Annales gratuites Bac S : Dinner in Macksville

    I was in Macksville owing to the interesting discovery that Brisbane is not three or four
    hours north of Sydney, as I had long and casually supposed, but the better part of a couple
    of days' drive. Well, if you look on the television weather map Brisbane and Sydney are
    practically neighbours, their little local suns and storm clouds all but bumping on the chart.
 5  But in Australia neighbourliness is of course a relative concept. In fact, it is almost 1,000
    kilometres from Sydney to Brisbane, much of it along a cheerfully poky(1) two-lane road. And
    so, in mildly confounded consequence, I was in Macksville for the night.
    My mood as I strolled into town from my motel was, let us say, restrained. Macksville
    wasn't so bad really. Set on the bank of the swift and muddy Nambucca River, it was
10  essentially just a pause in the highway: a tentacle of neatly gardened bungalows and small
    office buildings leading to a very compact town centre. Though the road through town is the
    Pacific Highway, the main artery connecting Sydney and Brisbane, only two cars passed as I
    followed its dusty margin into town. At the heart of the modest community stood the large
    and fading Nambucca Hotel, and I stepped in, glad to escape the heat. It was a roomy place
15  but nearly empty. Two older guys in singlets and battered bush hats propped up one end of
    the long bar. In a side room a man and a woman sat in silent absorption amid the soft,
    mechanical glow of pokies(2). I procured a beer, stood long enough to establish that no one
    was going to take any interest in me that might lead to a conversation, and retired to the
    central portion of the bar where I parked myself on a stool and idly watched the evening
20  news on a silent TV mounted on the wall.
    According to a sign on a door across the room, the Nambucca had a restaurant, so I
    wandered over to investigate. The door wouldn't open.
    "Dining room's closed, mate," said one of the two guys at the bar. "Chef's crook."
    "Must've ate some of his own cooking," came a voice from the pokie alcove, and we
25  all had a grin over that.
    "What else is there in town?" I asked.
    "Depends, "said the man, scratching his throat thoughtfully. He leaned towards me
    slightly. "You like good food?"
    I nodded. Of course I did.
30  "Nothin' then." He went back to his beer.
    "Try the Chinese over the road," said his companion. "It's not too bad."
    The Chinese restaurant was just across the road as promised, but according to a sign
    in the window it was not licensed to serve alcohol and I couldn't face smalltown Chinese food
    without the solace of beer. I have travelled enough to know that a chef does not, as a rule,
35  settle in a place like Macksville because he has a lifelong yearning to share the subtleties of
    3,500 years of Szechuan cuisine with sheep farmers. So I went off to see what else there
    might be in Macksville's compact heart. The answer was very little. Everything appeared to
    be shut except one small takeaway establishment called, not altogether promisingly, Bub's
    Hotbakes. I opened the door, briefly enlivening 5,000 flies that had dropped by to see what
40  Bub and his team were up to, and stepped inside, knowing in my heart that this was almost
    certainly going to be a regretted experience.
    Bub's had a substantial range of food, nearly ail of it involving brown meat and gravy
    lurking inside pastry. I ordered a large sausage roll and chips.
    'We don't do chips," said the amply proportioned serving maiden(3).
45  "Then how did you get like that?" I wanted to say, but of course I suppressed this
    unworthy thought and revised my order to a large sausage roll and something called a
    "continental cheesecake square" and went with them outside. I ate standing on the corner.

Adapted from Bill Bryson, Down Under, 2001

(1) poky: (adj.) too small or not very comfortable
(2) a poky: (noun) a poker machine
(3) a serving maiden: a waitress

Les candidats de la série S choisiront de traiter l'un des deux sujets au choix (200 mots).

Les candidats de la série L devront obligatoirement traiter les deux sujets (300 mots au total, soit environ 150 mots pour chaque sujet).

Sujet 1 : Takeaway food is becoming more and more popular. Account for this evolution in contemporary society.

Sujet 2 : Write about a place you regretted going to.

Sujet 1

INTRODUCTION

DEMONSTRATION

Yes
Accroissement progressif
Ex : today's life is more and more hectic.
● food is affordable, accessible and varied (low-fat diets / Chinese, Turkish, American foods)
● family and friendly gatherings outside the home (Mc Donald's birthday parties)
● games for children

It enables...
It allows for + noun / it allows us to + verb
It is possible to...
No matter what we may want to eat...
to feel like + ing
Linking words: moreover, furthermore, on top of that, besides, in the first place,...

Limits
Linking words: despite, in spite of, nevertheless
● health risks shown by films such as "Supersize me", obesity, overweight, heart failures
● junk found

CONCLUSION
Though, today when we take a close look at society, we can see the trend is changing.
● cooking lessons as an opportunity to meet people
● learning to eat healthier
● focusing on cultural values and sharing cooking experiences

Sujet 2 :

Notion à utiliser : le regret
● If I had known, I would not have + P. P.
● If only I had not been to...
● I wish I hadn't been ...

Les superlatifs :
● My worst experience...
● The place I hated the most...

Le paradoxe :
● Although / though, it looked nice at first sight, it quickly turned out to be... / it quickly proved (to be) + adj

L'énumération :
First and foremost, then, next, last but not least, in addition, furthermore.

Vocabulaire utile :
● It was a sheer nightmare.
● It was awful, dreadful, terrible, disgusting, sickly, dirty, bad / foul-smelling, spooky / scary, gloomy, noisy, damp, scorching ≠ freezing.