Annales gratuites Bac L : Compréhension écrite

I can remember way back, almost to when I was born.
I can remember lying in my parents' bed, jammed between them. It was an iron bed with a sag (1) in the middle. They put me into the sag and gravity made them fall towards me, wedging me in.
Our land was full of stones. As soon as I could walk, I was given a bucket with a picture of a starfish on it and told to pick stones out of the earth. My father would walk ahead with a big pail that was soon so heavy he could barely carry it. I think he thought about stones all the time and he tried to make me think about them all the time. I was supposed to take my starfish bucket with me wherever I went and have my mind on the stones. I can remember getting lost in a flat field. It was winter and the dark came round me and hid me from everything and swallowed up my voice.
The only thing I could see was my bucket, which had a little gleam on it, and the only thing I could hear was the wind in the firs. I began to walk towards the wind, calling to my father. I walked right into the trees. They sighed and sighed. I put my arms round one of the scratchy fir trunks and stayed there, waiting. I thought Jesus might come through the wood holding up a lantern.
My parents came and found me with torches. My mother was sobbing. My father picked me up and wrapped me inside his old coat that smelled of seed (2). He said : "Mary, why didn't you stay where you were ?" I said : "My bucket is lost on the field" My father said : "Never mind about the bucket. You're the one."
But when I was three, I was no longer the one. Tim was born and my father kept saying the arrival of Timmy was a miracle. I asked my mother whether I had been a miracle and she said : "Oh, men are like that, especially farmers. Pay no heed." (3)
But after Timmy came, everything changed. My mother and father used to put him between them in their sagging bed and fall towards him. When I saw this, I warned them I would kick Timmy to death ; I said I would put his pod through the mangle (4). So my father began to think me evil. I'd go and tell him things and he'd say : "Don't talk to me, Mary. Don't you talk to me." So I stopped talking to him at all. When we went stone picking together, we would go up and down the furrows (5), up and down, up and down, with each of our minds locked away from the other.
My vision began to be faulty soon after Timmy was born. I would see light bouncing at the corner of my eye. Distant things like birds became invisible. People would separate and become two of themselves.
I tried to tell my mother how peculiar everything was becoming. She was going through a phase of needing to touch surfaces all the time. Her favourite surface was the wheel of the sewing machine and her long, white thumb would go round and round it, like something trapped. When I told her about people becoming two of themselves, she put her hand fiercely over my mouth.
"Ssh !" she said. "Don't. I'm superstitious."
So it was my teacher, Miss McRae at the village school, who discovered my faulty vision. She told my mother : "Mary cannot see the blackboard, Mrs Ward." Which was true. The blackboard was like a waterfall to me.
I went with my mother on a bus from Swaithey to Leiston to see an oculist. The bus had to make an extra stop to let some ducks cross the road. I ran to the driver's window so that I could see the ducks, but all I could see were five blobs creeping along like caterpillars.
A week later I got my glasses. Timmy laughed at me with them on, so I hit his ear. I hoped I'd hit him so hard his vision would go faulty too. "How are they, then ?" asked my father crossly, holding Timmy.
"They are a miracle," I said.

Rose TREMAIN, Sacred Country, 1992.

(1) Sag : un creux.
(2) Seed : grain, semence.
(3) Pay no heed : don't worry.
(4) Put his pod through the mangle : le "zigouiller".
(5) Furrows : sillons.

1 - Tick the correct box and answer the following questions.

a) This passage is :

A first-person narrative.
A third-person narrative.

b) Who is the narrator ?

c) How many other characters are there ?

d) How are they related to the narrator ?


2 - Name the four major events in the narrator's life mentioned in the passage.

a)
b)
c)
d)

Which event was a turning point in her life ? Justify by quoting from the text.


3 - a) What changes in the narrator's everyday life made her realise something was different ? (2 lines)

b) How did she react then ? Justify by quoting from the text. (2 lines)

c) Pick out 2 sentences showing that Mr. Ward's attitude towards the narrator had changed.


4 - Tick the right answers :

a) "The dark... swallowed up my voice" means :

made me shout in a louder voice.
prevented my voice from being heard.
forced me to silence.

b) "I warned them I would kick Timmy to death" means :

I would kill Timmy with my hands.
I would make Timmy laugh himself to death.
I would kill him with my feet.

c) "each of our minds locked away from each other" means :

They would continually think of each other.
They were staying apart.
There was no attempt of communication at all.

5 - True or False ? Tick the right answer and justify by quoting from the text.

	TRUE	FALSE
a) Mary never lost hope when she was lost in the field.
b) Her mother was indifferent when Mary was found.
c) Mary's mother once caught her thumb in the sewing machine.
d) Mary's mother discovered that her daughter couldn't see very well.
e) Mary resented Timmy's reactions when he saw her with her glasses on.

6 - Answer the following questions in your own words :

a) What does the sentence "They are a miracle" (at the end of the text) refer to ? (2 lines)

b) Why does the narrator use the word "miracle" ? What does it reveal about her ? (3 lines)


7 - Translate the following sentences :

"I warned them I would kick Timmy to death."

"We would go up and down the furrows."

"So I stopped talking to him at all."

1 - Tick the correct box and answer the following questions.

a) This passage is :

A first-person narrative.
A third-person narrative.

b) Who is the narrator ?
Mary.

c) How many other characters are there ?
Four.

d) How are they related to the narrator ?
Mr and Mrs Ward are Mary's parents, Tim is her little brother and Miss McRae is her teacher at the village's school.


2 - Name the four major events in the narrator's life mentioned in the passage.

a) She got lost in a field.
b) Her brother Tim's birth.
c) Her vision began to be faulty.
d) She got glasses.

Which event was a turning point in her life ? Justify by quoting from the text.

Tim's birth was a turning point in her life. "But after Timmy came, everything changed".


3 - a) What changes in the narrator's everyday life made her realize something was different ?
Her parents put Tim in their bed. Her father didn't want her to talk to him. They no longer communicated when they went stone picking.

b) How did she react then ? Justify by quoting from the text.
She wanted to kill Tim, and stopped talking to her father. "I warned them I would kick Timmy to death". "I stopped talking to him at all."

c) Pick out 2 sentences showing that Mr. Ward's attitude towards the narrator had changed.
"My father began to think me evil."
"Don't you talk to me."


4 - Tick the right answers :

a) "The dark... swallowed up my voice"

made me shout in a louder voice.
prevented my voice from being heard.
forced me to silence.

b) "I warned them I would kick Timmy to death".

I would kill Timmy with my hands.
I would make Timmy laugh himself to death.
I would kill him with my feet.

c) "each of our minds locked away from each other".

They would continually think of each other.
They were staying apart.
There was no attempt of communication at all.

5 - True or False ? Tick the right answer and justify by quoting from the text.

	TRUE	FALSE
a) Mary never lost hope when she was lost in the field. I thought Jesus might come through the wood holding up a lantern.	X
b) Her mother was indifferent when Mary was found. My mother was sobbing.		X
c) Mary's mother once caught her thumb in the sewing machine. Her long white thumb would go round and round it.		X
d) Mary's mother discovered that her daughter couldn't see very well. So it was my teacher (...)who discovered my faulty vision.		X
e) Mary resented Timmy's reactions when he saw her with her glasses on. Timmy laughed at me with them on, so I hit his ear.	X

6 - Answer the following questions in your own words :

a) What does the sentence "They are a miracle" refer to ?
The sentence refers to the glasses. As she can see well again, she considers them to be a miracle.

b) Why does the narrator use the word "miracle" ? What does it reveal about her ?
The narrator expresses herself like her father when he said that Tim's arrival was a miracle. With her glasses on, she no longer feels shut out of the world (because her father has paid attention to her).


7 - Translate the following sentences :

"I warned them I would kick Timmy to death."
Je les prévins que je tuerais Timmy à coup de pieds.

"We would go up and down the furrows."
Nous parcourions les sillons.

"So I stopped talking to him at all."
Alors, j'ai cessé de lui adresser la parole.

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