Nominalisation et style soutenu

1. a)The Norman Conquest of 1066: French became the language of the court, the law and the administration, while English remained the language of the household and the field, and the two coexisted for nearly three centuries before merging. (Toute citation exacte de la première phrase du paragraphe 1 est acceptée.) (1)
2. b)Because abstract nouns make it possible to compress information: once a verb has been turned into a noun (« they decided to withdraw » → « the decision to withdraw »), the idea can be qualified, counted, dated or reused as the subject of another statement. The motive is density, not elegance or social prestige. (1)
3. c)The author implies that the choice between put off and postpone is not a matter of correctness but of register: readers immediately decode the social level of the writer from that choice, and they do so before assessing the quality of the argument itself. Style therefore influences the reception of the content. (1)
4. d)« An accident of history » means an unplanned consequence of historical events, not a deliberate creation. The rest of the text confirms it: no one designed the double lexicon, it results from the Norman Conquest and from the later borrowings of the Renaissance. (On accepte une nuance : l'usage moderne, lui, est délibéré.) (1)

Repère — Une question de compréhension se répond par une phrase complète reformulée, la citation servant seulement d'appui.

1. a)The council's decision to close the library provoked an outcry among residents. (to decide → decision ; génitif + infinitif complément du nom.) (1)
2. b)The sharp rise in prices last winter seriously worried economists. (to rise → a rise in ; l'adverbe sharply devient l'adjectif sharp.) (1)
3. c)The failure of the scheme was due to its poor design. (to fail → failure of ; badly designed → poor design.) (1)
4. d)The growing reliance of young people on social media is considered worrying by paediatricians. / …is a source of concern for paediatricians. (to rely on → reliance of X on Y.) (1)

Le point clé — Quand le verbe devient un nom, l'adverbe qui l'accompagnait devient un adjectif : rose sharply → a sharp rise.

1. a)It is believed that the reform has failed. (On accepte It is widely believed that…) (1)
2. b)The reform is believed to have failed. (Infinitif passé obligatoire : le fait est antérieur au jugement.) (1)
3. c)These issues must be addressed before December. (Modal + be + participe passé, agent effacé.) (1)
4. d)The same phenomenon was observed in Scotland in 2019. (Le sujet indéfini someone disparaît : on n'écrit pas by someone.) (1)

Erreur fréquente — Après The reform is believed…, il faut un infinitif (to have failed) et non une proposition en that.

1. a)The vote was postponed and no one was informed. / They postponed the vote and did not inform anyone. (put off → postpone ; didn't → did not.) (1)
2. b)The police are currently investigating numerous issues. (look into → investigate ; loads of things → numerous issues.) (1)
3. c)The situation is deteriorating considerably, and this can be observed everywhere. (get worse → deteriorate ; really → considerably ; you → passif impersonnel.) (1)
4. d)It is necessary to determine why a considerable number of participants abandoned the programme. (find out → determine/ascertain ; a lot of → a considerable number of ; give up → abandon.) (1)

Attention — Un latinisme ne se substitue au verbe à particule que si le sens reste exact : to give up devient to abandon, jamais to renounce.

1. a)Attendus : longueur respectée (140-170 mots tolérés), aucune contraction, lexique précis. On retire le point dès deux marques d'oral subsistantes. (1)
2. b)Attendus : quatre nominalisations au minimum, soulignées et grammaticalement intégrées (article ou génitif + nom + expansion en of / in). Exemples valorisés : the prohibition of smartphones, a marked improvement in concentration, the growing reliance of pupils on their devices, the implementation of the measure. (1)
3. c)Attendus : deux passifs impersonnels corrects, conjugués (It is often argued that…, Smartphones have been shown to…). Un passif avec modal (must be addressed) compte également. (1)
4. d)Attendus : deux marqueurs d'atténuation et un latinisme substitué (to reduce pour to cut down on, to postpone pour to put off, to investigate pour to look into). (1)

À retenir — Un bon paragraphe soutenu alterne : une phrase dense construite sur un groupe nominal, puis une phrase verbale qui la commente.