Cours Anglais

Toutes séries

Le portrait physique

Quelques idées
1. réclames et With summer approaching, people are literally bom-
publicités barded with ads and commercials1 for slimming2
2. amincissants products. Every trick3 of the trade is used to make us,
3. ficelles, poor plain4 creatures, spend a fortune on trying to
astuces look like the empty-headed5 good-looker “on dis-
4. pas très beaux play”6.
5. sans cervelle “I used to be overweight7. Look how slim8 I am. My
6. « exposé » friends can’t believe their eyes,” the smashing9 crea-
7. trop gros ture tells us. She goes on: “It’s hight time to think of
8. mince remedying the disastrous effects of past overindul-
9. superbe gence10 at the table. Do something about that
10. excès unsightly11 triple chin12 of yours, that pot belly13 and
11. laid those rolls of flesh14. Now! Tomorrow might be too
12. menton late. You’ll only have yourself to blame if you find
13. bedaine yourself the butt of15 everyone’s jokes on the beach.
14. bourrelets So why wait any longer?”
15. en butte à
Each year millions of us fall for it16. However, to judge

© NATHAN, 1999 - Atout Bac, Anglais, Term. Toutes Séries (J.-F. Dreyfus).
16. se font avoir
17. faire des
by the result, some products may not work miracles17.
miracles
Vocabulaire complémentaire

– a figure (une silhouette) – hairy (poilu)

– a complexion (le teint) – bald (chauve)
– a gait (une démarche) – to lisp (zézayer)
– good-looking (beau) – to stammer (bégayer)
– plain (physique ingrat) – to limp (claudiquer)
– ugly (laid) – to lurch (tituber)
– plump (dodu) – all dressed up
– slender (svelte) (sur son trente et un)
– skinny (très mince) – slovenly dressed (négligé)
– fat (gros, gras) – to squint (loucher)
– deaf (sourd) – wrinkles (rides)
Études de documents

– dumb (muet) – pimples (boutons)

– blind (aveugle) – warts (verrues)
– squat (trapu) – weight and height
– sturdy (robuste) (poids et taille).
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1/15
 Le portrait psychologique

Quelques traits de caractères

• Généralités
– intelligent, clever (intelligent) – stupid, dumb (bête)
– smart (malin) – slow-witted (lent).
– bright (brillant)
• Attitude vis-à-vis de l’argent
– extravagant (dépensier) – thrifty (économe)
– to be greedy for money – stingy (avare).
(être avide d’argent)
• Attitude vis-à-vis des autres
– to be anxious to discover (être – inward-looking (renfermé)
impatient de découvrir) – bigoted (sectaire, intolérant)
– to be broad-minded (avoir les – uncooperative, reticent
idées larges) (réservé)
– to be outgoing (être extraverti) – forbidding (sévère)
– easy-going (facile à vivre) – fussy (difficile, tatillon)

© NATHAN, 1999 - Atout Bac, Anglais, Term. Toutes Séries (J.-F. Dreyfus).
– sociable, courteous (courtois) – moody (lunatique)
– narrow-minded (étroit d’esprit) – gross (grossier)
– self-centred (égocentrique) – to be suspicious of other people
– selfish (égoïste) (se méfier des autres).
• Attitude vis-à-vis de soi-même
– to be conceited (suffisant) – shy (timide)
– boastful, bragging (vantard) – self-conscious (timide)
– cocksure (être sûr de soi) – to have a complex about
(faire un complexe de).
• Attitude vis-à-vis des événements
– fatalistic (fataliste) – superstitious (superstitieux)
– God-fearing (très croyant) – gullible (crédule).
• Attitude vis-à-vis de la loi
Études de documents

– to be law-abiding – rebellious (rebelle)

(respectueux de la loi)
– to be fashion-conscious
(qui suit la mode)
– to be class-conscious (faire
– a non-conformist (dissident),
to be saucy (impertinent)
– to live on the fringes of
society (vivre en marge de la
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des distinctions sociales) société).

2/15
 Les étapes de la vie

Quelques idées
1. En feuilletant Flicking through1 your family album, you live some
2. revivez of the most memorable instants of your past existence
over2 again. The camera has immortalized them.
Here is the old house where you were born and where
3. avez grandi you grew up3 until you and your parents moved4 to
4. ont déménagé Paris. Here is a snapshot5 of you. You were still a tod-
5. un cliché dler6 at the time. And here you are with your second
6. un tout petit form7 classmates8. Remember the girl next to you?
7. classe de 5e You had a crush9 on her. That was back in 1990.
8. camarades Remember the tricks10 you would play on Miss Smith,
de classe the maths teacher? It seems as if it were yesterday.
9. aviez le Doesn’t time fly?
béguin You’re now about to sit for11 the baccalauréat, that
10. jouiez des much dreaded12 exam à la française which everyone
tours is talking about at this time of year. Good luck!
11. passer
12. redouté

© NATHAN, 1999 - Atout Bac, Anglais, Term. Toutes Séries (J.-F. Dreyfus).
Vocabulaire complémentaire

– Early childhood – to date somebody

(petite enfance)
– adolescence or teenage years
(adolescence)
– the awkward age (l’âge ingrat)
– adulthood (âge adulte)
– old age (vieillesse)
– fatherhood (paternité)
– motherhood (maternité)
– to be expecting
(attendre un enfant)
– to be pregnant (être enceinte)
– puppy love (premier amour)
– love at first sight
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(sortir avec quelqu’un)
– to get engaged (se fiancer)
– to break up (rompre)
– to make it up (se réconcilier)
– to get married (se marier)
– a pleasant memory
(un souvenir agréable)
– a painful experience
(une expérience pénible)
– graduation (U.S) (cérémonie
de remise de diplôme dans
un lycée ou une université)
– prom (U.S.) (bal de l’année dans

(le coup de foudre) un lycée ou une université).

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3/15
 Le sort, le destin,
la superstition
Quelques idées
1. un rationaliste • Who are you?
pur et dur Are you a rationalist through and through1?
2. objets fétiches, Or are you rather superstitious?
porte-bonheur Do you believe in charms2?
3. votre • Do you ever read your stars3?
horoscope Have you ever consulted a fortune-teller4?
4. une diseuse de If so, was it ...
bonne aventure – for the fun of it5?
5. pour rire – because you really believed you’d get a clear
6. ce que vous picture of what fate had in store for you6?
réservait When in front of a painter’s ladder, do you ...
votre destin – systematically walk round7 it to avoid ruining your
7. faites le tour new suit?
8. tenter – walk underneath to defy danger?
la Providence – walk round it to avoid tempting fate8?
9. nés sous une • Do you believe some people are born under a lucky
bonne étoile star9 and others are jinxed10?

© NATHAN, 1999 - Atout Bac, Anglais, Term. Toutes Séries (J.-F. Dreyfus).
10. ont la poisse • Do you feel that a black cat is:
11. un mauvais – just a cat that happens to be black?
présage – a bad omen11?
12. nient In short, are you like millions of other people who
13. la chance deny12 being superstitious and yet are always looking
leur sourit encore for signs that luck still favours13 them?

Vocabulaire complémentaire

– to be lucky – to be dogged by misfortune

(avoir de la chance) (être poursuivi par
– to be unlucky la malchance)
(ne pas avoir de chance) – her luck ran out
– fortunately (la chance l’a abandonnée)
(par chance) – to be a lucky devil
Études de documents

– unfortunately (être un sacré veinard)

(malheureusement)
– by chance (par hasard)
– by a quirk of fate
(par un caprice du destin)
– by a curious coincidence
– luck smiled on him
(la chance lui souriait)
– to keep fingers crossed
(croiser les doigts)
– to ward off ill fortune
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(par un curieux hasard) (conjurer le sort).

4/15
 Les réactions
face à un événement
Un exemple
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong, an American astro-
naut was to become the first man ever to walk on the
moon. The event which was watched on live televi-
1. stupéfait, sion by a half billion dumbfounded1 people filled the
interloqué whole US nation with immense pride2. America had
2. fierté at last caught up3 with the Russians and taken the
3. avait rattrapé lead4.
4. l’avance, At Mission Control everyone was overwhelmed5 with
la tête joy when Eagle, the lunar module, landed on Tran-
5. était quillity Base, some 240,000 miles away from our plan-
débordant et. But the highlight6 of the day was when Armstrong
6. le clou set foot on lunar soil.
Loud applause broke out7 as the astronaut proclaimed
7. un tonnerre
his first tentative step onto the moon, a “giant leap for
d’applau-
mankind”.
dissements
éclata Soon, however, silent concentration prevailed8 again.
Perilous operations remained to be carried out9, such

© NATHAN, 1999 - Atout Bac, Anglais, Term. Toutes Séries (J.-F. Dreyfus).
8. régna
9. être as lift-off10 from the moon and rejoining Columbia.
accomplies It was only when the crew11 splashed down in the
10. décoller Pacific on July 24 that everyone felt both proud and
11. l’équipage relieved12. They had made it to the moon and had
12. soulagé returned safely.

Vocabulaire complémentaire
– to be all smiles – to have mixed feelings about
(être tout sourire) (avoir des sentiments mitigés)
– to radiate happiness – to feel miserable
(rayonner de bonheur) (se sentir malheureux)
– to be on cloud nine – to be in despair (désespérer)
(être aux anges) – to be at a loss
– to feel at home with (être déconcerté)
Études de documents

(se sentir à l’aise avec) – to feel ill-at-ease

– to be delighted (être ravi)
– bliss (le bonheur, la félicité)
– glee (la joie, l’allégresse)
– to relish one’s triumph
(savourer son triomphe)
(être mal à l’aise)
– to be upset (être bouleversé)
– to frown at something
(froncer les sourcils)
– to sulk (bouder)
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– to feel relieved (être soulagé) – to be stunned (être abasourdi).

5/15
 Individu et société

Quelques idées
1. détermine In India a rigid caste system still largely dictates1
2. mener what lives individuals are to lead2, what jobs they are
to have, and what partners they are to marry.
In Western countries individuals are apparently freer
3. comme ils to live as they please3. And yet, as is shown by a num-
l’entendent ber of surveys4, our societies, in their own way, are
4. enquêtes fundamentally class-conscious5.
5. une société A complicated system of unwritten laws serves to tell
de classes those who belong6 from those who don’t, shaping7
6. les gens bien people’s destinies at all levels of society. Money, occu-
7. façonnant pation8, education, but also taste, values, ideas, style
8. activité and behaviour are among the criteria9 for determi-
professionnelle ning where you stand10 and who you may mix with11.
9. les critères
10. quel est
votre statut
11. fréquenter

© NATHAN, 1999 - Atout Bac, Anglais, Term. Toutes Séries (J.-F. Dreyfus).
Vocabulaire complémentaire

– the upper class – to be uncouth

(la haute bourgeoisie) (ne pas être très raffiné)
– the middle class – to have vulgar tastes
(la classe moyenne) (avoir mauvais goût)
– the working class – to be gross (être grossier)
(la classe ouvrière) – to be educated (être instruit)
– the underclass (sous- – snobbish (snob)
prolétariat, quart-monde) – snobbery (le snobisme)
– outcasts – to despise somebody
(les exclus, les parias) (mépriser quelqu’un)
– to be U – to envy somebody
(faire partie de la haute) (jalouser quelqu’un)
– to be non-U – to look down on somebody
Études de documents

(être un roturier) (mépriser, regarder

– to have refined manners quelqu’un de haut)
(avoir du style) – a status symbol
(une marque de standing).
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6/15
 La presse et les médias

Quelques idées
1. sont l’objet de The media have come in for1 a lot of criticism lately2,
2. récemment some of which is not undeserved3.
3. immérité In fact, the last ten years have seen numerous cases
4. dérapages of journalistic misbehaviour4.
5. accusé de Tabloid journalism has been repeatedly taken to task5
6. flatter le goût for pandering to6 people’s interest in sensationalism,
des gens pour while countless papers and TV channels have proved
7. aux ordres subservient7 to local, regional or national authorities.
8. corrompus Not all journalists, however, are corrupt8. In fact, a lot
9. dévoués of them are courageous, dedicated9 professionnals
10. révéler doing their best to disclose10 the kind of information
11. cacher à that those in power would like to hide from11 the
public.
Such journalists deserve our respect and our support
12. contre-pouvoir as they act as a counterpower12 to the Establishment
and have proved the best rampart against all forms of

© NATHAN, 1999 - Atout Bac, Anglais, Term. Toutes Séries (J.-F. Dreyfus).
13. autoritarisme authoritarianism13.

Vocabulaire complémentaire

– cable TV (le câble) – quality papers (journaux de

– satellite TV
(la télévision par satellite)
– a channel (une chaîne)
– a radio station (une radio)
– to switch channels
(changer de chaîne)
– a programme (une émission)
– a talk-show
(une causerie télévisée)
– a reality show (reality show)
– a soap (feuilleton télévisé à
Études de documents
bonne tenue)
– tabloids (journaux de petits
formats, presse populaire)
– broadsheets (journaux de
grand format)
– to hit the news/to make front
page news (faire la une des
journaux)
– headlines (les gros titres)
– a daily (un quotidien)
– a weekly (un hebdomadaire)

l’eau de rose) – a monthly (un mensuel)

– the news (les informations)
– an entertaining program
(une émission de divertis-
sement)
– to boost audience ratings
– ads (petites annonces)
– advertisement (publicité)
– obituaries
(rubrique nécrologique)
– to gag the press
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(faire de l’audimat) (bâillonner la presse).

7/15
 Les mythes américains

Quelques idées
• The myth of the Promised Land
The first American colonists, the Puritans of New
England and Massachussets, believed that they had
been chosen by God (God’s Chosen People) to start
1. réécrire History anew1 and build the New Jerusalem, the City
l’Histoire on the Hill (17th century).
• The myth of America’s “Manifest Destiny”
An imperialistic slogan originating in the 1850s which
summed up the widespread conviction that God had given
the US a world mission and that it was America’s right
and duty to intervene in the affairs of other countries.
• The myth of “American exceptionalism”
The phrase refers to the belief that the American
experiment is unique.
The Frontier (= the conquest of the West) is believed
to have helped create Homo Americanus, a new man
2. censé être supposedly2 endowed with3 a remarkable fighting

© NATHAN, 1999 - Atout Bac, Anglais, Term. Toutes Séries (J.-F. Dreyfus).
3. doté de spirit and a genuine sense of democracy.
4. avoir laissé American society is believed to have shed 4 all the
de côté class prejudices5 and the class consciousness6 asso-
5. préjugés de ciated with the Old Continent.
classes • The myth of the self-made man
6. conscience A myth which is closely related to that of the US as a
de classe classless society.
7. respectée “The self-made man” is a much revered7 figure in the
8. preuve press and in political speech and is seen as evidence8
9. que l’on peut that in America you can strike it rich9 regardless of10
faire fortune your family background11.
10. quel que soit • The impact of myths on American society
11. origine – A positive impact: Myths have helped America
familiale forge ahead12 under one and the same banner.
12. aller de – A negative impact: Myths have helped justify highly
l’avant
Études de documents

questionable13 policies and attitudes (imperialism, racism).

13. contestables
Vocabulaire complémentaire
– to perpetuate a myth – faith (la loi)
(entretenir un mythe) – to share the same beliefs
– to believe in (croire à) (partager les mêmes
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croyances).

8/15
 L’immigration
aux États-Unis
Quelques idées
1. entassées “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled1 masses
2. aspirant à yearning2 to breathe free,” read the words3 on the
3. peut-on lire pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
Ever since its creation, the American nation has prided
4. se pique de itself4 on being different from the rest of the world,
5. prétendant claiming5 to be a Land of Opportunity6 for all, regard-
6. Terre où less7 of creed8, colour or race, and a melting-pot9
chacun peut where people from all over the planet have success-
tenter sa chance fully mixed10.
7. sans tenir Not everyone, though, has achieved “the American
compte de/ Dream”. Two ethnic groups have been particularly
quel que soit victimized11 by white-dominated America: the
8. croyance Indians whose culture and social order were destroy-
9. creuset ed, and black Americans who were first brought to
10. se sont the U.S. as slaves12 and are still largely considered as
mélangés second-class citizens13.
11. ont été
“The American Dream”, however, still prompts14 mil-

© NATHAN, 1999 - Atout Bac, Anglais, Term. Toutes Séries (J.-F. Dreyfus).
victimes de
lions of people every year to apply for US citizenship
12. esclaves
or to cross American borders illegally. The new waves
13. citoyens de
of immigrants are made up mainly of Hispanics and
deuxième zone
Asians.
14. pousse
Increasing numbers of Americans fear that these new-
15. submergent comers will take their jobs and swamp15 the whole
country.
Hence the many hostile reactions to the arrival of
these new Americans across the countr y and the
16. un arrêt rising clamour for a clampdown16 on undocumented17
17. clandestins immigrants.

Vocabulaire complémentaire
Études de documents

– to fit in (s’intégrer) – to be disriminated against

– to integrate into US society (être l’objet de discrimi-
(s’intégrer à la société nations)
américaine) – a sweatshop
– to achieve the American (un atelier clandestin).
Dream (réaliser le rêve
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américain)

9/15
 Le problème des villes
aux États-Unis

Quelques idées
1. métropoles The European visitor to the US might have difficulty
2. quartiers finding his way through the huge American metropo-
urbains lises1.
défavorisés The downtown area is the business and commercial
3. pauvres, center. Not very far from it are the inner-city areas2
démunis inhabited by destitute3 minority people, mostly Afro-
4. taux de Americans or Hispanics. They have an extremely
criminalité high incidence of crime4. Social deprivation5 and gun-
5. l’exclusion addiction6 account for7 rising, gratuitous violence,
6. la fascination while the drug trade is leading to increasingly lethal8
pour les armes gang warfare9.
7. expliquent
Better-off10 or successful Americans who, each in
8. meurtrière
their own way, have achieved11 the American Dream,
9. la guerre
live away from the city center, in nicer and cleaner
des gangs
suburban12 areas which combine both the amenities13
10. mieux lotis
of city life and the charm of the countryside14.
11. ont réalisé

© NATHAN, 1999 - Atout Bac, Anglais, Term. Toutes Séries (J.-F. Dreyfus).
12. banlieues
13. les avantages
14. la campagne Vocabulaire complémentaire

– a highway – rapes (viols)

(une autoroute urbaine)
– a flyover (un échangeur)
– a shopping mall
(un centre commercial)
– recreational facilities
(installations sportives)
– bank robberies
(attaques de banques)
– shoplifting (vol à l’étalage)
– muggings (agressions)
Études de documents
– shootings (fusillades)
– to get robbed (se faire voler
son argent, ses papiers)
– to be arrested (être arrêté)
– to be sentenced to
(être condamné à)
– to be sent to prison
(être mis en prison)
– to be tried for murder
(être jugé pour meurtre).

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10/15
 Les problèmes de société
en Angleterre

Quelques idées
1. un peu démodé Britain used to be known for its quaint1 and colourful
2. style de vie lifestyle2. But today’s British society is prey3 to a
3. en proie à serious malaise which stems4 from a widespread5
4. a pour origine feeling within large sections of the population that
5. très répandu their country is failing6 them.
6. abandonne More and more Britons find it indeed harder and
7. joindre les harder to make ends meet7 and a lot of them live in
deux bouts dire poverty8.
8. pauvreté extrême
9. réduction
Fierce foreign competition, downsizing9 and relo-
d’effectifs,
cations10 have taken a heavy toll11 of jobs in the old
dégraissages
industrial sectors, leaving increasing numbers of
10. délocalisations
unskilled12 workers on the sidelines13.
11. supprimer de Deregulation14 has been in full swing15 over the last
nombreuxemplois ten years, resulting in further job insecurity16 and
12. non-qualifié(s) deteriorating working conditions. And those on the
13. laissant sur dole17 are now entitled18 to less generous unemploy-

© NATHAN, 1999 - Atout Bac, Anglais, Term. Toutes Séries (J.-F. Dreyfus).
la touche ment benefits19.
14. dérégle- There is deep resentment20 in the countr y, all the
mentation more so as the gap21 between rich and poor is wide-
15. ont fait fureur ning.
16. la précarité
de l’emploi
17. au chômage
18. ont droit à
19. allocations-
chômage
20. ressentiment Vocabulaire complémentaire
21. fossé
– A two-tier society – to have connections
(une société à deux vitesses) (avoir des relations)
– To feel fulfilled (avoir le sen- – perks (avantages en nature)
Études de documents

timent d’avoir réussi sa vie) – to live below the poverty line

– to enjoy high living standards
(avoir un haut niveau de vie)
– to graduate from a public
school (sortir d’une “public
school” ; école privée de
(vivre en dessous du seuil
de pauvreté)
– to do odd jobs
(faire des petits boulots)
– to feel excluded (se sentir exclu).
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grand renom)

11/15
 L’Afrique du Sud

Quelques idées
Some 46 years after apartheid laws were introduced
by the National Party, South Africa was to elect in
1994 its first black president, Nelson Mandela, which
1. une indication is indeed a measure1 of how far the whole country has
2. le long travelled2 over the last years. But a lot of problems
chemin remain to be solved. Four decades of apartheid have
parcouru bequeathed3 the new government a fearsome4
3. ont légué legacy5. A huge economic and social divide6 separates
4. effroyable blacks from whites. Whites make up7 a mere 14% of
5. héritage South Africa’s population, but they own almost 90%
6. fossé of the country’s land and business. The task8 await-
7. constituent ing9 Nelson Mandela is immense. The new president
8. la tâche will have to wage war10 on illiteracy11, poor housing,
9. qui attend disease, unemployment and dire poverty12 in black
10. lutter areas, if democracy and peace are to survive in the
11. analpha- country.
bétisme

© NATHAN, 1999 - Atout Bac, Anglais, Term. Toutes Séries (J.-F. Dreyfus).
12. misère
extrême
Quelques chiffres
Blacks : 22,000,000. Coloureds : 3,500,000.
13. Métis Asians13 : 1,000,000. Whites : 5,500,000.

Quelques termes spécifiques

• Afrikaners : white South Africans whose first lan-
14. Hollandais guage is Afrikaans. Descendants of the Dutch14 set-
15. colons tlers15 of the 17th century.
16. partisans • Apartheid : a set of segregationist and discrimina-
d’une Afrique tory laws that were passed as early as 1948 by white
du Sud blanche supremacists16 and repealed17 in the late eighties –
17. abrogés early nineties by F.W. de Klerk. Schools, buses,
18. séparés beaches and residential areas were segregated18.
Études de documents

Sexual relations between whites and non-whites were

19. interdites prohibited19.
20. banlieues • Townships20 : poor suburban areas or dormitory
21. Régions towns for non-whites.
réservées aux • Homelands21 : theoretically independent states.
Noirs The apartheid regime displaced22 huge numbers of
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22. a déplacé black South Africans to them.

12/15
 Les contrastes
du monde actuel

Quelques idées
1. décennie The last decade1 has seen unprecedented events
2. sensé which no one in their right mind2 would have even
imagined only twenty years ago.
3. poignée The handshake3 between Mr Arafat and Mr Rabin
de mains and the fall of the Berlin wall will go down in history4
4. entreront as milestones5 towards a more peaceful world.
dans l’histoire The last ten years or so have also been marked by
5. étapes decisive scientific and technological breakthroughs6,
importantes some of which open up new prospects7 for commu-
6. avancées nication, medicine and agriculture. Within a few
7. perspectives years, we’ll be able to cure8 hitherto9 incurable
8. guérir diseases, to feed billions of people throughout the
9. jusqu’ici world, and fly to the other side of the planet in less
10. il ne se than one fifth of the time currently required.
passe pas
Meanwhile, however, not a day goes by10 without tele-
un jour sans que
vision showing sad pictures of war, starvation11, epi-
11. famine

© NATHAN, 1999 - Atout Bac, Anglais, Term. Toutes Séries (J.-F. Dreyfus).
demics, environmental disasters12 and mass redun-
12. catastrophes
dancies13.
écologiques
13. licenciements It is high time for all those in power and those who
massifs support them to come to their senses14 and work to
14. revenir make our planet a more hospitable place to live in.
à la raison

Vocabulaire complémentaire

– an oil spill (marée noire) – to progress, to advance, to go

– drought (sécheresse)
– floods (inondations)
– a sewage farm
(une station d’épuration)
Études de documents
forward (progresser)
– to make plans
(faire des projets)
– to have initiative

– outcasts (avoir de l’initiative)

(les laissés pour compte)
– violation of human rights
(atteinte aux droits de
l’homme)
– to be made redundant/to be
– to manage (arriver à faire
quelque chose)
– resourceful (débrouillard)
– know-how (savoir-faire)
– teleworking (télétravail)
B@c en Ligne

– laid off (être licencié) – flexitime (horaires à la carte).

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 L’environnement

Quelques idées
1. il nous reste The last decade has seen governments and scientists
beaucoup hold a number of international conferences on envi-
de chemin ronmental problems, which may be a sign that man-
à parcourir kind is at last beginning to realize that our planet is
2. le village mortal.
planétaire However, we still have a long way to go1 to make our
3. procédés, global village2 a nicer, safer and cleaner place to live
méthodes in.
4. les habitudes
Industrial and farming processes3 are still largely
de consommation
damaging to the environment; consumer tastes4
5. fermer les
keep on encouraging waste, and governments, for
yeux sur
their part, all too often turn a blind eye5 to blatant6
6. flagrant(s)
negligence7 for fear8 of going against vested inter-
7. actes de
ests9 or seeing plants10 move to other countries.
négligence
8. de peur de Research may help us come up with environmentally-
9. intérêts friendlier processes and products in the years to

© NATHAN, 1999 - Atout Bac, Anglais, Term. Toutes Séries (J.-F. Dreyfus).
particuliers come, but what is lacking11 most today is the will and
10. usines the courage to change things.
11. manque
(verbe) Vocabulaire complémentaire

– air or water pollution – to close unauthorized landfills

(pollution de l’air ou de
l’eau)
– oil-spills (marées noires)
– waste (gaspillage)
– nuclear waste
(déchets nucléaires)
– car pollution (la pollution
provoquée par les voitures)
– toxic effluent
Études de documents
(fermer les décharges
sauvages ou non conformes)
– to stop dumping waste at sea
(arrêter de jeter des déchets
en mer)
– to develop environmentally-
friendly processes (inventer
des procédés plus écolo-
giques)

(rejets liquides toxiques) – to enforce regulations (faire

– toxic fumes
(fumées industrielles)
– nitrates (les nitrates)
– to pollute
(polluer, contaminer)
appliquer la réglementation)
– to recycle rubbish (recycler
les ordures)
– to develop public transpor-
tation systems (développer
B@c en Ligne

– to damage (détruire) les transports publics).

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 Quel monde
pour demain ?

Quelques idées
1. tire à sa fin As the twentieth century draws to a close1, predictions
2. au-delà about the year 2000 and beyond2 are a booming
3. un commerce trade3.
florissant There are indeed worst-case scenarios4 galore5.
4. scénarios- Prophets of doom and gloom5 contend it won’t be
catastrophes long before our planet is destroyed by some envi-
5. en abondance ronmental disaster or nuclear war.
6. prophètes de
Other futurologists object to the view that our planet
malheur
is doomed7. They are in fact satisfied8 that scientific
7. condamnée
and technological development will permit us to
8. convaincus
remedy the ills9 of our world. In their view, genetic
9. les maux
engineering10 will permit the growth of drought and
10. le génie
pest11 – resistant plants, which will solve the currently
génétique
acute problems of starvation and malnutrition. New
11. parasites
manufacturing processes12 will also reduce pollution
12. procédés de
to a minimum, while new vaccines and gene therapy13
fabrication
will enable doctors to eradicate14 crippling15 diseases

© NATHAN, 1999 - Atout Bac, Anglais, Term. Toutes Séries (J.-F. Dreyfus).
13. la thérapie
and epidemics.
génétique
14. supprimer Last, the decades to come ought to see the emer-
15. invalidantes gence16 of a leisure society where individuals will
16. l’avènement devote17 most of their time to self-improvement18 and
17. consacreront socializing19.
18. amélioration
de soi
19. rencontrer
des amis Vocabulaire complémentaire

– to herald a new era – a glimmer of hope

(annoncer une nouvelle ère) (une lueur d’espoir)
– to open up new prospects – to jeopardize
(ouvrir de nouvelles (mettre en péril).
Études de documents

perspectives)
B@c en Ligne

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