Ze blog, le blog d’anglais !

Rotate the cube with your mouse, and try to find out what these famous places are, as well as the cities and countries where you can see them !

And, the winner is … ???

NB. You need Flash Player to view the cube.

Release on July 11^th

If you are addicted to the supernatural, here’s the trailor of a film that will make you shiver… this summer!

Don’t forget to switch on the sound of your computer!
Here is the official site of the film (trailers, bonus, games, and lots of stuff available on line).

This text recounts one of the violent incidents which occurred in Harlem (New-York) during the Civil Rights Movement, when the Blacks had moved to northern cities to escape segregation in the south.

1) Vocabulary research, in the order of the text (see your sheets): enforcement / lack / neighbourhood / rampant with / dilapidated / welfare / occur / makeup / allegedly / loot.

2) large scale : sur une grande échelle / motto: devise / harassment: harcèlement / riot : émeute.

3) Passive:

1. The blacks have been (being) persecuted for decades by the Ku Kux Klan.
   
2. White-owned shops were looted and burnt during the riots.

4) The blacks disappointment. Four elements to mention: expectancies: better opportunities and lack of segregation / reality: poor neigbourhoods (ghettoes) and menial jobs / unemployment

5) Two parts in this question. the were given menial jols/blue collar jobs + poor wages - consequences: lived on welfare + development of crime (drugs, alcohol)

• 0.5 point per element + 1 point for the language

6) The police didn’t “protect and serve” them (it was only for the Whites), but instead they “patrolled and controlled” the Blacks

• 1 point per element + 1 point for the language

7) Riots started in Harlem [summer 1964] (0.5 pt) / a white police officer [Thomas Gilligan] shot a 15 year old black boy [James Powell] (0.5 pt) / in fact, the boy was unarmed and wrongly accused of charging the white police officer (1 pt) / the first black station commander had been promoted to prevent such a situation (1 pt)

• + 1 point for the language

Don’t forget to switch on the sound of your computer! (You can use the Espace Langues, room 225 when you are at school!)

La maladie est toujours là, et les témoignages n’ont pas manqué tout au long du Sidaction : ça concerne tout le monde et c’est malheureusement loin d’être fini.

Raison de plus pour s’informer en cliquant ici !

This text recounts an incident which occurred on a Montgomery bus, which is now considered as one of the famous landmarks in the fight against racial segregation in the South of the USA.

1) Vocabulary research, in the order of the text (see your sheets): board / department store / downtown / purpose / crowded / account / comply / give up / vacate / citizen.

2) row : une rangée / reach : atteindre / require : demander (voire exiger, assez fort) / in recalling : en se remémorant.

3) Passive:

1. The blacks had been forced to move to the back seats. [no agent]
2. Rosa Parks was asked to tell her story by the media.

4) The organization of segregation. Three elements to mention: the city ordinance / the two sections on the buses / separation by “race”

5) Two parts in this question. Rosa Parks was a black woman / she was determined - the incident happened as she was coming home from work (refusal to change seats to leave hers to a white man)

6) Three elements. She refused to stand up / the driver insisted / she was arrested.

• for each question, 0.5 points per element + 1.5 point for the language

7) Three elements were expected. She was arrested, so => 1956 radio interview in West Oakland (Sidney Rogers programme) / 1987 public TV series on Civil Rights Movement (Eyes on the Prize)

• 1 point per element + 1 point for the language

Rosa Parks died in 2005. Here’s a tribute to an ordinary American woman, who became a hero of the Civil Rights Movement by simply saying “No”.

Don’t forget to switch on the sound of your computer! (You can use the Espace Langues, room 225 when you are at school!)

Quelques repères sur le Civil Rights Movement et le texte de James Baldwin des années 20 At the Station House. Et pour terminer cette séquence, voici le célèbre discours de Martin Luther King I have a dream, à l’occasion de la marche sur Washington du 28 août 1963.

Le son et l’image ne sont pas excellents, mais le document est exceptionnel et incontournable !

Don’t forget to switch on the sound of your computer! (You can use the Espace Langues, room 225 when you are at school!)
Le texte du discours, en format pdf : I have a dream!

Following our sequence on international news channels and on how news stories are made (BTS, 1AVI), here is a short video of a rather funny mistake made by BBCNews 24, which is the national British 24 hours a day news channel (BBC World, which you know, is the international news channel):

Watch the man’s face at the beginning of the interview !

Here is the explanation:

No comment !

Don’t forget to switch on the sound of your computer! (You can use the Espace Langues, room 225 when you are at school!)

This is an extract from an American novel by Armistead Maupin, Tales of the City (1978).

It was first published as a serial in the San Francisco Chronicle, the daily paper of this city where the story takes place. After running for more that a decade, it has been published in six volumes, and three miniseries have been shot for television.

The photo on the right shows Armistead Maupin (left) and his partner.

You will also find a short biography of Armistead Maupin in you school book page 157.

The atmosphere is that of the 1970s, in San Francisco, a very particular American city on the west coast, in California.

Don’t forget to switch on the sound of your computer! (You can use the Espace Langues, room 225 when you are at school!)

If you want to learn more about the Tales, visit the pages of the author’s website dedicated to these novels.

For the sociological background (place, period and author), here is an interesting document which offers a key to Armistead Maupin’s works.