Hey,

I confirm you that you will take your final test on Thursday May 20th from 8 to 10 am.

Room #10 (music room in the Lycée Professionnel part, when you cross the doors, on your right).

I have had the approval of both your philosophy and German teacher. I'll send them an email to confirm it once more.

I'll see you in two days anyway.

Take care,

M. Hattais.

Hey,

today we first had a little chat about two major topical issues currently burning in the US. Here is what we said about them: 

There are currently two major topical issues in the US:

- First, the terrorist threat. A bomb was luckily defused / disabled / disarmed in Manhattan last week.

- Second, the shores / coasts of Louisiana are threatened by an oil spill / an oil slick / a black tide. Two weeks ago, an off-shore oil rig exploded and nobody has been able to control the oil flow since then.

Then we corrected the exercises you had to do for today and explained some elements that were still unclear in the text for some of you.

Here is the correction (both 7b- and 8-I and II):

7.b) The four elements convey the impression that the settlers are in another world, just surrounded by natural ressources. It reinforces the ideas of fear and threat since the action unfolds in a planet they don't know. These elements refer to: nature / a primitive state / a primeval stage.

8.

I.

a) drums        b) curtain         c) whether          d) dawns         e) chill
f) twig            g) start             h) fancied             i) accursed      j) subdued

II. "to be written by Amaury"

Here are the lastest comments:

The nature which surrounds the settlers may be hostile since it "bars the way for [their] return". It feels as if the sailors were imprisoned. What's more, the sounds that they hear are uncanny / eerie. They don't understand whether the noises they can hear are a curse, a prayer or a chant of welcome. 

If you want to review your vocabulary you can complete this online exercise:

HW: For tomorrow (Wed. 05th) you need to finish the worksheet (ex: 9) plus the part HW at the bottom of the page. For the afternoon group, you also need to comment upon two sentences from the text.

For next week =

- Tue. 11th -> Write a continuation to the story (200 words).

- Wed. 12th -> Translate the text from line 1 to line 6 (until "... heart of darkness"). 

You final test for this sequence will probably take place on Thursday May 20th. I need to see with your philosophy teacher (S3) if she can grant me an hour of class + see with Virginie (L1) when she could take the test too.

Hey,

today we first did a quick warm up about the California Gold Rush and you learnt many interesting facts about it. Here is what we said:

The gold rush happened is the 1850's in California, more precisely in San Francisco. Within a year, more than 300.000 gold diggers descended upon the West coast. They wanted to strike it rich and find gold nuggets.
Levi Strauss profited from this gold by selling jeans with a special feature / characteristic.
There was a rivet at the pocket to prevent the jeans from tearing.

Virginie doesn't really like wearing jeans because she thinks they're not comfortable and too hot in the summer.
As for Eliott, he totally agrees. Skirts are more fashionable.

Then we continued working on the understanding of this difficult text. We corrected the exercise you had to do for today about characters, places, time, point of view and atmosphere. Here are the indications from the text that have helped us determine all those charateristics:

First Group of People:

*Who?
Marlow and "pilgrims". Marlow is the captain of the steamer and "pilgrims" is the nickname of the crew (the crew is the people who work on the boat, the sailors).
*Where?
on the steamer, on the river.
*When?
At night, more precisely at dawn / daybreak.
*Characteristics of this group?
The are at bay / lost / scared

Second Group of People:
*Who?
"wood-cutters" (l.10) ==> the natives.
*Where?
in the jungle.
*Characteristics of this group ?
They are hidden and they're playing drums.

Which point of view?
it's a first person narrative and we have the impressions of Marlow and his crew.

Finally, you had to find out some words proving that the characters (Marlow and his crew) are confused, lost and scared. Here are the first quotations:

I don't know (l.1)
Something (l.2)
Very slow (l.3)
It was very quiet there (l.6)
We could not tell (l.9)
The snapping of a twig would make you start (.10-11)
Unknow planet (l.12)
Suddenly (l.14)
Incomprehensible (l.18)
Who could tell ? We were cut off from the comprehension... (l.19)
Phantoms (l.20)
We could not understand / could not remember
No memories (l.24)
Unearthly (l.25)
Monster / Monstrous (l.26)

HW: you need to finish highlighting the words that prove the characters' state of mind, be able to present the document and also tell me why some words were left out in the text I finally gave you.

Hey,

today we started the new sequence entitled "Disturbing Lives". Here is what we said about the pictures you had to analyse:

Disturbing Lives:

-First document: The document depicts a special kind of map. In the center, there is the head of a man with a top hat. He represents England and the power of the British empire. He has the hands of an octopus. His powerful hands are laid on the territories of the Commonwealth (Egypt, Canada,...)

-Second document: The document depicts the power of a white hand over some black slaves. The hand is holding them prisoner with a leash. The word "fear" is written on the knuckles.

°It could refer to the slaves' fear. The British empire may have spread fear to keep their colonies.

°It could also refer to the settlers' fear. The British settlers may have been frightened of the wild and the unknown people in their colonies.

You can download the documents here:

HW: finish completing the chart with information from the worksheet + do some research about Joseph Conrad (cf. questions at the end of your worksheet).

Hey,

today we first listened to a short document about illegal downloading. You can listen to it here again:

Here is what we said about it:

The document deals with illegal downloading. Some artists like Lily Allen, Pink Floyd or Radiohead have gathered in London to find a solution. Lily Allen has threatened to quit the music industry. Their proposal consists in:
- first sending two letters of warning,
- and then slowing down the Internet connection of the hacker.

The system is a little different in France. You may receive two letters of warning but your connection can be shut down, you can be sent to jail and receive an expensive fine.

Then we started correcting your test from last week. Here are the answers to the first questions:

Correction of the test :

1/ The characters are Carla Folsom, her son, Jimmy Folsom, and the narrator who is certainly a neighbour or a good friend of the Folsoms'.
Pour cette forme, on doit utiliser le possessif et donc ne pas oublier "l'apostrophe s" ou le pronom possessif:
Ex : Terry is a good friend of mine / hers / of Neil's / of the Smiths'.

2/
"The alleged snipers were caught" l.1
"The past several weeks" l.6
"The sniper crisis" l.56
"The snipers were out there" l.57

3/

a) Gunmen terrorized the Washington area in October 2002
d) Terror reigned for 3 weeks

4/ a = Video, b = games, c = pick

...

HW: don't forget that tomorrow, we will correct your mock exam from February. You can print a copy of the subject if you have lost yours down here: