Annales gratuites Bac L : Reaching his hero - expression

Choose one of the following subjects.
(250 words approximately. Write down the number of words.)

Subject 1
"The papers are full of the Armaan-Urvashi breakup". You are a journalist working for a tabloid. Write the article.

Subject 2
More and more blogs on the Internet are dedicated to stars. How can you account for that phenomenon ? Say what you think about it.

Salim comes running through the door and collapses face down on the bed.
          I am alarmed. "Salim! ... Salim!" I shout. "What's happened to you? How come you are
    back so early?" I turn him on his back. He is laughing.
          "The most amazing thing has happened today. This is the happiest day of my life," he
5   declares.
          "What is it? Have you won the lottery?"
          "No. Something even better than winning the lottery. I have seen Armaan Ali."
          Bit by breathless bit, the whole story comes out. How Salim caught a glimpse of Armaan Ali
    while doing his daily round in Ghatkopar. The star was alighting from his Mercedes-Benz to enter a
10  five-star hotel. Salim was travelling on a bus to deliver his last tiffin⁽¹⁾ box to a customer. The
    moment he spotted Armaan, he jumped down from the speeding vehicle, narrowly missing being
    run down by a car, and ran toward the actor, who was passing through the hotel's revolving door.
    He was stopped by the tall, strapping uniformed guard and prevented from entering the hotel.
    "Armaan!" Salim called, trying desperately to catch the star's attention. Armaan heard the cry,
15  stopped in his tracks, and turned around. His eyes made contact with Salim's. He gave a faint
    smile, a barely perceptible nod of acknowledgement, and continued walking into the lobby. Salim
    forgot all about the tiffin and came racing home to give me the news of his dream having come
    true. A customer of Gawii Tiffin Carriers went hungry that afternoon.
          "Does Armaan look different from the way he appears onscreen?" I ask.
20       "No, He is even better in real life," says Salim. "He is taller and more handsome. My
    ambition in life is to shake his hand, at least once. I probably won't wash it for a month after that."
           I reflect on how good it is to have simple, uncomplicated ambitions. Like shaking a film
     star's hand. [...]
           "Your ambition is to shake Armaan's hand," I say to Salim. "But what do you think is
25  Armaan's ambition in life? He seems to have it all - face, fame, and fortune."
          "You are wrong," Salim replies solemnly. "He does not have Urvashi."
          The papers are full of the Armaan-Urvashi breakup, after a whirlwind romance lasting nine
    months. There is speculation that Armaan is completely heartbroken. That he has stopped eating
    and drinking. That he might be suicidal. Urvashi Randhawa has returned to her modelling career.
30         I see Salim crying. His eyes are red and wet with tears. He has not eaten all day. The heart-
    shaped glass frame containing a picture of Armaan and Urvashi, on which he had spent almost
    half his meager salary, lies on the ground, shattered into a hundred pieces.
            "Look, Salim, you are being childish. There is nothing you can do about it," I tell him.
            "If only I could meet Armaan. I want to comfort him. To hold his hand and let him cry on my
35  shoulder. They say crying makes the heart lighter."
          "And what good will that do? Urvashi will not come back to Armaan."
          "Suddenly Salim looks up. "Do you think I could speak to her? Maybe I could persuade her
    to come back to Armaan. Tell her that it was all a mistake. Tell her how sad and contrite he is."
          I shake my head. I don't want Salim trampling all over Mumbai⁽²⁾ looking for Urvashi
40  Randhawa. "It's not a good idea to poke your nose into other people's affairs, or make other
    people's troubles your own, Salim. Armaan Ali is a mature man. He will deal with his
    troubles in his own way."
          "At least I will send him a gift," says Salim.
          He goes and buys a large bottle of Fevicol glue and sets about sticking the shattered pieces
45  of the heart-shaped frame back together again. It takes him a week, but finally the heart is whole, a
    grid of crisscrossing black streaks the only reminder of the fault lines on which it broke.
          "I will now send it to Armaan," he says. "It is a symbol that even a broken heart can be put
    together again."
          "With Fevicol?" I ask.
50       "No. With love and care."
          Salim wraps it up in cloth and sends it to Armaan Ali's home address.
          I don't know whether it reached Armaan or not. Whether it was broken by the postal
    department, smashed by the security guards, or trashed by Armaan's secretary. The important
    thing is that Salim believes it reached his hero and helped to heal his wound.

Vikas Swarup, Q & A, 2006

⁽¹⁾ tiffin: lunch
⁽²⁾ Mumbai: the other name for Bombay

Subject 1

● Trouver un titre court accrocheur et racoleur :
- "What a disaster!"
- "A shattered love affair"
- "The end of a dream"

● Find more in the following article 

Utiliser les notions de surprise :
- How incredible...
- What a surprising event
- It is such an incredible story

●Les superlatifs :
- The most handsome actor
- The sexiest actress on earth
- The best actor ever

●Le souhait :
- If only they could be back/stick back together again
- We'd rather they reconciled
- We wish they had never parted/split up
- We wish she had never dumped him

Subject 2

- It is often acknowledged that blogging on stars is a growing phenomenon.
OR
It is a common place to notice that there is an increasing interest in stars on the Internet nowadays.

- Today, the interest which was voiced in tabloids has now shifted onto a modern media/vehicle that is the Internet.

- One of the most striking features of this topic is the way stars arouse strong emotions among teenagers.

- Blogging allows young people to have their own say about their favourite icons. It gives them the feeling that they can talk to them personally, and maybe alter their lives.

- It is interesting to consider why people spend so much time blogging instead of communicating with other people in real life.

- It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that bloggers are looking for recognition, let alone fame and being read by the others is a way to be valued and recognized.

● Accords/Désaccords :
- I approve of/ I disapprove of/ I must disagree with...
- I object to + verbe-ing/ I am in favour of/I stand for...

● Conclure
- We may fell like concluding that...
- This, of course, leads to the logical conclusion that...
- All things considered, we may wonder why so many people pry into other people's lives.