Mettre en relief l'information en anglais (clefts, fronting, inversion, do emphatique) — outils de l'expression écrite et orale du programme de Terminale 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.
Document — Adapted from an essay on the language of protest movements (2020).
What ordinary people remember from a great campaign is rarely a statistic or a policy. It is a single sentence, perfectly timed, that refuses to leave the mind. Never have movements grown on facts alone. They grow on words that have been shaped, polished and placed where they cannot be ignored.
Consider the slogans painted on banners during the civil-rights marches. Short they were, and deliberately so. The leaders understood that a crowd does not analyse; it feels. So powerful was the rhythm of repetition that crowds chanted phrases they had heard only once. What gave those words their force was not their length but their position — the way they landed at the very end of a speech, in the silence that followed.
Today, the same lesson governs every campaign, online and offline. Activists do know that emphasis is a weapon. Hashtags work precisely because they strip a cause down to its sharpest point. Yet there is a danger. When every message shouts, none is heard. Only when the loud is balanced by the quiet does a single idea truly stand out. Form, in the end, is never neutral: it tells the listener what to value.
Answer in English, identifying the structures the writer uses to emphasise his ideas.
Choose ONE of the two subjects and write 150–180 words in English. Use at least THREE different emphasis structures studied in this chapter (an It-cleft, a wh-cleft, an inversion, the emphatic do, or fronting) and underline each one.
Exercice 1 — Compréhension de l'écrit
Éléments attendus (compréhension fine + citations).
1. (2 pts) Ordinary people do not remember data but a memorable phrase: «It is a single sentence, perfectly timed, that refuses to leave the mind.» The text insists that movements do not grow on facts («Never have movements grown on facts alone») but on carefully crafted words. (1 pt pour l'idée, 1 pt pour la citation.)
2. (2 pts) The slogans were short and deliberately simple («Short they were, and deliberately so») because a crowd reacts emotionally rather than analytically («a crowd does not analyse; it feels»). Their power came from repetition and, above all, from their placement at the end of a speech, in the silence that followed («What gave those words their force was not their length but their position»). (Reformulation personnelle + au moins deux idées attendues : brièveté, émotion, répétition, position finale.)
3. (2 pts) The danger is overuse of emphasis: when every message is loud, none stands out — «When every message shouts, none is heard.» The solution is balance between the loud and the quiet: «Only when the loud is balanced by the quiet does a single idea truly stand out.» (1 pt pour le danger, 1 pt pour la solution citée.)
Exercice 2 — Compréhension — repérer et analyser les procédés de mise en relief
1. (2 pts) It-cleft : «It is a single sentence, perfectly timed, that refuses to leave the mind.» The structure It + be + … + that focalises 'a single sentence', in contrast with 'a statistic or a policy' mentioned just before. The effect is to insist that what people retain is one well-crafted phrase, not data — the form itself enacts the idea of one striking element. (1 pt pour la citation correcte, 1 pt pour l'effet de focalisation/contraste.)
2. (2 pts) Inversion examples (any one accepted) : «Never have movements grown on facts alone» ; «So powerful was the rhythm of repetition that…» ; «Only when the loud is balanced by the quiet does a single idea truly stand out.» Rewriting without inversion, e.g. for the first : Movements have never grown on facts alone. (1 pt citation valide + identification, 1 pt réécriture correcte en ordre canonique SVO.)
Exercice 3 — Expression écrite (au choix)
Attendus communs : longueur respectée (150–180 mots), anglais correct et fluide, point de vue clair, au moins deux exemples précis (un discours, un mouvement, une figure publique…), et surtout l'emploi correct et souligné d'au moins TROIS structures emphatiques distinctes parmi : It-cleft, wh-cleft, inversion négative/restrictive, do emphatique, fronting. Barème indicatif : richesse de la langue 4 pts · contenu/arguments et exemples 3 pts · maîtrise et pertinence des structures emphatiques soulignées 3 pts.
Exemple de production — Subject A (≈170 mots, niveau 18-20/20) :
Form and content are often opposed, yet in public debate they are inseparable. What truly persuades an audience is not the raw idea but the way it is delivered. It is rhythm, repetition and timing that turn an argument into a memory. Consider Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream": the substance mattered, of course, but its placement and cadence gave it eternal force. Never have flat, monotone speeches changed history. Activists today do understand this: hashtags succeed because they compress a cause into one sharp phrase. Admittedly, style without substance is dangerous — an empty speech, however beautiful, convinces no one. Yet to dismiss form as mere decoration is naïve. So decisive is delivery that the same message can either inspire a nation or vanish within minutes. The most effective speakers, from Churchill to Greta Thunberg, know that emphasis is a weapon. In the end, how we say something tells the listener exactly what to value. (Structures soulignées : wh-cleft, It-cleft, inversion après Never, do emphatique, inversion après so + adjectif.)
Exemple — Subject B (≈160 mots) :
Friends, listen closely, for tonight we begin something that will not be forgotten. Never have we had a better reason to stand together. They tell us that students cannot change anything. It is precisely that lie that we are here to break. What this campaign demands is simple: to be heard, and to be respected. We do not ask for the impossible — we do ask for fairness. Silent we have been for too long, and silence, my friends, has cost us dearly. Look around you: every hand in this room is a promise. So strong is our cause that no closed door can hold it back. We will write our message on every wall, repeat it in every corridor, until it lands where it cannot be ignored. So when they ask who started this, smile — and tell them it was us. (Structures soulignées : inversion après Never, It-cleft, wh-cleft, do emphatique, fronting de l'attribut, so + inversion.)
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.