Bac Anglais 2008 Lv2: Nouvelle Calédonie

BACCALAUREAT GENERAL

SESSION 2008

ANGLAIS

Serie L et S

LANGUE VIVANTE 2

Série L

Durée 3 heures - Coefficient 4

Série S

Durée 2 heures - Coefficient 2

L'usage de la calculatrice et du dictionnaire n'est pas autorisé.

Comprehension et Expression: 10 points

Traduction: 10 points

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The only person who saw Paul and Malvina leaving the party together was Doug

Anderton. He was standing by himself, leaning against a wall, composing in his head the

first few sentences of an article for Sunday's paper.

He had not been looking out for Paul, although he knew he was probably in the room.

His gaze was fixed, instead, on a scene unfolding in the corner of the restaurant nearest to

the entrance, where the young couple who had arrived just behind Paul in a white stretch

limo were enjoying the attentions of a crowd of journalists and photographers. This couple,

whom Paul had not recognized, had last year been two of the contestants on Britain's most

popular primetime reality TV show. For weeks they had kept the public guessing as to

whether or not they were going to have sex with each other on camera. The tabloid papers

had devoted hundreds of column inches to the subject. Neither of them had talent, or

wisdom, or education, or even much personality to speak of. But they were young and good-

looking, and they dressed well, and they had been on television, and that was enough. And

so the photographers kept taking pictures, and the journalists kept trying to make them say

something quotable or amusing (which was difficult, because they had no wit, either).

Meanwhile, Doug could not help noticing, right next to them, waiting for his wife to emerge

from the ladies', the figure of Professor John Copland: Britain's leading geneticist, one of its

better-selling science writers, and regularly mentioned as a potential Nobel prizewinner. But

no one was taking his photograph, or asking him to say anything. He could have been a cab

driver, waiting to drive one of the guests home, as far as anybody else was concerned. And

for Doug, this situation encapsulated so perfectly everything he wanted to say about Britain in 2002-the obscene weightlessness of its cultural life, the grotesque triumph of sheen 1 over

substance, all the clichés which were only clichés, as it happened, because they were true-

that he was, perversely, pleased to be witnessing it.

Doug watched the distinguished professor standing patiently with two coats over his

arm, and watched the celebrity couple, basking in their tenuous fame, and he was as hypnotized, in his

...