A/ AS LEVEL FRENCH
Principal Examiner Top Tips
Candidates could use the following key question words as a framework when planning their essay:
a) For context – Qui ? Quand ? Où ? Comment ? Combien ?
b) For analysis – Pourquoi ? Quoi ? À quel point ?
c) For evaluation – Quelles sont les conséquences ? Quels sont les effets ?
Principal Examiner Top Tip
Candidates should be made aware that post writing checking is not an additional extra, but an integral
part of essay writing. Such checking could boost the candidate’s mark if done properly. Candidates
should allow time for checking during the duration of the exam. Good practice would include a number
of read throughs with a different focus/different focuses each time. These should focus on:
• word count
• accurate spelling and punctuation (especially of characters’ names and place names and of familiar
and subject-specific vocabulary)
• verbs – subject/verb agreement, tense, negatives
• singular/plural nouns, adjectival agreements, gender
• checking for repetition of ideas or vocabulary
Résumé de Bonjour Tristesse
A Summary of “Bonjour Tristesse”
, This short novel is a story told by Cécile, a 17-year-old girl holidaying on the Côte
d'Azur with her widowed father, a roué who has brought along his young
girlfriend. The daughter is exploring her own first sentimental adventure,
a swiftly consummated romance with a handsome law student, when the
unexpected arrival of an older woman, a friend of her late mother, disrupts the
self-indulgent haze of high summer. First the newcomer takes charge, ordering
Cécile to terminate her romance in order to stay indoors and do her homework.
Then she and the father fall in love. To prevent their marriage the daughter
devises an ill-fated plot in which the pretence of an affair between her boyfriend
and the father's rejected girlfriend is intended to provoke jealousy and restore the
status quo ante. Tragedy ensues.
La villa est magnifique, l'été brûlant, la
Méditerranée toute proche. Cécile a dix-sept ans.
Elle ne connaît de l'amour que des baisers, des
rendez-vous, des lassitudes. Pas pour longtemps.
Son père, veuf, est un adepte joyeux des liaisons
passagères et sans importance. Ils s'amusent, ils
n'ont besoin de personne, ils sont heureux. La
visite d'une femme de cœur, intelligente et calme,
vient troubler ce délicieux désordre. Comment
écarter la menace? Dans la pinède embrasée, un
jeu cruel se prépare.
C'était l'été 1954. On entendait pour la première
fois la voix sèche et rapide d'un « charmant petit
monstre » qui allait faire scandale. la deuxième
moitié du XXe siècle commençait. Elle serait à
l'image de cette adolescente déchirée entre le
remords et le culte du plaisir.
Principal Examiner Top Tips
Candidates could use the following key question words as a framework when planning their essay:
a) For context – Qui ? Quand ? Où ? Comment ? Combien ?
b) For analysis – Pourquoi ? Quoi ? À quel point ?
c) For evaluation – Quelles sont les conséquences ? Quels sont les effets ?
Principal Examiner Top Tip
Candidates should be made aware that post writing checking is not an additional extra, but an integral
part of essay writing. Such checking could boost the candidate’s mark if done properly. Candidates
should allow time for checking during the duration of the exam. Good practice would include a number
of read throughs with a different focus/different focuses each time. These should focus on:
• word count
• accurate spelling and punctuation (especially of characters’ names and place names and of familiar
and subject-specific vocabulary)
• verbs – subject/verb agreement, tense, negatives
• singular/plural nouns, adjectival agreements, gender
• checking for repetition of ideas or vocabulary
Résumé de Bonjour Tristesse
A Summary of “Bonjour Tristesse”
, This short novel is a story told by Cécile, a 17-year-old girl holidaying on the Côte
d'Azur with her widowed father, a roué who has brought along his young
girlfriend. The daughter is exploring her own first sentimental adventure,
a swiftly consummated romance with a handsome law student, when the
unexpected arrival of an older woman, a friend of her late mother, disrupts the
self-indulgent haze of high summer. First the newcomer takes charge, ordering
Cécile to terminate her romance in order to stay indoors and do her homework.
Then she and the father fall in love. To prevent their marriage the daughter
devises an ill-fated plot in which the pretence of an affair between her boyfriend
and the father's rejected girlfriend is intended to provoke jealousy and restore the
status quo ante. Tragedy ensues.
La villa est magnifique, l'été brûlant, la
Méditerranée toute proche. Cécile a dix-sept ans.
Elle ne connaît de l'amour que des baisers, des
rendez-vous, des lassitudes. Pas pour longtemps.
Son père, veuf, est un adepte joyeux des liaisons
passagères et sans importance. Ils s'amusent, ils
n'ont besoin de personne, ils sont heureux. La
visite d'une femme de cœur, intelligente et calme,
vient troubler ce délicieux désordre. Comment
écarter la menace? Dans la pinède embrasée, un
jeu cruel se prépare.
C'était l'été 1954. On entendait pour la première
fois la voix sèche et rapide d'un « charmant petit
monstre » qui allait faire scandale. la deuxième
moitié du XXe siècle commençait. Elle serait à
l'image de cette adolescente déchirée entre le
remords et le culte du plaisir.
