Topic Four (1.4): La vie scolaire

Read Icon.png Reading

Read pages 12 and 13 of your Coursebook and complete Exercises 1-10. If you need assistance translating the text or understanding how to complete the tasks, please read the instructions below.

Grammar Icon.png Grammar

Look at the box in the bottom right hand corner of page 13 and make sure you have learnt these verbs ‘par coeur’ – off by heart!

A translation of ‘être en train de’ could be ‘in the process of’ or ‘in the middle of’, so if you said ‘je suis en train de faire mes devoirs’, this could be translated as ‘I am in the middle of doing my homework’ – or you could just say ‘I am doing my homework’.

ONLY REFER TO THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW IF YOU REQUIRE ASSISTANCE WITH YOUR EXERCISES

Pages 12 and 13

Exercise 1. The ‘organigramme’ is the table at the top of the page which explains how the French school system works.

Here are the questions which you need to answer:

  • A quel âge les enfants commencent-ils à aller à l’école en France ?
  • A quel âge les élèves (pupils) quittent-ils le lycée ?
  • Comment s’appelle la première école ?
  • Comment s’appelle la dernière école ?
  • Quel examen passent les élèves en fin de troisième ?
  • Quel examen passent les élèves en fin de terminale ?
  • En France, l’école obligatoire commence à quel âge ?
  • Faut-il payer pour aller à l’école en France ?
  • Y-a-t-il beaucoup d’internes ? (An ‘interne’ is somewhere children live whilst they study. What would we call this in English?)
  • Que faut-il faire pour obtenir le diplôme national du brevet ?

Exercise 2. Read the speech bubbles (‘bulles’).  A ‘sondage’ is a survey.

Exercise 3.

LISTEN - CD 01 Track 7 Download LISTEN - CD 01 Track 7Play media comment.

Exercise 4. It’s your turn to do a survey.  If you are working at home, ask your family.  If they only speak English, you can still do this, but translate their answers into French.

Exercise 5. Model your answer on Louis and Wendy’s.

Exercise 6. A ‘langue’ is a language.

Exercise 7. ‘Exprimer’ means ‘to express’.  Make two lists – one of the positive comments and one of the negative ones.

Exercise 8. How would you translate ‘les dortoirs’?  In what kind of school would you find them?

Exercise 9.

LISTEN - CD01 Track 8 Download LISTEN - CD01 Track 8Play media comment.

Exercise 10. ‘Une légende’ can mean ‘a legend’.  Here it means ‘a caption’.  If you put symbols on the map of your school, it could also mean ‘a key’ to the symbols.