SUJET d'Anglais
France Métropolitaine - Section S - Juin 2003
I. TEXTE
One
afternoon Chris and I went up the valley to the gold workings to search
out wood for the boat he was planning. A century before the upper valley
had been well populated with men looking for gold and above the stream
bed we came upon a collection of derelict(1) huts and their complicated
arrangement of wooden parapets and sluices. We worked on a sluice run
until we could free its boards with ease, digging to loosen the
framework from the earth. Then Chris stopped and stood up, he held in
his hand a long tapered bone from which he shook the remaining traces of
soil. What's this ? Leaning forward, he pointed the bone at my chest, he
was frowning heavily. You are condemned to take this boat we build and
sail in her to the west for all eternity, he said, and I said, Don't
joke what kind of animal is it anyway ?
We scraped at the earth at the base of the frame and came upon
others bones, they were laid out in a pattern that twisted in under the
frame posts, and after a while Chris said, I think it's a man. Maybe the
miners buried people alive under their buildings for luck, like the
Melanesians. But the skeleton was too large to be human, the bones of
the legs were exceptionally long and as we uncovered more of it, we
could see that the creature had a thin, curved neck like a swan, but
much longer and more powerful. Then I said, It's a moa. We both stopped
digging and sat back from the skeleton. We shouldn't move it, I said and
Chris said, But who is there to show it to ? We sat and looked at the
bones for a while, a little afraid aware that the great bird had
remained undisturbed for a thousand years. Then Chris said that we
should collect the bones and take them to the house where we could piece
the skeleton together again, it would be safer there though safer
against what he did not say. That evening we sat on the veranda and
tried to remember what we knew about the great flightless birds that had
ruled the country before man arrived from the north and hunted them into
oblivion. We argued about their size and colouring and finally agreed
that they had been as high as twelve feet, with powerful scaly legs and
a plumage of deepest blue. Chris was certain that they were predators
able to catch their victims through theirs great speed across the
ground, but I was sure that they did not kill, that they were stately
birds who were able to live quietly among the rich grassland of the
time.
In the days that followed we laid out the bones in a shed(2) beside
the house and began to fit them together. I had made a sketch of how
they lay and Chris had glued a piece of paper to each bone and numbered
it according to my drawing the way we imagined scientists did. Because
the skeleton had been twisted where it lay in the earth our attempt to
arrange it in its true shape was based partly on how we imagined the
bird must once have looked. We worked on the moa late into the evenings
the two of us crouched in the shed under an oil lamp with the bones
scattered around us arranging adjusting, fitting and matching the pieces
we had taken from the earth, until we were light-headed with the effort
of it, and still the great bird lay stubbornly misshapen on the floor,
less clear now in its form than when we had uncovered it first at the
head of the valley. We had been working on the bird now for more than a
week, and we sat defeated in front of the skeleton looking down at the
bones, which showed ashen white in the dull light from the lamp. Are you
sure you didn't make a mistake with the numbering ? I said. Chris stared
at me for a moment without speaking then turned back to the bird and I
wished that I had said nothing.
John
Cranna, Archaelogy. 1989
(1) derelict : that had not been in use for a long
time
(2) shed : small building for storing garden tools or equipement
II.
Questions
1. Give the names of the main characters.
2. The area where the adventure starts has been
abandoned for about 100 years. Tick the right answer and justify it by
quoting from the text.
yes no
3. When do the main characters find themselves in the
following places ?
Fill in the grid.
|
|
Places |
Time |
|
"One afternoon [...] was planning" |
the valley |
|
|
"...it would be safer [...] on the veranda" |
the
veranda |
|
|
"In the days [...] and began to ..." |
a
shed |
|
4. Who or what do the underlined pronouns refer to ?
"the boat he was planning"
"we came upon"
"sail in her to the west"
"we uncovered more of it"
5.What do the main characters find ? Tick the right
answer.
the skeleton of a swan
a human skeleton
the skeleton of a great bird
a Melanesian boat
6. a. The two characters do not agree on what to do
with their discovery. Justify this statement by two quotations. (Focus
on the sentences from "We scraped [...] " to " [...] for a thousand
years.").
b. What decision is finally made ? Answer in your own
words. (20 words).
7. Are the two characters scientists ? Justify your
answer by quoting from the text.
yes no
8. "We worked on the moa late into the evenings".
What does this sentence imply about their task?
Explain in your own words. (20 words).
9. Analyse the feelings of the two characters at the
end of the extract.
Justify your answer by quoting the text. (30 words).
Quotations :
10. Translate into French.
From "Are you sure..." to "I had said nothing".
III.
Expression
Choisissez l’un des deux sujets suivants : (300 mots environ)
1.
To what extent can archaeology be exciting?
2.
You have just moved into a new house. You and a friend
of yours make an unexpected discovery. Wright about it.
