Ces exercices texte littéraire s’appuient sur de courts extraits écrits pour l’occasion. Tu identifies le narrateur et le point de vue, tu analyses des personnages et des procédés, puis tu rédiges un paragraphe d’interprétation.
Les exercices texte littéraire
Exercice 1 : Le vocabulaire de l’analyseAssocie chaque terme à sa traduction (a à h).
- a novel
- a short story
- a character
- the setting
- the narrator
- a play
- the tone
- an excerpt
a. le cadre · b. un roman · c. une pièce de théâtre · d. un extrait · e. une nouvelle · f. le ton · g. un personnage · h. le narrateur
Pour chaque extrait, indique 1st (first-person) ou 3rd (third-person) narrator.
- I had never seen the sea before that summer.
- Tom closed the door quietly and listened.
- We were five children, and our mother worked nights.
- Nobody in the village knew where she had come from.
- My hands were shaking as I opened the envelope.
- The old man smiled, but his eyes remained sad.
Indique O (omniscient), I (internal) ou E (external).
- Anna smiled at her brother, unaware that he had already sold the farm, and he, full of guilt, could not meet her eyes.
- The man entered the bar, ordered a whisky and sat down. He did not speak.
- Through the window, Ben could only see the rain. Would she ever come back? He felt sick.
- The two women shook hands. One of them was holding a red umbrella.
- In every house on the street, people were thinking the same thing, though each believed they were alone.
Nomme le procédé : simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, oxymoron, alliteration.
- The old house groaned under the weight of the snow.
- He ran as fast as a frightened hare.
- Her heart was a locked box.
- I’ve been waiting for centuries!
- They shared a sweet sorrow as the train left.
- Five foxes fled across the frozen field.
Indique V (verbal), S (situational) ou D (dramatic irony).
- Soaked to the skin, Tom muttered: « Lovely weather for a picnic. »
- The audience knows the cup is poisoned, but the king drinks happily.
- The safety inspector slipped on a wet floor in his own office.
- « Oh great, another Monday, » she sighed.
- The reader knows the letter has been lost, while the heroine waits for an answer every day.
Mrs Pembroke arrived at the meeting twenty minutes late and did not apologise. She sat in the front row, placed her expensive handbag on the chair beside her, and sighed loudly whenever the young speaker hesitated. When a woman asked if the seat was free, Mrs Pembroke looked at her shoes for a long moment before answering, « I’m afraid it’s taken. » Nobody came to sit there for the rest of the evening.
- Is the characterisation direct or indirect? Justify.
- Find two actions that show Mrs Pembroke’s lack of respect for others.
- What does her look at the woman’s shoes suggest?
- Is the seat really taken? What does this reveal?
- Give three adjectives in English to describe her.
- What is the effect of the last sentence?
The factory swallowed my father every morning at six and spat him out at night, grey and silent. I used to wait for him at the gate, counting the men as they came out, like tired soldiers returning from a war nobody had declared. He never talked about what happened inside. He would just put his hand on my head, heavy as a stone, and say, « One day, you’ll do better than this. » I believed him. I was eight.
- Who is the narrator? What type of narrator is it?
- Find the personification in the first sentence and explain its effect.
- Find a simile and say what it suggests about the workers.
- What does « a war nobody had declared » imply about factory work?
- How does the father feel about his job? Justify with the text.
- Explain the effect of the two short final sentences.
Chaque phrase d’analyse contient une erreur (de langue ou de méthode). Récris-la correctement.
- The author is a little boy who waits for his father.
- The narrator described the factory as a monster.
- In line 3, there is a metaphor.
- This sentence shows the caracter of the father.
- The writer uses a comparaison to describe the men.
- According to me, the text is sad.
Traduis ces phrases d’analyse en anglais.
- Le narrateur est un personnage de l’histoire.
- L’extrait est raconté à la première personne.
- Cette métaphore suggère que le personnage se sent prisonnier.
- Le lecteur en sait plus que le héros : c’est de l’ironie dramatique.
- Le ton de la fin est nostalgique.
- L’auteur souligne le contraste entre les deux personnages.
Remets ces phrases dans l’ordre pour former un paragraphe Point, Evidence, Explanation.
- This metaphor turns the factory into a monster that devours people.
- The narrator presents work as destructive.
- The text therefore criticises the dehumanising effect of industrial labour.
- Indeed, he writes that the factory « swallowed my father every morning » (l. 1).
- Its victims come out « grey and silent », as if their life had been drained away.
The party was a triumph, everyone said so. Clara laughed at every joke, filled every glass and remembered every name. At midnight, when the last guest had gone, she sat alone among the empty bottles and did not turn on the light.
Rédige un paragraphe d’analyse de 100 à 130 mots en anglais, selon la méthode PEE.
- Identifie le type de narrateur et le point de vue.
- Relève une répétition et donne son effet.
- Explique le contraste entre la fête et la fin.
- Propose une interprétation du personnage de Clara.
