Composition



Composition d’anglais
Période 1,
3ème B




Consignes :

Pas de document autorisé.
Les élèves rédigent sur copie double et conservent le sujet.
Les élèves répondent avec des phrases complètes dans la même langue que la question.
L’orthographe et la présentation sont notés sur 3 points.




























Mr. Wormwood, the Great Car Dealer
 Extract from Matilda, Roald Dahl


Matilda’s parents owned quite a nice house with three bedrooms upstairs, while on the ground floor there was a dining-room and a living-room and a kitchen. Her father was a dealer[1] in second-hand cars and it seemed he did pretty well at it.
-‘Sawdust[2],’ he would say proudly, ‘is one of the great secrets of my success. And it costs me nothing. I get it free from the sawmill[3].’
-‘What do you use it for?’ Matilda asked him.
-‘Ha!’ the father said. ‘Wouldn’t you like to know.’
-‘I don’t see how sawdust can help you to sell second-hand cars, Daddy.’
-‘That’s because you’re an ignorant little twit[4],’ the father said. ‘But I don’t mind telling young Mike here about it seeing as he’ll be joining me in the business one day.’
Ignoring Matilda, he turned to his son and said, ‘I’m always glad to buy a car when some fool has been crashing the gears[5] so badly they’re all worn out and rattle[6] like mad. I get it cheap. Then all I do is mix a lot of sawdust with the oil in the gear-box and it runs as sweet as a nut[7].’
-‘How long will it run like that before it starts rattling again?’ Matilda asked him.
-‘Long enough for the buyer[8] to get a good distance away,’ the father said, grinning[9]. ‘About a hundred miles.’
-‘But that’s dishonest, Daddy,’ Matilda said. ‘It’s cheating.’
-‘No-one ever got rich being honest,’ the father said. ‘Customers are there to be diddled[10].


Roald Dahl, Matilda (London: Puffin Books, 2007)



I.                   Vocabulary/grammar: 10pts

1)      Explain the words’ construction and translate them. 6pts
Ex:  happily = happi/ly = happy + ly : joyeusement

Dealer, sawdust, sawmill, badly, buyer, dishonest

2)      “Customers are there to be diddled” l Expliquez cette phrase, expliquez sa voix, qui est le sujet de l’action, qui subit l’action. Transformez cette phrase à la voix active. 4pts


II.                Text comprehension: 11pts
1)      What genre of document is it? (Letter, email, novel extract or magazine article). 1pt
2)      How many characters are there in the excerpt? 1pt
3)      Who is the hero(in) of the story? 1 pt
4)      What is the name of Matilda’s parents? Of her brother? 2pts
5)      What’s Mr Wormwood’s job? 1pt
6)      Expliquez comment Mr Wormwood transforme les voitures. 1pt
7)      Acording to Mr Wormwood, what is Mike’s future job? Quote the text. 2pt
8)      Translate into French the expression « No one ever got rich being honest ». 2pts

III.               Expression : 6pts
Imagine you are Matilda and give advices to Mr Wormwood, use the passive voice (10lines). 6pts

IV.              Grammar: 10pts
1)      Write comparative sentences.
1 My house (look/big) yours.
2 Billy’s dog (bark/loud) Eddy’s.
3 My son (sleep/good) his.
4 Iron (be/hard) wood.
5 Flowers (smell/nice) perfume.

2)       Transform these sentences, from the active to the passive or the passive to the active.

1) I was insulted by my friends at school.
2) Robert will repair the car.
3) Chris wrote this book.
4) The camera was broken by the children.
5) The lake was dried by the sun.



[1] To deal : to sell
[2] Sawdust : saw : scie + dust :poussière
[3] Mill : usine
[4] Twit : fool, idiot
[5] Gears : roues dentées du levier de vitesse (boîte de vitesse)
[6] To rattle : to make noise
[7] As sweet as a nut: very well
[8] Buyer : customer, client
[9] To grin : to smile
[10] To diddle: to dupe, to fool, to cheat

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