Ce blog est à destination de tous les élèves qui souhaitent enrichir leur connaissance de la langue anglaise. Chaque jour, des cours nouveaux expliqués...
(cliquez sur le drapeau de votre choix pour lire la suite dans la langue voulue)
you took a 45-minute test. I will try and give you the results next time I see you. I hope for you that at least your vocabulary and lessons are known... as for the oral comprehension test, I'm
aware it is not easy but it has to be done!
Who wrote the date on the board today ?? Was it Moussa?
Olfa corrected the pronunciation exercise.
And we talked about Richard Wright the author of Black
Boy I recommend you to read, even in French.
We talked about segregation in America. And you write a short paragraph after you said what you knew
about the subject.
Bravo! Vous savez beaucoup de choses sur le sujet!!
Voici un court résumé en français:
La Ségrégation raciale aux Etats-Unis
C'est en 1865 que l'esclavage fut constitutionnellement aboli sur tout le territoire de l'Union, avec le vote du
treizième amendement. Puis les quatorzième et quinzième amendements furent votés (1868 et 1870), qui garantissaient les droits civiques des Noirs, et leur égalité devant la loi avec les
Blancs. Cependant, ces amendements à la Constitution restèrent lettre morte, surtout dans les états du sud où des artifices législatifs permirent de réduire jusqu'à 90% le nombre de Noirs
pouvant voter ou se présenter à des élections.
C'est dans les années 1880 qu'un système nouveau se mit en place : la ségrégation. Blancs et Noirs étaient
séparés : chaque communauté avait ses propres restaurants, hôtels, terrains de jeux, parcs pour enfants, écoles ou églises. Avec la première puis la seconde guerre mondiale, les Noirs furent
très lentement intégrés au sein d'escadrilles communes... Mais c'est en 1948 que la « déségrégation » fut décidée dans l'armée, alors qu'elle perdurait dans la société
civile.
C'est seulement à partir de la présidence de Trumann (1945-1953) que la ségrégation fut considérée comme
anticonstitutionnelle par le pouvoir fédéral qui interdit notamment la ségrégation dans les écoles. Certains états s'opposèrent alors aux directives fédérales, ce qui provoqua de nombreux heurts
(Arkansas, 1957 - Mississippi, 1962...). La lutte conjuguée de mouvements noirs revendicatifs (Le pasteur Martin Luther King et la « désobéissance civile ») avec l'intervention de l'Etat fédéral mirent fin à la ségrégation
raciale dans les années 70-80 aux Etats-Unis. Cependant, des certains états, ou dans certains quartiers de grandes villes, une ségrégation demeure, plus sournoise, car économique, et plus
individuelle.
Il y a quelques erreurs d'anglais sur le texte des panneaux de cette vidéo. Trouvez-les et envoyez-moi en
commentaire le résultat de vos découvertes avec les corrections pour Mercredi 30 septembre 20 heures au plus tard. Bon courage! Et n'oubliez pas l'extrait de Black Boy jeudi prochain!
we first spoke about the G-20 summit. Here is what we said:
"The strongest 20 countries in the world with a strong economy and army are gathering in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania today in order to solve economy and
environmental problems."
Then we listened to the text recording and learnt how to pronounce the /-ed/ ending for sure without a possible mistake.
Here is the chart that we established with the verbs from the text:
[t]: looked, marked, ached, laughed.
[d]:moved, obeyed, realized, pulled, straightened, healed.
[id]: wounded, blurted.
And here is the rule in French:
[t]: on prononce [t] si le dernier son du verbe ne fait pas vibrer les cordes vocales.
[d]: on prononce [d] si le dernier son du verbe fait vibrer les cordes vocales.
[id]: on prononce [id] si le dernier son du verbe est déjà [t] ou [d].
Tout doit être logique et fluide au niveau de la prononciation.
Today after speaking briefly about the G20 summit, we began to study our last text before your final exam on reality TV.
Here is what we said about the G-20:
"to be written by Ingy".
Here is what we said about the text:
The text is an article from the website MSNBC.
It deals with the birth and the evolution of Reality TV shows.
It started with "Big Brother" but became really popular in 2000 with "Survivor".
The author believes these shows are "instructive", "fascinating", and "entertaining".(l.37-38)
HW: you need to complete "Part One" of your worksheet.
You can download it again here if necessary:
Here is a link to the MSNBC website so that you can see what the channel's program are and justify why the journalist is in favour of reality tv shows.
congratulations on your oral test! you did a good job! All the volunteers have obtained good grades. And as you know, the oral mark is very important in the English class... nearly half the points!
keep it up!
Warm up:G.20 is a meeting of important economic nations to talk about economy.
They are gathering (having meeting) today in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
The main problems:
- The environment and global warming.
- The economic crisis.
Here is what the 1st group wrote in the lesson copy book last time about immigration:
"Nowadays, bothwarrefugees and Third World immigrants go to the US.
Before, immigrants had to go through Ellis Island.
They had to take a physical/medical
and literacy test. Either they passed the test or they returned to their country.
= They were sent back to their country.
= They were forced to go back."
Focus on Grammar: Attention ici, la forme passive "be sent back / be forced to go back" est plus pertinente que la voix active. En effet, les
immigrants ne choisissaient pas de retourner dans leur pays. Ils y étaient forcés. On utilise cette forme lorsque le sujet dont on parle subit l'action. Le sujet grammatical du verbe "sent back"
est bien "the immigrants" mais ce n'est pas le sujet lexical (celui qui fait l'action, l'agent). Ici, cette forme ajoute une impression de victimisation des immigrants.
Deux articles à lire pour approfondir ce point de grammaire:
In the second half of the hour, we started a written expression exercise. You'll have to write a letter from Jacob to his aunt. Here is the subject: "After the events in his village, Jacob
decides to write a letter to his aunt Mary who lives in England. Insist on his feelings and project." (200 words).
I gave you a worksheet on "how to write a letter". You can download it again here:
You were also given a vocabulary list of words expressing "sadness, anger, fear, and surprise".Try to use it wisely in your letter. You can download it here:
HW: For tomorrow, learn the words of the "sadness" section (two columns). For the next module, finish writing the letter.
L'aspect est quelque
chose qui n'existe plus vraiment de manière significative dans la langue française et c'est donc l'une des choses les plus complexes à saisir pour quelqu'un qui apprend l'anglais ou une autre
langue aspectuelle.
L'aspect, c'est ce qui permet de donner un point de vue sur le déroulement d'une action; de dire comment on la perçoit. Il permet de faire des commentaires sur
cette action.
Il y a deux aspects en anglais qui prennent la forme BE + V-ing (l'auxiliaire BE conjugué suivi d'un verbe en -ing, appelé aussi forme continue ou
progressive dans certaines grammaires) ou HAVE + V-en (l'auxiliaire HAVE conjugué suivi d'un verbe au participe passé, appelé aussi parfait dans certaines grammaires).
Be + V-ing : Lorsque j'emploie cette forme, je considère l'action dont je parle comme "en déroulement" ou "non achevée" contrairement à la forme simple ou je
n'émets pas de commentaire mais ne fais qu'énoncer de simples faits. Par vulgarisation, on dira que be + V-ing correspondrait au français "en train de...". Mais cela ne peut être totalement
validé (cf. notamment l'exemple 3- ci-dessous)
Ainsi je pourrai dire:
1- Forme simple: "This morning, I got up, I had a quick shower and dashed outside because I was late for
work". ("Ce matin, je me suis levé, j'ai ma douche rapidement et je suis sorti comme une flèche parce que j'étais en retard pour aller au travail")
2- Forme aspectuelle: "This morning, I was having a shower when you called me." ("Ce matin, j'étais sous ma
douche quand tu m'as appelé").
3- Forme aspectuelle: "He isgetting on my nerves! I can't stand him anymore." ("Mais qu'est-ce qu'il
est agaçant! Je ne peux plus le supporter!")
En 1-, on fait un historique de ce qui s'est passé le matin. En 2- en revanche, même s'il on mentionne des faits qui se sont passés dans la matinée, on ne les
envisage pas de la même manière. A savoir, on les met en relation l'un par rapport à l'autre et on émet un commentaire sur eux. On ne parle pas de l'action /have a bath/ comme étant un fait
arrivé à son terme mais comme étant inachevé. On ne sait pas d'ailleurs si la personne a pu finir de prendre sa douche ou pas, si elle a dû l'interrompre et sortir de la salle de bains pour
pouvoir répondre au téléphone.
En 3-, c'est bien d'un commentaire dont il est question de la part de l'énonciateur, commentaire d'ailleurs emprunt d'animosité, qu'il serait difficile voire
absurde de traduire par "en train de..."
we corrected the exercise that you had to do for last time. We noticed that in a compound noun, the word that was the most important one was the last one. When you translate, you translate
it first. For example :
- a robot hand : une main de robot.
- a brain implant : un implant cérébral. ...
We then finished analysing the link words (mots de liaison) that you will need to use in your essays from now on. You need to know their use and their meaning. For example:
- Yet: pourtant.
- However: cependant.
- ...
HW:
For Friday 25th of Sept. - Vocabulary and lesson tests
For Wednesday 30th of Sept. - Essay: Are you afraid of technology? why or why not? (200 words).
today you behaved like little monsters! and the class was not productive at all...
We only succeeded in correcting your translation exercises...
Here is what we corrected :
2 ==> I believe it is much toorisky and the consequences are really
unpredictable.
3 ==> You know the Johnsons expect their son to be almost perfect, don't you ?
4 ==> They are sure he will neither be alcoholic nor obese.
5 ==> I would prefer my daughter to be short-sighted and bald later rather than to use genetic manipulations.
6 ==> I would be afraid of giving birth to a monster or putting their life in
danger.
7 ==> Yet, I would be really elated / enthused to have a child who was never sick.
8 == > It is necessary to avoid playing with fire and to prevent scientists from using techniques which are close to
eugenics.
The warm up about "Pushing Daisies": "A child discovers he has a special power.
He can raise people from the dead. But there's a trick. If he touches the person a second time, they will die again forever, FOREVER !!
Great power involves great responsibility."
HW: you need to find the questions corresponding to the answers about the text "Human possibilities" in your book p. 142-143. You can download the worksheet again below:
today we wrote definitions for the following terms in your lesson copybooks. You need to know them by heart! Here is what we said:
- Ellis Island:
It's a symbol of liberty / freedom but also of stress. It was
founded in the 1890's .
Immigrants had togo through Ellis Island in order
to enter the Us. They had to take two tests: a medical test and a literacy test. Either they passed the tests or they were sent back.
Point sur les structures engagées ici:
had to = l'obligation au passé.
in order to = exprime le but, la visée.
Either ... or ... = exprime l'alternative entre deux possibilité = soit ... soit ...
- E Pluribus Unum:
It is the motto of the US. It means "out of many one". It is a symbol for the melting-pot. You can find it on the seal of America (on coins and dollars bills) and on official documents.
It was created in 1776 to highlight the fact that the United States used to be a land of immigration.
Point sur les structures engagées ici:
used to = on l'utilise pour parler d'un fait du passé révolu et qui a changé (ce qui est sous-entendu ici, c'est: "les USA ne sont plus une terre
d'accueil").
- Pogrom:
It is a Russian word meaning "assault","attack".
It designates the persecution of the Jewish community at the beginning of the 20th century in Russia. Jewish villages were
destroyed and many Jews were looted and killed.
Point de grammaire de la leçon:
- la forme passive est souvent employée ici soit parce qu'on ne sait pas qui fait l'action (qui a créé Ellis Island ????), soit parce que c'est évident, soit parce qu'on veut insister sur la
victimisation du peuple dont on parle (les immigrants ne choisissaient pas de retourner dans leur pays... ils y étaient forcés...).
- On remarquera que la traduction d'un énoncé à la voix passive se traduira souvent en français par "On". Ex:"Either they passed
the tests or they were sent back".
= Soit les immigrants réussissaient les examens, soit ils étaient renvoyés chez eux / soit on les renvoyait chez eux.
At the end of the lesson, I asked you to make hypotheses about what Jacob was thinking before he shot the Russian soldier dead. Here is what you said:
He hesitated. Maybe the soldier had family.
He wondered if he should shoot the soldier.
He thought about the consequences.
He recalled his father.
He remembered what the soldiers did to his village.
HW: for next time, you need to transform theses sentences using the modal auxiliary may or might.
Remember, we're talking in the past, so the structure must be "may have + p. passé".
If you want to have an insight into how it was like to immigrate to the US at the beginning of the 20th century, just watch this documentary about Ellis Island:
today after having a little conversation about TV series in English, we continued studying the movie Gattaca, but this time not with a movie extract. We read the corresponding text in your books p.
142-143.
PLEASE BRING YOUR BOOKS FROM NOW ON!
Here is what we said about the characters and the evolution of their behaviours:
Group 2:
"The parents can choose the physical and mental characteristics of their future child.
They can choose...
... for him notto have any diseases.
... for the baby neither to be short-sighted nor to be long-sighted.
... for their child not to become obese."
About the text page 142:
We have just spoken for the moment about Maria, Antonio's wife.
"Maria: She is nervous, she is hesitant. She doesn't know what to say to the geneticist. She still has doubts about her
future child. She's afraid of taking a bad decision / of making a bad choice.
Her behavior shows that, for her, it is a very important issue. Her stress grows more and more powerfuluntil she hears about the musical ability. She is enthused / elated."
Correction of the translation:
"Do you think that one day it will be possible to determine before birth a child's abilities as well as their physical and psychological characteristics?"
GROUP1 : "to be written by Virginie..."
HW: I also gave you a list of sentences to translate for tomorrow. You can download it again here:
We've already corrected the 1st sentence. Do the rest as homework.
See you tomorrow.
PS: have you noticed the wonderful yellow daisy just for you ? ;)
After a quick oral recap of the previous lesson, we began to study a text. It is the story of Jacob, a Jewish immigrant who fled Russia because of the pogroms. He
decided to go to the US in order to save his life. The text begins when he is with the literacy inspector.
Here is what we said about the characters:
Group 1: "The first inspector was strict because there were lots of
immigrants a day going through Ellis Island. He chose the immigrants. He did a literacy
test in order to select who could enterthe US.
On the contrary, the second doctor was more sympathetic. He was in charge of the medical
test. He examined Jacob's wound / injury.
Jacob was stressed out because he knew he could go back to Russia . If he didn't pass the test he would be sent back."
Attention aux faux-amis en anglais:
"sympathetic" ne veut pas dire "sympathique" mais "compatissant", "qui partage la douleur".
"pass" ne veut pas dire "passer" mais "réussir". Il y a une différence entre "take a test" (passer, se présenter à un examen) et "pass a test" (réussir un
examen). "The immigrants had to take a medical and literacy test but they were stressed out. They didn't know if they were going to pass the tests or fail (échouer) the
tests."
Group 2: "Jacob may have been a Russian immigrant who was in his thirties and fled
Russia because he was persecuted as he was part of the Jewish community. He wanted to become an American citizen. He arrived in Ellis Island in order to take the literacy and medical tests to enterthe US. The first inspector was extremely strict. He was not cooperative
because there were many immigrants. He was in charge to check if Jacob was literate (if jacob could read and count) and
healthy.".
You can download a copy of the text here:
and your worksheet again here:
If you want to listen to the audio version of the text:
Here is a great site I highly recommend you to visit if you are a fan of American TV shows.
Click on the icon to access it:
You'll be able to watch below a show I have discovered and I think is worth watching even though it can sometimes be difficult to understand because of the accent of the black detective... Click on
the button once (there's a pop-up window you need to close) and a second time to start the video. Enjoy!
You all have the schedule now for the papers you will have to hand me in.
A new routine is set. Every one of you will have to present a current event every week. You can use any source you like, provided it is in English, a video, a newspaper article, a magazine article.
Naturally the topic will have to be in relation with what we're dealing with. I did the first. I used a Time magazine article called :
France considers a tax on Carbon Emissions. Here is the link to the article. You can watch the video on wind power by clicking on the link you will find in the article.
This has been a very disturbed class. In 2 sessions we had 3 fire drills and had to evacuate the premises.
Anyway, we managed to do our brainstorming about: children, Advertising and Products.
We didn't have time to go through how to make an account of a text, so please have a look at: Group 2. You will also find
there the article you are to study for next time in group : Palm unveils a smartphone for younger users.
HOMEWORK: Make an account of the article: Palm unveils a smartphone for younger users. You will make a plan, this work is not a written paper. You will be asked to present the article to the class
ORALLY.
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