Baccalauréat de l'enseignement général

Madagascar

Session 2005

 

 

S U J E T

TEXT : STARVING NATION.

 

Ruvaria, a small, overpopulated, and unfriendly nation, was faced with the great problem of finding more food for its starving people. In fact, living and health conditions became so bad that many people were dying. Others were suffering so much that  they wanted to die. Most of the deaths involved babies, young children and the elderly.

A group of Americans became very concerned about Ruvaria’s problems. They asked the President of the United States to help the Ruvarians and give them the needed food. However, the President realised that if he gave Ruvaria the food, it would serve to keep the population excessively high and might even cause a population boom. Then, when the food is gone, the people of Ruvaria will be again faced with the same problems.

On the other hand, if the President didn’t supply the food, many people would die. But in the long run, this would greatly reduce Ruvaria’s population. With a much smaller population Ruvaria would be able to support itself and allow its people to live fuller, more comfortable and healthier lives.

 

Questions

 

A – Reading Comprehension              (7 pts)

I – Re-order the following ideas to make the summary of the text                    (1 pt)

1)        The US President ignored the request of food supply,

2)        Ruvaria was faced with the problem of starvation.

3)        and seemed not to care much about the Ruvarians.

4)        He would give the supply on a certain condition.

 

II –         General text comprehension                                                                            (1 pt)

1)     What is the text about ?

2)     How did the suffering affect some Ruvarians ?

 

III –        Fill in the table below with information from the text                                  (2 pts)

 

Cause	Consequence
The Ruvarians lived in very bad conditions	- - - - - - - - - - - - -( a ) - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - ( b ) - - - - -- - - - - - - -	The population of Ruvaria would rise excessively

 

IV – 1) Choose the best meaning of “population boom”                                             (0,5 pt)

a)     bombing of the population

b)     lack of the population

c)     increase of the population

d)     decrease of the population

 

2)    Find in the text the opposite of “augment”                                      (0,5 pt)

 

V– Do you agree on the US President’s attitudes towards Ruvaria’s population ? Why ? (2 pts)

 

B –  GRAMMAR IN USE                      (2 pts)

 

Fill in the blanks with the suitable grammatical items                                (0,25pt x 8)

 

Our environment doesn’t stop degrading every hour. If we don’t give …… (1)……practising bush-fire………(2)………….slash and burn agriculture, our life will……(3)……….. endangered. Right now, we………(4)…………….do reforestation, build national parks and reserves…………(5)…………well. Don’t forget that ……… …..(6)………………environment provides us ………(7)……………. many substances …………(8)……………can be used to fight diseases.

 

C –  INDIRECT TEST OF SPEAKING               (4 pts)

 

I –  Match the expressions in column A with the functions in column B.               (1 pt)

 

                                               Column    A                                         Column  B

1 -  I wish you would turn down                    a)  complimenting

      your radio. I’m working                          b)  Expressing regret

2 -  I wish I had not bought that                   c)  Expressing a hope

      CD player. Now, I’m absolutely                d)  complaining

      broke.

 

II –  Build up a dialogue from the following situation                                     (3 pts)

 

Fred invited Jenny for lunch last Saturday. She suggested going to the “Palm Beach” restaurant. He accepted. Before ordering, he asked her what she wanted to. She chose steak salad and wine.

Fred : …………………………….. ?

Jenny : …………………………… ?

Fred : ……………………………..

(At the restaurant )

Fred : …………………………… ?

Jenny : …………………………….

Fred : ………………………………

                  

D –  WRITING :                               (7 points)

 

                   You have seen this notice in a newspaper.

                           

Children’s work. No !

 

                   What do you think about it ?    (about 120 words)