Devoir de Philosophie

ANTILLES — GUYANE, SESSION DE JUIN 1995 LANGUE VIVANTE 1- SÉRIES L ET ES/S

Publié le 14/08/2014

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I got home from San Francisco on Saturday, and found my daugh-ter back from school for the weekend. On Sunday morning, she asked me to drive her to the convent school in Jersey where she is a stu-dent. She had to be back in time for vine o'clock Mass, and we left

5 our apartment in the city a little after seven. We were talking and laughing, and I had approached and was in fact on the George Washington Bridge without having remembered my weakness. There were no preliminaries this time. The seizure came with a rush'. The strength went out of my legs, I gasped for breath, and felt the

10 terrifying loss of sight. I was, at the same time, determined to conceal these symptoms from my daughter. I made the other side of the bridge, but I was violently shaken. My daughter didn't seem to have noti-ced. I got her to school in time, kissed her goodbye, and started home. There was no question of my crossing the George Washington Bridge

15 again, and I decided to drive North to Nyack and cross on the Tappan Zee Bridge. Driving up the parkway on the west shore, I decided that oxygen was what I needed, and I opened all the windows of the car. The fresh air seemed to help, but only momentarily. I could feel my sense of reality ebbing2. The roadside and the car itself see‑

20 med to have less substance than a dream.

I decided to take a chance and turned onto the approach to the bridge.

Ail the symptoms returned, and this time they were much worse than ever. The wind was knocked out of my lungs3 as by a blow. My equilibrium was so shaken that the car swerved from one lane4

25 into another. I drove to the side and pulled on the hand brake. If I had been miserable with romantic love, racked5 with sickness, or beastly drunk, it would have been more dignified. My life was over, and it would never corne back, everything that I loved — blue-sky,

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courage, lustiness, the natural grasp of things. It would never corne 30 back. I would end up in the psychiatrie ward of the country hospi-tal, screaming that the bridges, all the bridges in the world, were falling down.

Then a young girl opened the door of the car and got in. "I didn't think anyone would pick me up on the bridge," she said. She car‑

35 ried a cardboard suitcase and — believe me — a small harp in a crac-ked waterproof. Her straight light-brown hair was brushed and bru-shed and grained with blondness and spread in a kind of cape over her shoulders. Her face seemed full and merry.

"Are you hitch-hiking?" I asked.

40       "Yes."

"But isn't it dangerous for a girl your age?"

"Not at ail."

"Do you travel much?"

"Ail the time, I sing a little. I play the coffee-houses."

45       "What do you sing?"

"Oh, folk music, mostly. And some old things — Purcell and Dowland. But mostly folk music... 'I gave my love a cherry that had no stone,' "she sang in a true and pretty voice." 'I gave my love a chicken that had no bone / I told my love a story that had no end /

501 gave my love a baby with no cryin'."

She sang me across a bridge that seemed to be an astonishingly sensible, durable, and even beautiful construction designed by in­telligent men to simplify my travels, and the water of the Hudson below us was charming and tranquil. It all came back blue-sky

55 courage, the high spirits of lustiness, an ecstatic sereneness. Her song ended as we got to the toll station6 on the east bank and she than-ked me, said goodbye, and got out of the car. I offered to take her wherever she wanted to go, but the shook her head and walked away, and I drove on toward the city through a world that, having been

60 restored to me, seemed marvellous and fair.

John CHEEVER, Abriged from: The Angel of the Bridge

N.B.: The George Washington Bridge and the Tappan Zee Bridge are two bridges in New York.

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1.   The seizure came with a rush : la crise arriva brutalement

2.   To ebb : disparaître.

3.   Lungs : poumons.

4.   Lane : voie.

5.   Racked with : miné par.

6.   Toll station : péage.

SÉRIE L

A. Commentaire guidé

1. In addition to "seizure", quote five words and/or phrases des-cribing the narrator's mental uneasiness.

2. Say whether the following statements are "true" or "false". Justify by quoting from the text.

1.      After driving his daughter to school, the narrator didn't mind cros-sing the George Washington Bridge again.

2.  The narrator was being treated in a psychiatrie hospital.

3. The girl was doubtful whether she would get a lift.

 

4. It was the first time he had met a hiker with a harp.

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« courage, lustiness, the natural grasp of things.

It would never corne 30 back.

1 would end up in the psychiatrie ward of the country hospi­ tal, screarning that the bridges, ail the bridges in the world, were falling down.

Then a young girl opened the doorof the car and got in.

"1 didn 't think anyone would pick me up on the bridge," she said.

She car- 35 ried a cardboard suitcase and -believe me - a small harp in a crac­ ked waterproof.

Her straight light-brown hair was brushed and bru­ shed and grained with blondness and spread in a kind of cape over her shoulders.

Her face seemed full and merry.

"Are you hitch-hiking?" 1 asked.

40 "Yes." "But isn't it dangerous for a girl your age?" "Not at ail." "Do you travel much?" "Ali the time, 1 sing a little.

1 play the coffee-houses." 45 "What do you sing?" "Oh, folk music, mostly.

And some old things -Purcell and Dowland.

But mostly folk music ...

'I gave my love a cherry that had no stone,' "she sang in a true and pretty voice." '1 gave my love a chicken that had no bone / 1 told my love a story that had no end/ 501 gave my love a baby with no cryin' ." She sang me across a bridge that seemed to be an astonishingly sensible, durable, and even beautiful construction designed by in­ telligent men to simplify my travels, and the water of the Hudson below us was charming and tranquil.

It all came back -blue-sky 55 courage, the high spirits of lustiness, an ecstatic sereneness.

Her song ended as we got to the toll station 6 on the east bank and she than­ ked me, said goodbye, and got out of the car.

1 offered to take her wherever she wanted to go, but the shook her head and walked away, and 1 drove on toward the city through a world that, having been 60 restored to me, seemed marvellous and fair.

John CHEEVER, Abriged from: The Angel of the Bridge N.B.: The George Washington Bridge and the Tappan Zee Bridge are two bridges in New York.

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