Synthèse du système verbal anglais : temps, aspects et valeurs pour préparer le Bac (programme de Tle LVA)
Évaluation complète de fin de chapitre, tout en niveau difficile. Travaille seul et sans aide, puis vérifie tes réponses avec le corrigé détaillé dépliable en bas de page.
Read the following text carefully, then answer the questions in English. Justify your answers with quotations from the text and pay close attention to the tenses and aspects the writer uses.
Document — Adapted from a contemporary essay on memory and place (2022).
For as long as I can remember, my grandmother had kept a tin box on the top shelf of her kitchen. By the time I was old enough to ask about it, she had already filled it with photographs, ticket stubs and letters that the damp had slowly turned brown. "One day," she used to say, "all of this will be yours."
She died last winter. As we were clearing the house, I finally climbed onto a chair and brought the box down. I had been dreading that moment for weeks, yet when I opened the lid, I did not cry. Instead, I laughed: she had labelled every single photograph in her tiny, careful handwriting, as though she had known I would need a guide.
Since then, I have been reading those letters slowly, one each evening. They have taught me more about her than fifty years of Sunday lunches ever did. I am only halfway through the box now, but I already understand something I had never grasped while she was alive: a person does not vanish when they die. By the time I reach the last letter, I will have spent a whole winter in her company — and she will, in a strange way, still be teaching me.
Answer in French or in English in full sentences. Refer precisely to the forms used in the text.
Translate the following sentences into English and, for each, justify in one short sentence your choice of tense or aspect.
Choose ONE of the two subjects and write 130–160 words in English. Underline at least: one present perfect, one preterite, one past perfect and one form of the future. You will be assessed on the accuracy of tenses and aspects, lexical range and coherence.
Exercice 1 — Compréhension de l'écrit
Éléments attendus (compréhension fine + citations).
1. (2 pts) The box contained personal mementoes: «photographs, ticket stubs and letters that the damp had slowly turned brown». The grandmother had been gathering them for a very long time, since before the narrator could even ask about it: «By the time I was old enough to ask about it, she had already filled it». (1 pt pour le contenu, 1 pt pour l'idée de durée antérieure marquée par le past perfect.)
2. (2 pts) Before opening the box the narrator felt fear and apprehension: «I had been dreading that moment for weeks» (past perfect progressif soulignant une angoisse durable et antérieure). When the lid was opened, the feeling changed unexpectedly into amusement and tenderness: «I did not cry. Instead, I laughed», because his/her grandmother had carefully labelled each photograph. (1 pt par sentiment correctement repéré et cité.)
3. (2 pts) The narrator now understands that death does not erase a person: «a person does not vanish when they die». Through the letters, the grandmother keeps teaching and accompanying him/her even after her death («she will, in a strange way, still be teaching me»). Memory, and the traces a person leaves, allow the dead to remain present. (Reformulation personnelle exigée ; idée de présence/transmission au-delà de la mort.)
Exercice 2 — Analyse grammaticale du document
1. (4 pts, soit 1 pt par forme) had already filled = past perfect : action accomplie avant un repère passé (le moment où l'enfant put poser des questions) ; antériorité renforcée par 'already'. were clearing = prétérit progressif : action en cours servant d'arrière-plan ('as') au moment où un événement ponctuel survient (le narrateur descend la boîte). have been reading = present perfect progressif : durée d'une activité commencée dans le passé ('since then') et toujours en cours, avec insistance sur le processus. will have spent = future perfect : action qui sera achevée avant un repère futur ('by the time I reach the last letter').
2. (2 pts) have taught est au present perfect car l'effet des lettres est un bilan toujours valable au présent : ce que le narrateur a appris reste vrai maintenant, il n'y a pas de date révolue. did est au prétérit car il renvoie à une période passée fermée et révolue ('fifty years of Sunday lunches'), désormais terminée, coupée du présent. Le contraste oppose le bilan présent (perfect) à un passé clos (prétérit).
Exercice 3 — Traduction raisonnée
a) He has been looking for work for six months. → Present perfect progressif : durée d'une activité commencée dans le passé et toujours en cours, marqueur 'for' (calque à éviter : *He is looking… since).
b) When I arrived, they had already left an hour earlier. (ou …they had already been gone for an hour.) → Prétérit pour l'événement ponctuel ('arrived') + past perfect pour l'action antérieure et accomplie ('had left'), 'already' soulignant l'antériorité.
c) As soon as you have read this letter, you will understand. → Après 'as soon as' on n'emploie pas 'will' : le present perfect exprime l'antériorité accomplie dans le futur, suivi de 'will' dans la principale.
Exercice 4 — Expression écrite (au choix)
Attendus communs : longueur respectée (130–160 mots) ; anglais correct ; emploi pertinent et souligné des quatre formes imposées (present perfect, prétérit, past perfect, futur) ; cohérence chronologique (past perfect avant le prétérit, present perfect pour le bilan présent) ; vocabulaire varié et connecteurs logiques (however, since then, by the time…). Barème indicatif : exactitude et pertinence des temps/aspects 2 pts · richesse lexicale 1,5 pt · cohérence et organisation 1,5 pt.
Exemple de production attendue — Subject A (≈150 mots, niveau 18-20/20) :
On my desk sits an old fountain pen that belonged to my grandfather. He had carried it in his pocket for forty years before he gave it to me, the summer I turned fifteen. At the time I barely understood the gift; I simply put it away in a drawer. Last year, however, while I was clearing my room, I found it again and finally started to use it. Since then, I have written every important letter with that pen. It leaks a little and the gold has faded, yet it connects me to a man I hardly knew. By the time I leave for university, I will have filled a whole notebook with his pen, as if his hand were still guiding mine. An object, I now realise, can keep a person quietly alive.
Exemple — Subject B (≈150 mots) :
To a large extent, I agree that the traces people leave keep them alive. When my great-aunt died, I thought she had disappeared completely. Yet last spring I discovered her diaries, and reading them changed my mind. Since then, I have come to feel that memory is a form of survival. History offers many examples: writers such as Maya Angelou or Martin Luther King are gone, but their words still shape how millions think today. However, traces are fragile and must be cared for; if no one reads or remembers, they fade. By preserving letters, recordings and stories, we will keep our loved ones — and great figures — present for generations to come. In that sense, the dead are never entirely lost: they live on in what they leave behind and in those who choose to remember.
Cours particuliers de anglais (lva) à Marseille, en présentiel ou à distance — un prof qui s'adapte à ton rythme et reprend ce qui coince.