Baccalauréat ANGLAIS LV1, Séries ES-S (session 2008)

I. Compréhension
1. The scene takes place in the USA: "Outside her bedroom window, a siren's wail sliced through the white noise of a wet snowfall. Those eerie man-made moans were part of New-Your City's wallpaper (...)" (l.2-3)
2. There are three characters. Their names are Fiona Sweeny (the main character), Chris and Devi.
3. Fiona Sweeny's nickname is Fi, and she has one brother and two sisters. The four children were brought up by their mother alone.
4. Possible quotations: "She turned her attention back to her bag, which still had space. What else should she take?" (l.6-7) / "the sensation that everything around her was diaphanous, and that she herself was half here and half not" (l.43-44) / "Fi". Chris at the door of the bedroom, waved in the air the paper on which he'd written a list of all the items he thought she should bring and might forget." (l.30-31) / "Davi reached out to squeeze Fi's shoulder. 'Just be home by March'." (l.59)
5. Kenya is a country in Africa where Swahili and English are the two official languages. Nairobi is the Capital while Garissa is a smaller city.
6. a) She feels frightened. b) First of all, mosquitoes are responsible for the high death toll from malaria in Kenya. Then, they became a metaphor for other problems, such as violence and problems that can occur during such a trip in Africa. She feared the unknown.
7. a) Her mother was an inspiration: "Fi's mom had never been a big talker, but she'd been a hero (...) Now it was Fi's turn to do something worthwile". (l.28-29) b) She'd been a very quiet, discreet person, rather busy, even worried ("She'd never known her to be that carefree" l.9). She was considered as a hero by Fiona because she had brought up her four children alone, so she thought she too had to do something extraordinary.
8. Answer: a) The crime rate in Nairobi is very high.
9. a) The pronoun "them" refers to Chris and Davi. b) They