Annales gratuites Bac S : Friends on the internet

         Emma opened one of the shoeboxes and tipped out photos of teenagers she couldn't
      even name any more, all desperately trying to make their uniform look alluring(1) with silly hair
      and sugar-pink lipstick.
         She had absolutely no idea what had become of a single one of the eighteen-year-
5    olds who had filed out of that imposing grey-stone building with the dizzying, glorious feeling
      that freedom and their whole lives were ahead of them, that anything was possible.
         Ha ! What a teenage dream that had been! Emma, alone in her attic(2) on a wet winter
     Saturday, couldn't help feeling she hadn't lived up to her own expectations even remotely.
     She'd imagined herself arguing in court in exquisite suits, saving innocent young men from
10   accusations of murder, chairing law reform meetings, hosting elegant dinner parties with
      eminent lawyers. It was hard not to snort with laughter at all this now.
         She was a conveyancing solicitor(3), dressed day and night in M&S(4), married to a
     doctor. BORING! Well okay, it had been comfortable and nice and the life she'd thought
     she'd wanted, or, at least, the life that had worked out around her without her really trying.
15       It was this nagging feeling of under-achievement which put her off doing the thing she
     really wanted to do now, the thing she had been thinking about for weeks, months even.
         She wanted to go downstairs into Andrew's little office, flick on the computer, dial up
     the internet and click on to that website, the one that would reveal where they were now,
     what they were ail doing - FriendsRevisited.com.
20       But... but... the thought of having to sum up her own life with the lines: 'Married, two
     children, live in Glasgow, work as a conveyancer part-time' ... Well, she just couldn't bear it.
     It sounded so crap. All it conjured up for Emma was the report card verdict: 'Not fulfilling her
     true potential. Could do better.' Why couldn't she at least have had more than two children?
     That would have been slightly less mundane.
25       In fact, she only really wanted to know about one girl, she didn't care about the rest,
     could predict what had become of them. This was just to see what had become of Sadie
     Summers. And Emma knew if she logged on(5) and posted up her details and Sadie Summers
     wasn't there, she would be disappointed and it would all have been a humiliation for nothing.
         Sadie had finally allowed Emma to become her friend in the very last year of school.
30  Before then, Emma had not been nearly interesting or cool enough and anyway, she'd been
     far too shy to ever approach Sadie, who was one of those impossibly self-possessed, self-
     confident girls. Totally comfortable with boys, Sadie could also talk back to teachers without
     getting into trouble, and on her even the school uniform looked sexy.
         And Sadie? Imagine having parents so cool that they named you Sadie? Not Emma
35  or Sarah or Jane.
        Sadie had been the only girl in the year not going on to university after school. She
     would get the grades, but her father - a scriptwriter or sculptor or something equally
     fabulous, Emma couldn't quite remember - had told her it would be the most boring three
     years of her life, so she had planned a three-year world tour instead, with jobs already lined
40  up in New York, California, Sydney.
         And much as the other girls disapproved, having had the benefits of education,
     degrees and a respectable profession drummed into them from the earliest possible age,
     Emma had been jealous and admiring, but also terrified that she was going to lose this
     brand-new, exotic friend so soon.
45       Sadie had promised to Write, phone, visit when back in Scotland ... But she had never
     even sent one single postcard. She'd just vanished with no hint of a forwarding address.

       Adapted from Carmen Reid, FrendsRevisited.com in Scottish Girls About Town, 2003.

(1) : alluring (adj.) : attirant.
(2) : attic (n.) : grenier.
(3) : conveyancing soliciter = conveyancer (n.): notaire,
(4) : M&S : Marks and Spencer.
(5) : log on (v.) : se connecter à.

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

Sujet 1 : The main character logs on to FriendsRevisited.com. She writes a message to her former classmates.

Sujet 2 : What do you think of the Internet as a way to make friends?
 

         Emma opened one of the shoeboxes and tipped out photos of teenagers she couldn't
      even name any more, all desperately trying to make their uniform look alluring(1) with silly hair
      and sugar-pink lipstick.
         She had absolutely no idea what had become of a single one of the eighteen-year-
5    olds who had filed out of that imposing grey-stone building with the dizzying, glorious feeling
      that freedom and their whole lives were ahead of them, that anything was possible.
         Ha ! What a teenage dream that had been! Emma, alone in her attic(2) on a wet winter
     Saturday, couldn't help feeling she hadn't lived up to her own expectations even remotely.
     She'd imagined herself arguing in court in exquisite suits, saving innocent young men from
10   accusations of murder, chairing law reform meetings, hosting elegant dinner parties with
      eminent lawyers. It was hard not to snort with laughter at all this now.
         She was a conveyancing solicitor(3), dressed day and night in M&S(4), married to a
     doctor. BORING! Well okay, it had been comfortable and nice and the life she'd thought
     she'd wanted, or, at least, the life that had worked out around her without her really trying.
15       It was this nagging feeling of under-achievement which put her off doing the thing she
     really wanted to do now, the thing she had been thinking about for weeks, months even.
         She wanted to go downstairs into Andrew's little office, flick on the computer, dial up
     the internet and click on to that website, the one that would reveal where they were now,
     what they were ail doing - FriendsRevisited.com.
20       But... but... the thought of having to sum up her own life with the lines: 'Married, two
     children, live in Glasgow, work as a conveyancer part-time' ... Well, she just couldn't bear it.
     It sounded so crap. All it conjured up for Emma was the report card verdict: 'Not fulfilling her
     true potential. Could do better.' Why couldn't she at least have had more than two children?
     That would have been slightly less mundane.
25       In fact, she only really wanted to know about one girl, she didn't care about the rest,
     could predict what had become of them. This was just to see what had become of Sadie
     Summers. And Emma knew if she logged on(5) and posted up her details and Sadie Summers
     wasn't there, she would be disappointed and it would all have been a humiliation for nothing.
         Sadie had finally allowed Emma to become her friend in the very last year of school.
30  Before then, Emma had not been nearly interesting or cool enough and anyway, she'd been
     far too shy to ever approach Sadie, who was one of those impossibly self-possessed, self-
     confident girls. Totally comfortable with boys, Sadie could also talk back to teachers without
     getting into trouble, and on her even the school uniform looked sexy.
         And Sadie? Imagine having parents so cool that they named you Sadie? Not Emma
35  or Sarah or Jane.
        Sadie had been the only girl in the year not going on to university after school. She
     would get the grades, but her father - a scriptwriter or sculptor or something equally
     fabulous, Emma couldn't quite remember - had told her it would be the most boring three
     years of her life, so she had planned a three-year world tour instead, with jobs already lined
40  up in New York, California, Sydney.
         And much as the other girls disapproved, having had the benefits of education,
     degrees and a respectable profession drummed into them from the earliest possible age,
     Emma had been jealous and admiring, but also terrified that she was going to lose this
     brand-new, exotic friend so soon.
45       Sadie had promised to Write, phone, visit when back in Scotland ... But she had never
     even sent one single postcard. She'd just vanished with no hint of a forwarding address.

       Adapted from Carmen Reid, FrendsRevisited.com in Scottish Girls About Town, 2003.

(1) : alluring (adj.) : attirant.
(2) : attic (n.) : grenier.
(3) : conveyancing soliciter = conveyancer (n.): notaire,
(4) : M&S : Marks and Spencer.
(5) : log on (v.) : se connecter à.

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

Sujet 1 : The main character logs on to FriendsRevisited.com. She writes a message to her former classmates.

Sujet 2 : What do you think of the Internet as a way to make friends?