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

1. Which genre do you associate this passage with?
● travel literature
● science fiction
● romance

2. Focus on paragraph 1
a. What country is the scene set in? (10 words maximum)
b. Justify your answer with two quotations from the text.
c. What is the starting point of the main character's journey? (10 words max.)
d. What is the destination of the journey? (10 words max.)
e. What does the main character discover about the country? (15 words max.)
f. Justify your answer with one quotation.
g. Name the town where the main character is.

3. Concentrate on the passage from line 9 to line 14 ("Set on the bank [...] escape the heat").
a. Pick out the most suitable definition for the town from the list below:
● a town in the suburbs of a big city
● a town with a busy centre
● a small isolated town between two large cities
● an unwelcoming community
b. Give two elements to justify your choice.

4. Read the whole text again.
a. Where does the main character stay for the night? (10 words max.)
b. Which part of town does he decide to go to? (10 words max.)
c. What is the main character looking for? (10 words max.)
d. Pick out five words or phrases to support your answer.
e. Three establishments are mentioned. Name them in chronological order.
f. Which two places does the main character actually stop at?

5. Focus on the first place he stops at.
a. Who are the characters present? (20 words max.)
b. What is the atmosphere like? Explain in your own words. (25 words max.)
c. "Must've ate some of his own cooking" (line 24) : who does his refer to?
d. In standard English, a "crook" is a dishonest person. In this context (line 23), does "chef's crook" mean :
● the chef is absent?
● the chef is hungry?
● the chef is sick?
● the chef is unemployed?
e. What is the tone of the remark in line 24? (10 words max.)

6. Focus on the second place he stops at.
a. Why does he choose to go there? Explain in your own words. (25 words max.)
b. "[...] this was almost certainly going to be a regretted experience". (lines 40-41). Why does he feel this way? Give two reasons in your own words. (20 words max.)

1. Travel literature

2.
a. The scene is set in Australia.
b. l. 1-2, l. 5.
c. The starting point of the character's journey is Sydney.
d. The destination of the journey is Brisbane.
e. The main character discovers that distances in Australia are longer than expected.
f. l.5
g. The main character is in Macksville.

3.
a. A small isolated town between two large cities.
b. "a pause on the highway" l. 10
"only two cars passed" l. 12

4.
a. The main character stays in a motel for the night.
b. He decides to go downtown, at the Nambucca Hotel.
c. The main character is looking for a place to eat and drink.
d. l. 21-22 / l. 26 / l. 28-29 / l. 31 / l. 37-38 .
e. The first establishment to be mentioned is the Nambucca hotel, next is the Chinese restaurant and finally a small takeaway establishment, Bub's Hotbakes.
f. The main character stops at the Nambucca Hotel and Bub's Hotabakes.

5.
a. The characters present are customers: two older men, a couple, and someone whose voice can be heard.
b. The atmosphere is quite depressing, gloomy and dull because the hotel is old, neglected and there are not a lot of people. Besides, they're not very talkative.
c. "His" refers to the chef.
d. The chef is sick.
e. The tone is ironical, mocking and humorous.

6.
a. He chooses to go there for several reasons. First, the Nambucca's hotel restaurant is closed. Second, the Chinese restaurant across the road does not serve alcohol.
b. He feels pessimistic / resigned because he notices that the restaurant is infested with flies. Moreover he doesn't believe he will enjoy the food.