany) as for emotional reasons. I'm old enough to remember World War Two, and I had an uncle who died as a POW(1) working on the Siamese(2) railway. I thought something bad could happen to me if I bought this car, or that at the very least I would feel guilty and miserable driving it. And yet I coveted it. It became one of my "things" - things I can't decide, can't forget, can't leave alone. Things I wake up in the middle of the night worrying about.

Can you believe it ? While war raged in Yugoslavia thousands, died daily of AIDS in Afica, bombs exploded in Northern Ireland and the unemployment figures rose inexorably in Britain, I could think of nothing except whether or not to buy this car.

I began to get on Sally's nerves. "For God's sake, go and have a test drive, and if you like the car, buy it," she said. (She drives an Escort herself, changes it every three years after a two-minute telephone conversation with her dealer, and gives another thought to the matter). So I had a test drive. And of course I liked the car. I loved the car. I was utterly seduced and enraptured by the car. But I told the salesman I would think about it. "What is there to think about ?" Sally demanded, when I came home. "You like the car, you can afford the car, why not buy the car ?" I said I would sleep on it. Which meant; of course, that I lay awake all night worrying about it. In the morning at breakfast I announced that I had reached a decision. "Oh yes ?" said Sally, without raising her eyes from the newspaper. "What is it ?"

"I've decided against", I said. However irrational my scruples may be, I'll never be free from them, so I'd better not buy it". "OK" said Sally. "What will you buy instead ?" "I don't really need to buy anything", I said. "My present car is good for another year or two". "Fine", said Sally. But she sounded disappointed. I began to worry again whether I'd made the right decision.


David LODGE, Therapy, (Penguin, 95).

(1) POW = Prisoner of War
(2) Siam, now Thaïland, was occupied by the Japanese during WWII


I - COMPREHENSION

GENERAL COMPREHENSION

Tick the right statement(s) :

One day the narrator noticed a car and decided to buy it

He wanted to buy the car for his wife

He followed his wife's advice and bought the car

After careful consideration he finally resisted the implulse to acquire a new car

He needed to buy a new car

He would have liked to buy the car because he found it beautiful


DETAILED COMPREHENSION

A. True or false ?

Justify your answer by quoting precisely from the text :

- At first the narrator was not particularly attracted to the car

- The narrator was not rich enough to buy the car

- The narrator was unable to make a decision

- He had always refused to buy a Japanese car so far

- The narrator soon realized that he was absolutly obsessed with the car

- His wife advised him to buy it if he wanted to

- She took much interest in his final decision

- Once he had made a decision he forgot about the car


B. The narrator has fallen in love with the car. Pick out three expressions illustrating this.


C. Tick the narrator's reasons for not buying the car :

He can't bring himself to buy a Japanese car

It might be too expensive to keep

He wants to resist temptation

He is far too poor to afford it

His wife strongly disapproves of it

He decides to buy another car

He would feel ill at ease

The car would bring him bad luck


D. Pick out the sentence expressing the emotional reason which stops him from buying it :


E. Quote the passage which shows that his obsession makes him feel guilty :


F. Vocabulary : find in the text equivalents of those words and expressions :

1) using more fuel than is needed
2) desired ardently
3) statistics
4) went up
5) to irritate
6) sleepless



II - EXPRESSION

Answer the two questions :

- What do you think of the narrator's final decision ? Explain (50 words)

- Do you think people can "fall in love" with an object ? Has it happened to you ? How did you react ? (150 words)