Département fédéral de l'intérieur DFI
Commission suisse de maturité CSM
Examen suisse de maturité, session d’été 2012
ANGLAIS, NIVEAU NORMAL
Durée : 3h
Candidat :
Nom :………………….. Prénom :.……………………
Partie A
…………/ 15 points
Partie B
…………/ 30 points
Partie C
…………/ 30 points
Total
…………/ 75 points
Correcteur :
Numéro :………......…
Note : ………………….…..
Date :……………………….. Signature :………………..……………………….
Carefully read the following text and then answer the questions that follow.
Text taken from River Town by Peter Hessler (slightly adapted)
Everything in Fuling1 was new that second year. I had new students—all of last year’s seniors had graduated, and most of them were teaching in the countryside. My own Chinese tutors
were as good as new, they were real people now, and we could talk comfortably about anything.
The city didn’t seem as dirty and loud as last year, and the people were friendlier. When they
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spoke, it made sense. The only thing that hadn’t changed was my job, I still taught literature, but
now it was easier because I had last year’s notes. I spent most of my spare time in the city, wandering around and talking to people.
I had city routines for every day of the week, every time of the day. Sometimes in the mornings I went down to South Mountain Gate and sat in the park, watching the city come to life.
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Monday evenings I walked along the busy streets of Mid-Mountain Road. On Sundays, I went to
church, and afterward I sat and talked with Father Li, who served me bad coffee. I did not like
good coffee but I drank the priest’s coffee out of respect, just as he served it to me out of respect
for the waiguoren tendency to prefer coffee to tea.
After talking with Father Li, I would wander through the old city and then I would walk up to
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the tea house in the middle of town, because on Sundays a group of middle-aged and older men
1
A city in central China
SER / 632-008 / anglais normal / E12
Veuillez rendre ce feuillet avec votre travail, merci !
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brought their pet birds there, hanging the cages from the rafters2. They were always happy to
see me, especially Zhang Xiaolong, who was the Luckiest Man in All of Fuling. Ten years ago he
had been injured in a motorcycle accident, shortening one leg, and now he walked with a limp. It
was a wonderful injury because it meant that he was officially classified as disabled, and thus he
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could never be fired from his job at the Hailing factory. It was a state-owned enterprise, and reforms were leading to layoffs, but none of this concerned Zhang Xiaolong, whose job was completely secure. It was more luck than one could expect from a motorcycle accident, but Zhang
Xiaolong had beaten the odds again when his wife became pregnant and gave birth—not to a
daughter, or to a son, but to twin sons. To be slightly but certifiably disabled, and to have twin
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sons—that was fantasy, it didn’t happen in real life, people wrote books about good fortune of that
sort.
Every Sunday, Zhang Xiaolong limped proudly to the teahouse, carrying his birdcage, and he
sat beaming in the sunshine as he drank his tea. He was the Happiest Man in All of Fuling, as
well as the Luckiest, and I liked talking with him—not because he was particularly interesting, but
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simply because he was always pleasant. And he reminded me that my own life in Fuling was
also charmed. Almost everywhere I went, people knew who I was, and I could follow my routines
and be assured that the regulars would be happy to see me. There were still plenty of young
men who shouted a mocking “Hah-Loooo!” when I walked down the street, but it was less of a
problem than last year, and in any case the harassment was drowned out by the kindness of
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most people. It was the same paradox that I had realized during the summer—the Chinese could
be hard on foreigners, but at the same time they could be incredibly patient, generous, and curious about where you had come from. I felt I had spent my first year coping with the hard part of
being a waiguoren, and now I enjoyed all the benefits.
In many ways the city had turned full circle for me, but of course I was the one who had really
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changed. I was a new person, He Wei, or, as the Sichuanese pronounced it, Ho Wei. That was
the name I had been given during Peace Corps3 training, and it was common in China: the given
name, Wei, meant “great” and was as run-of-the-mill as John in America. The family name was
also prevalent; there were plenty of Hos wherever I went in Sichuan, and when I introduced myself they always said that we were jiamenr, family.
It was different from living in most countries, where you could use your real name or some-
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thing similar to it, which was a clear link to who you had originally been. My Chinese name had
no connection to my American name, and the person who became Ho Wei had no real connection to my American self. There was an enormous freedom in that—at the age of twenty-eight, I
suddenly had a completely new identity.
2
3
Les poutres
An American volunteer program run by the U.S. government.
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Part I Language (approximate time 30 minutes; 20% of total points)
1. Explain the following words or expressions in another way, using either a synonym or an
expression. These words are underlined in the text.:
notes
waiguoren
limp
fired
beaten the odds
drowned out
coping
link
(8 pts)
2. Write TRUE or FALSE after the following statements concerning the text.
a) The author still has a few students left over from last year. __________
b) The author is bored and doesn’t know what to do with his spare time. __________
c) The author only likes properly prepared coffee. __________
d) Yhang Xiaolong is still unhappy about his motorcycle accident. __________
e) Everyone in Fuling behaves pleasantly to the author. __________
g) Ho Wei is an unusual name in China. __________
h) The author has only one main identity. __________
(7 points)
TOTAL Part I: 15 points
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PART II Comprehension (approximate time 75 minutes; 40% of total points)
Answer the following questions in complete sentences, using your own words on a separate
piece of paper. There are 6 points per question ( 1/3 for form and 2/3 for content). Length: 40-50
words per question. Count your words, and indicate the number at the end of your response.
IMPORTANT! For parts II and III you are asked to hand in a clean copy (no cross-outs or whiteouts) that is entirely legible
1. Explain the author’s professional role in China.
2. How does the author organize his life, and why does he do this?
3. In the 4th paragraph, the author states that he perceives his life as “charmed”. What does this
word mean in this context, and why does he believe his life to be this way?
4. What problems does the author imply that he had had the year before?
5. Explain the author’s connection to “freedom” that he mentions in the last two paragraphs of the
text.
TOTAL Part II : 30 points
PART III Expression (approximate time 75 minutes, 40% of total points)
Write a coherent and interesting composition on one of the following topics. Length: minimum
160 words ( 1/2 for form and 1/2 for content.) Count your words and indicate the number at the
end of your composition.
.
1. How can learning a new language (in a new country) affect your identity?
2. Analyze the impact of the economic rise of China in recent years.
3. Would you change your habits/values to adapt to and/or appease another person or culture?
TOTAL Part III: 30 points
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