After 3 hours of exams, here is the answer key available for the French test and its 2 parts: grammar and language skills - comprehension and interpretation skills & dictation (from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.) then writing (10:45 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.).
The subject may have seemed confusing for the candidates: indeed, it is a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, a literary genre well known to the students but mainly approached in cycle 3, that is to say in 6th grade, when entering the program "Tricks and masks: resisting the strongest".
Like last year, with the fantasy genre on the 4th grade program, this choice of excerpt reminds candidates that the French certificate validates all the subjects of study and skills covered in college.
As expected, the 1st part is broken down into a first sub-part of questions of comprehension and interpreting skills and a 2nd sub-part which concerns linguistic and grammatical skills.
Date: Thursday, June 30, 2022
Series: General
Rating out of 100 points
Brevet 2022 / Corrected / French 1st part: Grammar and language skills / Comprehension and interpretation skills
Comprehension and interpretation skills (32 points)
1.
Towards 1 to 8:
a) The lion addresses the midge in verse 1 as we are told in verses 2 and 3 "that the Lion / Spoke one day to the Midge".
b) The statement of the Lion immediately triggers a declaration of war on the part of the Midge, as shown in verse 4, the indefinite pronoun “The other” designating the midge: “The other declared war on him.
".
This statement is the consequence of the lion's insulting remarks and his authoritarian tone.
Thus, through the apostrophes "puny insect" and "excrement of the earth" in verse 1 and through the imperative phrase "Go away" in the same verse, the lion aroused the wrath of the gnat.
2.
Lines 9 to 29:
a) The gnat dominates the fight.
Indeed, the present tense and the repetition of the adverb “sometimes” in lines 20 and 21 underline the omnipotence of the midge, its rapidity in the assault.
Also, the gnat seems to be everywhere at the same time as revealed by line 11 in which the attributive construction, "Was the Trumpet and the Hero", shows the two roles held by the gnat.
Finally, certain hyperbolic expressions such as "in a hundred places the harass" (v. 19), "universal alarm" (v. 16) insist on this domination of the gnat.
b) The tactic used by the midge is that of a total attack, which leaves no respite to the lion.
The latter is assailed by the bites of the midge which slips into many places on his body.
The gnat seeks to tire his opponent.
The terms "fond" (v. 13), "one hundred leagues" (v. 19), "sometimes" (repeated three times in verses 20 and 21), the mentions of the different parts of the body of the lion "the spine", "the muzzle", "the nostril" (v. 20 and 21) punctuate the fable and exhibit this merciless combat.
c) The fabulist highlights the movement and the agitation of the fight by different processes.
First of all, it multiplies the action verbs all in the present of narration in order to make the action livelier and more dynamic.
In addition, these verbs are often juxtaposed, which accentuates the impression of liveliness: "The unfortunate lion tears itself apart, makes its tail resound, […] beats the air" (v. 26 to 28) .
The poet also uses adverbs which come to underline the agitation, it is here the case of the adverb “sometimes” which insists on the various attacks to which the midge engages.
Moreover, the movement is perceptible to the alternation of long and short verses, the fable resting on alexandrines and octosyllables, meters of the verses which one could also associate with the alternation of crossed rhymes,
followed or embraced which will also bring a particular rhythm to this apologue.
Finally, we can note in verses 15 and 16 the enjambment which follows the sequence of the three verbs: “The quadruped scums, his eye sparkles;
/ He roars”.
All these processes are reminiscent of the epic tonality.
3.
The nominal groups which designate the lion are: "the quadruped" in verse 15, "the beast" (v. 24), "the unhappy lion" (v. 26).
Here, the reader has the impression that the lion is reduced to its animal status, that it is no longer humanized, which gives the fable a parodic dimension.
4.
The reversal of the situation consists in the death of the gnat itself trapped by a spider as verses 32 to 34 explain to us and in particular the euphemism “its end” to signify death.
This reversal of the situation is all the more brutal and unexpected as the verb "encounter" is repeated twice, associated the first time with what could be an anecdotal encounter, without consequence, that of a spider and the second time a meeting tragic.
5.
During this fable, the lion and the midge show pride and recklessness by misjudging their adversaries.
It is first of all the lion in verse 1 who shows himself superior to the gnat by apostrophizing in a particularly pejorative way and giving him orders, thus convinced that he is superior to him.
Then it is the midge's turn in the words related to direct speech to show himself vain when he boasts of dominating an ox: "I lead him to my fancy."
(v. 8).
The imprudence of the lion is highlighted by the two octosyllables of verses 17 and 18, "And this universal alarm / Is the work of a midge", in which the hyperbole "universal alarm" and the construction attributive emphasize the insignificance of the gnat,
which is confirmed by the following verse with the noun group “A runt of a fly” and the CC of place “in a hundred places” which prove to what extent the lion has underestimated his enemy.
Finally, the midge's pride can be read in the conclusion of the narrative part of the apologue.
The terms "with glory", "victory", "everywhere" emphasize the arrogance with which the gnat savors his success.
6.
The fable ends with two lessons as the fabulist explains: “I see two” (v. 36).
The first lesson is a warning: you must never underestimate your adversary, you must judge the enemy at his fair value and be even more wary of the one who seems the most harmless.
The attributive construction and the parallelism of relative superlatives highlight this first lesson: “The most to be feared are often the smallest”.
The second lesson relates to the unexpected occurrence of death which overwhelms even the strongest.
This second morality is built on an association of paronyms, "perishes" and "perils", and on the antithesis "great perils" and "smaller business".
7.
Picture:
a) The illustration shows the effects of midge attack through different processes.
First of all, the lion is drawn in motion, on one paw, claws out, tail wagging, thereby showing that he is defending himself, which we find in the fable in verses 26 and 27: tail around its sides, / Beats the air” Also, the illustrator shows us “the quadruped” in a bad posture: his spine bent, his head down, his mouth open, his eyes riveted on the little gnat, everything indicates to us the merciless fight in which the insect is engaged.
b) To give a glimpse of the end of the fable, the illustration places a large spider's web in the foreground and on the left, also highlighted by its position in height since it is built at the top of a shrub.
Occupying the same diagonal as the gnat, this element thus becomes the logical continuation of the reader's gaze and attention.
The spider, meanwhile, is highlighted by its position in the center of this network of threads.
Linguistic and grammatical skills
8.
"The other declared war on him" (verse 4).
a) “him”: COI or COS (since two object complements complete the same verb) of the verb “declared”.
“the war”: COD of the verb “declared”.
b) The other declared war on the lion.
c) First find the verb, then find its subject and then ask the question "What did the other say to him?"
".
One can also wonder about the transitivity of the verb “declared”, that is to say whether it accepts a CO, by trying the construction “to declare something”.
9.
We Could Build
-a relation of cause: As he roars, we hide.
/ Because he roars, we hide.
-a report of simultaneity: When he roars, we hide.
/ When he roars, we hide.
- a report of consequence: He roars as long as we hide.
/ He roars so well that we hide.
10.
“The invisible enemy” (verse 23).
a) The term "invisible" is formed by derivation since it includes the radical "vis" to which the negative prefix "in-" and the adjectival suffix "-ible" have been added.
b) An "invisible enemy" is an enemy that cannot be seen.
11. Rewrite the following passage, replacing “The Unhappy Lion” with “The Unhappy Lions”:
The unfortunate lions tear themselves to pieces,
Ring their tail around their sides,
Beat the air […];
and their extreme fury
Wearies them, kills them
Patent 2022 / Corrected / French 2nd part: Dictation
Dictation reminder
The mosquito and the lion
A mosquito approached a lion and said, “I am not afraid of you, and you are not more powerful than me.
If you want, I even challenge you to fight.
And, sounding its trunk, the mosquito swooped down on him, biting the hairless muzzle around the nostrils.
As for the lion, he tore himself with his own claws, until he gave up the fight.
The mosquito, having vanquished the lion, sounded its trumpet, intoned a song of victory, and took flight.
But he got entangled in a spider's web: while it devoured him, he lamented being killed by a common animal, a spider, he who had fought the most powerful animals.
According to Aesop, Fables, 7th-6th century BC.
Brevet 2022 / Corrected / French 2nd part: Writing work (drafting)
subject of imagination
The subject of imagination corresponds well to what the candidates could expect since it is a question of adding a passage to the narration of Jean de La Fontaine, a passage which immediately follows the victory of the gnat and which therefore precedes his unexpected death.
This is therefore a change of point of view since the assignment will essentially present an internal point of view centered on the gnat.
The status of the narrator is left to the free choice of the candidates who could therefore write their story in the first person singular, the midge therefore speaking in direct speech to his listeners, or in the third person singular and therefore favor in this case narration.
We will value the copies that have taken up, imitated the epic character of the fight by multiplying the verbs of action, which can be conjugated in the present of narration, by favoring the juxtaposition and the ellipse of the subject.
The proofreaders will also be careful that the feelings and the character of the gnat are put forward: it was therefore necessary to show how vain the insect is, proud of its victory, the expressive punctuation, the hyperbolic turns of phrase will well render this pride of the gnat.
The antitheses will also be able to underline the extent to which the small has neutralized the powerful.
Other animals can show joy, the weak triumphing over the strong, surprise and admiration, for the same reasons they can also be ironic against the lion, they can still be presented as skeptical and not believing in the story of the gnat, even criticism of the too ostentatious victory of the insect.
Particular attention will be paid to the correction of the language: punctuation, syntax, spelling, richness of the lexicon.
Subject of reflection
The subject of reflection is a classic subject, which is well supported by the text given for study since the apologue is a didactic genre, that is to say that it carries a lesson.
The literary and artistic culture of the candidates acquired personally or during their schooling should be particularly solicited for the examples.
We expect a rigorously constructed writing and to do this:
an introduction which announces the theme, one could here, for example, use the fable genre to write the primer, then which presents a problem (i.e. the reformulation of the question posed) and finally which announces a plan.
Rather, we expect a dialectical plan, that is to say a plan that proposes a thesis and an antithesis, but we can only defend the thesis.
a development built in distinct argued paragraphs and beginning with a logical connector in order to make explicit and obvious the links between the ideas (First, in addition, moreover, moreover, finally…).
The examples are just as important here as the arguments: they make it possible to support the point but also to show the corrector the culture that the candidate has built and his ability to use it in the service of a demonstration.
Among the arguments that could be put forward:
literature and art show us extraordinary beings who can serve as models and help us to adopt a different behavior, to improve ourselves.
For examples, we could both evoke epic literature,
The Odyssey
for example, and the actions worthy of admiration of Ulysses, but also the poems on resistance and committed art which give to read and to see an abnegation that can be a source of inspiration.
literature can have a didactic role, that of teaching.
Here, we could therefore refer to certain fables by Jean de La Fontaine which highlight the faults of personified animals to better make men think about their own actions.
We can cite, for example, the fable "The animals sick with the plague" in which cowardice is illustrated by the fact that all the animals gang up on the weakest, namely the donkey, to make it their scapegoat. .
We could also evoke the character comedies of Molière and the focus made by the playwright on a human defect, exaggerated and mocked to advance the mentalities of his contemporaries.
art and literature have over the centuries had a strong impact on men, they have helped to change thinking and therefore behavior.
We could refer here in particular to the Age of Enlightenment and recall what Voltaire, when he evokes the Negro of Surinam in
Candide
, has modified in the behavior of slavery, to the speech of Olympe de Gouges to defend the rights of women and to develop the behavior of men against them, to Victor Hugo's position in
Claude Gueux
and his reflection on the death penalty, to the poems of the same on misery or to his novel
Les Miserables
.
literature and art have no particular aim, they are not there to help but more to create beauty, regardless of effects.
Here we can evoke all the literature and pictorial works that claim to be an expression of beauty: poems by Théophile Gautier, for example, which deny art any social or political dimension.
literature and art may have primarily a pleasing aim, wishing to entertain more than to instruct.
Thus, indirect argumentation (apologue, fable, etc.) may not allow the reader to question himself because the message is implicit in it and some readers may stick to the primary reading, namely reading for pleasure.
literature and art find themselves confronted with other means of communicating ideas: social networks, television, etc.
Finally, the assignment ends with a conclusion of a few lines which takes up its strong ideas and tries to open up on a broader subject.
As with the subject of imagination, candidates will be assessed on their ability to use rich, clear and non-mistakeable language.
See also:
Brevet dates 2022
Results of the 2022 Brevet