Choose one of the following subjects. (250 words)

1. Franck returns to the trenches and meets a friend. Franck explains that he almost didn’t come back. Write their conversation.

2. Some things are best left unsaid. How far do you agree?

TEXT

The first person they knew that came home on leave was Bill Monroe from Emerald Street and he was followed by a boy from Park Grove Street and one from over Eldon Terrace, which seemed unfair as Albert had joined up before any of them. There was a big to-do one day because Bill Monroe hadn’t gone back when he should have done and they sent in military policemen to take him back. His mother barred the front door with a broom handle and had to be lifted out of the way by the military policeman, one at each elbow, and Nell, who happened to be walking home from work in Emerald Street at the time, was reminded of Percy’s funeral.

She had a further shock when an ordinary, civilian policeman appeared from nowhere and for a second Nell thought it was Percy. For a ridiculous moment she wondered if he’d come back to ask her why there was a little pearl and garnet ring on her engagement finger instead of the sapphire chips he’d given her which were now wrapped in tissue paper and put at the back of her drawer.

Bill Monroe was hauled off eventually and Nell didn’t linger on the street. She felt embarrassed for him because she’d seen the look of terror on his face and thought how awful it must be to be such a coward and how unpatriotic as well - and she was surprised how many women came up to Mrs Monroe, who has raging and shouting and crying on her doorstep, and told her that she’d done the right thing.

Frank came home after the second battle of Ypres¹; he’d been in hospital in Southport with a septic foot and was given a few days leave before going back to the Front. It was odd because before the war they’d hardly known him yet now he seemed like an old friend and when he came knocking at the back door they both hugged him and made him stay for tea. Nell ran out and got herrings and Lillian cut bread and put out jam and even Rachel asked how he was doing. But when they were all sat round the table, drinking their tea from the best service, the one that had gold rims and little blue forget-me-nots, Frank found himself unexpectedly tongue-tied. He had thought there were a lot of things about the war he wanted to tell them but was surprised to discover that the neat triangles of bread and jam and the prettiness of the little blue forget-me-nots somehow precluded him from talking about trench foot and rats, let alone the many different ways of dying he had witnessed. The smell of death clearly had no place in the parlour of Lowther Street, with the snowy cloth on the table and the glass-bead fringed lamp and the two sisters who had such soft, lovely hair that Frank ached to bury his face in it. He was thinking all these things while chewing his bread and casting around desperately for conversation, until with a nervous gulp from the gild and forget-me-nots he said, “That’s a grand cup, you should taste the tea we get” and told them about the chlorinated water in the trenches. When he saw the look of horror on their faces he felt ashamed that he’d ever wanted to talk about death.

They, in turn, told him about Billy Monroe and he tut-tutted² in the right places although secretly he wished he had a mother who could somehow –anyhow- prevent him having to return to the Front because Franck knew he was going to die if he went back to the war. He listened politely while they told him about all the things they were doing – they showed him their knitting – they’d stopped knitting for the Belgians and now they were knitting socks for soldiers, and Nell told him about her new job, making uniforms, where she’d just been made a forewoman because of her experience with hats, and Lillian was working as a conductress on the trams and Franck raised both eyebrows and said, ‘Never!’ because he couldn’t imagine a woman conductress and Lillian giggled. The two sisters were so full of life that in the end the war was left more or less unspoken of, except, of course, to say that Jack was well and sent his love and that he hadn’t seen Albert at all but he was a lot safer behind the big guns in the artillery than he would be in the trenches.

And Rachel, the toad in the corner, unexpectedly spoke up and said, “It must be dreadful in those trenches” and Franck shrugged and smiled and said, ‘Oh, it’s not too bad really, Mrs Barker,’ and took another drink from his forget-me-not cup.

Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, 1995.

¹ the second battle of Ypres: 1915
² he tut-tutted: he made a sound to show his disapproval

expression

Sujet 1 :

C’est un dialogue : il est primordial d’annoncer qui va parler, de quoi et dans quelles circonstances.

Pour ce dialogue, vous pouvez vous appuyer sur l’épisode de Bill Monroe et de sa mère ainsi que sa visite chez les Barker. N’hésitez pas à décrire l’angoisse générée par la guerre (vocabulaire de la peur, du stress, de l’hésitation et du refus).

Scared, frightened, petrified, terrified, frozen to stone, scared to death.

I couldn’t believe my eyes seeing all those soldiers blown to bits.

I can’t stand this anymore; I can’t/ won’t go back; I must leave at once.

There’s no glory in dying in the trenches.

I wish I hadn’t returned; if I had known, I wouldn’t have gone.

Le discours direct anglais exige des guillemets (surtout pas de tirets) et implique d’aller à la ligne lorsque le locuteur change.

Les verbes introducteurs doivent être impérativement au prétérit. Variez les le plus possible pour enrichir votre devoir.

Pensez à conclure votre dialogue sans laisser de suspense. Prenez le temps de conclure avec une phrase narrative ou une didascalie (stage direction).

Sujet 2 :

Le deuxième sujet étant de type argumentatif (Yes/No), il faut structurer votre raisonnement: faire une introduction pertinente, bien répartir les arguments en répondant aux deux aspects de la question et ne pas oublier de conclure en donnant votre point de vue.

Vous pouvez partir du contexte de la guerre et l’élargir en utilisant des exemples appartenant à la sphère du privé: par exemple, un « coming-out » aux conséquences parfois dévastatrices (la déclaration de son orientation sexuelle, la perte d’un emploi non révélée à ses proches, révéler à un ami ce qu’on pense vraiment de lui) aux conséquences parfois dévastatrices. De nombreux exemples s’offrent à vous, à vous de faire votre choix.

It’s generally agreed that...

There’s always a tendency for people to believe that...

On the one hand, on the other hand.

We may wonder whether/to what extent...

One has to weigh the pros and cons.

It is worth mentioning that...

It is interesting to consider why...

However, what should be taken into account is the fact that you will break off communications with your family.

The lesson to be learned is that...

At the end of the day, / Ultimately, / All things considered,