General Recommendations

How to improve your real competence?

“There are a wide variety of ways to prepare for an exam or test effectively. Below you
will find some useful methods of improvement.
Try to make the most of the following:
Reviewing Grammar is the foundation. If you want to build a house, it is not sufficient
to merely have lots of bricks (or words). Rather, you would need cement to hold the
entire construction in place. The cement, that is your knowledge of grammar.
Immerse yourself in the language: While it is good to do small exercises in a mobile
app from time to time, if you truly want to learn how to speak and converse
spontaneously, you must read and listen in your target language. Some ways to do
this are through the news, radio, music, and Netflix series, and all of these methods are
beneficial in advancing your skills.
Speak as frequently as possible: It may not always be apparent, but the only real way
to progress (especially for those of advanced levels), is to practice oral expression as
much as possible. This will allow you to put your theoretical knowledge, as well as
your vocabulary, to the test in real-time.
If you are already at an advanced level, don’t just listen passively to natives when they
speak. Rather, pay attention to the syntactic structures and vocabulary that they use
so that you continue to deepen your knowledge!
These general guidelines are not only to allow you to prepare for an exam but to
progress overall in the foreign language you are learning.
C.
 Text A
CHERNOBYL
 Text B
The Little Prince – St Exupéry
Chapter 1
Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True
Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor
in the act of swallowing an animal. Here is a copy of the drawing.
In the book it said: "Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing
it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that
they need for digestion."
I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle. And after some work
with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing. My Drawing
Number One. It looked like this:
I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing
frightened them.
But they answered: "Frighten? Why should any one be frightened by a hat?"
My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor
digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I
made another drawing: I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the
grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained. My
Drawing Number Two looked like this:
The grown-ups' response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of
boa constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside, and devote myself instead
to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar. That is why, at the age of six, I
gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter. I had been
disheartened by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number
Two. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for
children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
So then I chose another profession, and learned to pilot airplanes. I have flown a
little over all parts of the world; and it is true that geography has been very useful
to me. At a glance I can distinguish China from Arizona. If one gets lost in the
night, such knowledge is valuable.
In the course of this life I have had a great many encounters with a great many
people who have been concerned with matters of consequence. I have lived a great
deal among grown-ups. I have seen them intimately, close at hand. And that
hasn't much improved my opinion of them.
Whenever I met one of them who seemed to me at all clear-sighted, I tried the
experiment of showing him my Drawing Number One, which I have always kept.
I would try to find out, so, if this was a person of true understanding. But,
whoever it was, he, or she, would always say:
"That is a hat." Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or
primeval forests, or stars. I would bring myself down to his level. I would talk to
him about bridge, and golf, and politics, and neckties. And the grown-up would
be greatly pleased to have met such a sensible man.
 Text C
The Contribution of the Arts to Society
A. Lana Esslett
The arts matter because they link society to its past, a people to its inherited store of ideas,
images and words; yet the arts challenge those links in order to find ways of exploring new paths
and ventures. I remain sceptical of claims that humanity’s love of the arts somehow reflects
some inherent inclination, fundamental to the human race. However, exposure to and study of
the arts does strengthen the individual and fosters independence in the face of the pressures of
the mass, the characterless, the undifferentiated. And just as the sciences support the technology
sector, the arts stimulate the growth of a creative sector in the economy. Yet, true as this is, it
seems to me to miss the point. The value of the arts is not to be defined as if they were just
another economic lever to be pulled. The arts can fail every measurable objective set by
economists, yet retain their intrinsic value to humanity.
B. Seth North
Without a doubt, the arts are at the very centre of society and innate in every human being. My
personal, though admittedly controversial, belief is that the benefits to both individuals and
society of studying science and technology, in preference to arts subjects, are vastly overrated. It
must be said, however, that despite the claims frequently made for the civilising power of the
arts, to my mind the obvious question arises: Why are people who are undeniably intolerant and
selfish still capable of enjoying poetry or appreciating good music? For me, a more convincing
argument in favour of the arts concerns their economic value. Needless to say, discovering how
much the arts contribute to society in this way involves gathering a vast amount of data and then
evaluating how much this affects the economy as a whole, which is by no means straightforward.
C. Heather Charlton
It goes without saying that end-products of artistic endeavour can be seen as commodities which
can be traded and exported, and so add to the wealth of individuals and societies. While this is
undeniably a substantial argument in favour of the arts, we should not lose sight of those equally
fundamental contributions they make which cannot be easily translated into measurable social
and economic value. Anthropologists have never found a society without the arts in one form or
another. They have concluded, and I have no reason not to concur, that humanity has a natural
aesthetic sense which is biologically determined. It is by the exercise of this sense that we create
works of art which symbolise social meanings and over time pass on values which help to give
the community its sense of identity, and which contribute enormously to its self-respect.
VOCABULARY
Quick test :

Question 1: (5 minutes)

Write a short paragraph on an experience you had or any event of your choice.

Question 2: (4 minutes)

Write a brief introduction of yourself, in a business context, using appropriate vocabulary. You should
request a meeting with your correspondent in your note.

CORRECTIONS :

1. has been living / has lived