SUJET NATIONAL, SESSION DE JUIN 1995 LANGUE VIVANTE 2 - SÉRIE L

 

SUJET 2

1. Compréhension de l'écrit

Lisez très attentivement le texte ci-dessous.

Dillon has been asked to testify against IRA terrorists that have just been arrested. He goes back home where he is expecting a phone call from the police.

In the taxi, going back to Hampstead, he said, "What should I say? How am I going to put it? It's not just one they're holding now. It's three of them."

"Just tell the truth," she said. "Say you're afraid. They'll know 5 why. They must be used to it. Don't let him persuade you, that's all."

Say you are afraid. The cab turned into Gloucester Avenue and stopped under the house sheltered by the oak tree. He got out. The driver turned the meter off. He paid the fare. The time had corne.

10 There had been no war in his life. He would never be called up as a soldier and put to the test of bravery in battle. He would never be asked to perform an act of heroism as a member of a resistance group. He had, instead, been put to the test by accident, a test he had every right to refuse. And yet as he unlatched the gate and went up to the

15 front door of the house he knew that the moment the phone rang and he answered it, the moment he told them he was afraid, he would lose for ever something precious, something he had always taken for granted, some secret sense of his own worth'.

At the front door he turned to her and said, "Look, I'd rather be 20 alone when I tell him. Maybe you could go and get us something for our supper? Give me half an hour."

"I could wait in the other room. I won't listen."

"No, please," he said.

"All right."

25 "Don't worry," he said.

21

 

She looked at him. "Michael, you won't let him persuade you, will you?"

"No, I won't."

She tumed and went off up the avenue, going towards the shops

30 on the high street. He unlocked the front door and went into the hall. A phone was ringing upstairs. He looked at his watch. It was just after five. He began to run upstairs, pushing past a little red-haired man who was also on his way up. "Sorry," he said.

"That's all right, guv.2"

35 When he unlocked the door of the flat, the phone was still rin-ging. But as he went into the hall it stopped. The Chief Inspector was ringing from somewhere in Armagh. Now he would have to wait until he called back. He did flot want to wait. He must get it over with now. Belfast Central must know where to reach Norton

ao in Armagh. He went to the phone.

Don't let him persuade you. Tell him the truth. You are afraid. "Sorry, guv. Gas man."

He tumed. He had not closed the door. The little red-haired man was in the doorway. "I've corne to read the meter, sir."

45 "Yes, go ahead."

"It's in the back, here," the meter man said, moving past him

and opening the kitchen door. "Are you Professor Robertson?" he

asked, looking at a list he held in his hand.

"No, he's flot here," Dillon said. "I' m just looking after the place

50 for him."

"You're Mr Dillon?"

"Yes."

The little meter man whistled, as though calling a dog. "Right,

then," he said.

55 Two young men came in at the door. They wore jeans, T-shirts, sneakers. They raised their revolvers. They were flot wearing masks. This time, there would be no witnesses.

Brian MOORE, Lies of Silence (1990)

1. worth: dignity.

2. guv': govemor, boss.

22

 

1. Who and what are the characters mentioned?

2. Who or what do the following pronouns refer to?

them (1. 3)

it (1.5)

They (1. 4)

him (1. 5)

3. The main character has decided: (Circle the right answer.) a — to testify. b — not to testify.

4. Why was the decision difficult to make?

5. Tick the right answer and justify by quoting from the text.

a) "She" wanted to stay with Dillon.

b) He wouldn't let her. T F

c) "She" did not care what he would decide. T F

d) He arrived just in time to answer the phone.

e) He is pleased that he now has more time to give his final ans-wer. T F

f) He had corne across a man in the house. T F

6. Pick out one phrase showing that what he had to say to the police would change the image he had of himself: