ENGLISH TEST

DATE:

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MARK : / 20
COMMENTS:

OREADING COMPREHENSION : Gatsby is Back
GENERAL COMPREHENSION
C NATURE AND ORIGIN OF THE TEXT

Briefly introduce the document under study .
The document under study is a newspaper article published on
November 21
st
, 2010, in the Observer, a British quality newspaper .
The article which is entitled Gatsby is Back deals with the
revival of F Scott Fitzgeralds novel , The Great Gatsby in 2010
America.
C STRUCTURE OF THE TEXT
Read the whole text at normal speed. In what order do the following ideas
appear ?
Indicate the order in the box and specify the line numbers. Quote the text
to justify.
3 ( L.21 L. 33) The parallel between the 1920s and the present time .
will resonate ( l. 22);can relate to ( l. 33)
5 ( L. 42 L. 56) Opposed interpretations of the novel. hotly debated ( l.
43)
6 ( L.57. L. 69) The survival of the American dream in question. a poll
( l. 57)
4 ( L.34 L. 41) The originality of the 1920s. first fetishised decade ( l.
34)
1 ( L. 1 L. 11 ) What the novel The Great Gatsby is about . tells the
story of ( l. 2)
2 ( L. 12 L. 20 ) The revival of the novel. is rising again ( l.14)
7 ( L. 70 L. 74) The validity of the storys moral today . the lessons...are
living on. ( l. 72)
DETAILED COMPREHENSION

C PART ONE (from the beginning to line 11)
a) What words from the article may refer to the moral decadence of
Prohibition ?
louche social scene ( l. 2)
Note down the dates mentioned . What do they refer to ?
1920s= the Roaring Twenties/the Jazz Age
1930s = the Great Depression
b) What is said of : Quote the key word(s) and the line
O Jay Gatsbys personality ? mysterious ( l. 2), enigmatic persona ( l.
5), fraud ( l. 10),
O Jay Gatsbys problems ? impossible dreams ( l. 8), exclusion ( l. 9)
O The atmosphere at his parties ? decadent fun ( l. 7)
c) Find in the text the equivalent of :
O acclaimed : hailed ( l. 6) O symbolic : emblematic( l. 6)
C PART TWO (from line 12 to 41)
d) True or false ? Tick the correct answer and justify by quoting the text .
O The novel the Great Gatsby has been turned into a Broadway musical entitled Gatz . F E
the entire book is read out ( l. 19)
O The performance required great endurance from the actors . T E
epic Public Theater production ( l. 18); an eight-hour marathon( l. 20)
O Americans evoke the 1920s with shame (honte) . F E
they look back with longing to the Roaring Twenties ( l. 26)
O The similarities between the present time and the 1920s may explain the revival of the novel. T E
it is perhaps no surprise that The Great Gatsby is rising again in Americas
cultural landscape of 2010 ( l. 12)
e) Pick out words and expressions showing that in both periods successful
economic development was
followed by a disaster .
O 1920s
1920s : outrageous wealth ( l. 29); moment of prosperity ( l. 37)
crash ( l. 38)
O 2010s
2010s : great economic boom ( l. 24) unemployment and hardship
( l. 25) ; mass unemployment ( l. 31) ; economic wreckage
( l. 32) ) ; burst property bubble( l. 33)
f) Cross out the translations that do not correspond to the context .

hit ( L.17) : gros success
epic ( L.18) : grand spectacle
resonate ( L.23) : trouver un cho
boom ( L.24) : essor
longing ( L.26) : nostalgie
wealth ( L.29) : fortune
wreckage ( L.32) : catastrophe
property ( L.33) : biens
fetishised ( L.35) : devenue objet de culte
decade ( L.35) : dcennie
legacy ( L.35) : hritage
lecturer ( L.17) : professeur duniversit
C PART THREE (from line 42 to the end)
g) True or false ? Tick the correct answer and justify by quoting the text .
O In the 1920s, American society was ready to offer social opportunities to almost anybody . T E
greater opening up of American society ( l. 46) / non-Wasp Americans are
striving successfully .( l. 48)
O Paragraph 6 mentions that, indeed, everybody could make their American dreams come true. F E

the other way round ( l. 54) / illusory nature of the American dream ( l.
55)
O According to the poll, the majority of Americans believe that the American dream does not exist any more. F E

43%( l. 60)
O Only wealthy people can still believe in the American dream T E

a preserve of the wealthier classes ( l. 65)
O The spirit of the American dream nowadays is in contradiction with its basic principles . T E
that goes against its core ideal ( l. 66)