Annales gratuites Bac S : Friends revisited.com

         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.

I. From whose point of view is the story told ? (15 words maximum)

II. a. Where is the scene set ? Mention a city and a country. (10 words maximum)
b. Where precisely is the main character ? (10 words maximum)

III. a. What is the main character doing there ? (10 words maximum)
b. What is the immediate effect on the main character ? (30 words maximum)

IV. Focus on lines 1 to 11.
a. List four elements which constitute the main character's teenage "expectations".
b. In your own words, sum up what the main character's dream meant. (25 words maximum)

V. Focus on lines 12 to 24.
a. What do we learn about the main character's occupation and family ? (20 words maximum)
b. Sum up how she feels about her life using two adjectives. (10 words maximum)

c. Quote two elements to support your answer in b.

VI. a. What does "the thing" (line 15) refer to ? (10 words maximum)
b. What does "they" (line 18) refer to ? (10 words maximum)
c. Sum up in your own words the main character's intentions. (20 words maximum)

VII. a. Give up the full name of the "brand-new, exotic friend" mentioned line 44.
b. Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).
Match the number of the item with T or F (Ex. 8. F) and justify with quotations from the text.
According to the main character, this friend...
1... was a better student at university than her.
2... had been her best friend since early childhood.
3... was a shy pupil.
4... wore fashionable clothes at school.
5... had an uncommon first name.
6... was raised in a conventional family.

VIII. Compare the main character's opinion about this friend with what "the other girls" (lines 41) thought. (20 words maximum)
 

         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.

IV. Focus on lines 1 to 11.
a. List four elements which constitute the main character's teenage "expectations".