Students Worksheet

Date :

UNDERSTANDING THE ARTICLE : Read the article and answer the questions below.

Coping? Students in France Just Arent.

By ALISSA J. RUBIN JUNE 23, 2015

PARIS There is no easy translation or even a firm concept of the word coping in French, so when it turned
up last week in a question on the national exam to earn a high school degree, it set off a fracas among the
350,000 or so students who took the test.
So far, about 12,000 of them have signed a petition posted four days ago on a social media site, change.org,
arguing that the question was too difficult.
The word appeared in the English reading comprehension section of this years baccalaureate general exam, which
requires an intermediate level of proficiency in two foreign languages.
The students said they were baffled by a passage from the best-selling novel Atonement, by Ian McEwan, in
which the word cope appeared. Then came two questions about a character named Turner: What concerns him
about the situation? and How is Turner coping with the situation?
Also puzzling for some was the word concern.
Students described the questions as incomprehensible and impossible to answer, and asked to meet with senior
figures in the Education Ministry.
Was the question grammatically correct? asked a student named Tho. Another wrote: Were there some words
missing? If not, I didnt understand it at all.
Many other students, however, including even some who were flummoxed by the same questions, dismissed the
complaints, saying the petition made French students look foolish.
I didnt get the question, but it happens, said ClmenceSiouffi, an 18-year-old at Lyce Jean-Pierre Vernant,
near Paris.
This petition is bothering me. We had already insulted Victor Hugo last year during the French baccalaureate, so it
bothers me to be part of this generation that is only complaining and looking like idiots, she said, referring to a
controversy last year when students complained that a section asking them to analyze a Hugo poem, Le
Crpuscule, was far too difficult.
The education minister, NajatVallaud-Belkacem, quickly rejected the students pleas, saying: In truth, I was quite
surprised by the petition. Because to cope with is part of the things one learns and I am not fluent.

But the students have their defenders. This word to cope is unusually hard to translate into French, wrote Carol
Just, a teacher of English in France, on the change.org website, and the English notion is difficult to understand
even for experienced adult learners because there is no real equivalent in the French language and in the French
mind.
NenadDjokic, the country manager in France for EF Education First, an international language company that has
schools teaching English in 50 countries, blamed the French educational system, which he said failed to give
people enough of a chance to develop fluency. Language training in France is done in classes of 30 students on
average for 50 minutes three times a week, he said.
The teacher has to cover the grammar, the vocabulary and some speaking, he added, but how can you speak
with 30 students one by one? You cant, so the methodology is that the teacher does the speaking.

What type of text is it ? Tick the correct answer(s).

an extract /excerpt from a novel
informative

the authors

a newspaper article a magazine article

argumentative
a narrative

an online article

name :...

the release date

:....

Focus on the repetitions and highlight 6 keywords which will help you make sense of the article
....
Making use of the words above , identify the problem the journalist refers to.

....
.....
Now, find basic information about the issue being raised that has become a matter of great concern?
Quote elements from the text and fill in the grid.
People

Place

Say What or Who the following numbers refer to .

a- 350,000 :
b- 12,000 :
c- 50:
d- 30:
e- 18:
f-

4:

g- 2:

When

actions

 Pick out elements from the article to give a definition of baccalaureate .

....
....
Tick the main skill being referred to in the article regarding the issue. Quote the text
to justify your answer.

speaking reading writing

listening

....
Match them up !

a journalist

Turner

Le Crpuscule

a defender
a novelist
Carol

A novel

Ian McEwan

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem

EF Education First manager

a main character
Atonement
a social media site

Change.org

a poem
Alissa J.Rubin

NenadDjokic

the Education minister

English teacher

Quote the 2 questions

....?
....?
Pick out 5 adjectives that best describe the questions which were asked in the exam.
.....

Test your English language skills ! Complete the WORDSEARCH :

a-

Find in the article an equivalent for :

a complaint :
to make someone feel worried or upset :
confusing or difficult to understand :

 to deal successfully with a difficult situation:

an urgent or emotional request for something :

someone who supports someone elses point of view :
to be baffled by

to be able to speak a foreign language very well / spoken well and without difficulty :

to say that you are not satisfied with something:

b-

Find in the article the opposite of :

to pass (an exam)

unexperienced :
c- Use the context and infer the meaning of : ( on average / cope / concerns)
.....
..

BUILD MEANING !

What solution has been found ? Identify what the students did to cope with the situation.
...
..
About the petition :

a- Who was it addressed to ? ...

b- What for ? .....
c- How successful were they? ...

Arguments for / against the petition . Complete :

COMPLAINANTS & DEFENDERS
Arguments For

OPPONENTS
Arguments against

Who should be held responsible for this lack of fluency at foreign languages ?
Who is to blame according to the defenders?
....
....
.......
....

 According to you, which adjective(s) best describe French students in the article ?
lazy
strong-willed
critical provocative

hard-working

foolish

determined

polemical

bold

Comment on the journalists point of view and on the tone of the article.
Use the wordbank below and justify your answer(s).

The tone / the journalist

neutral

sarcastic
critical

is :

serious
controversial
amused
skeptical
sympathetic approving annoyed

irritated

FOR

AGAINST

NEUTRAL

He/she approves of =
He/she sideswith = se ranger du
ct de / prendre parti pour
He /she stands for = tre pour /
dfendre
He/ she advocates = prconiser /
prner / recommander

He/shecriticizes/ blames /
reproaches GN for Ving = reprocher
quelquun de faire quelque chose
He/she objects to + V-ing
He/she disapproves of
He/she warns us against = mettre
en garde contre
He/she denounces / condemns
/exposes

He/she doesnt side with

He/she is unbiased (impartial) =/=
biased
He/she analyses / comments on /
reveals / informs us that

...

If you had taken the general exam last June, would

you have signed the petition online? Why? Why not?
Do you think you would have coped with the questions
/situation yourself?
WRITE ! Choose one of the 2 subjects ( 250 w

...