Examen FP Grado Superior 2011 - Central Park renovation programme

In terms of its size and beauty, Central Park is the envy of cities the world over. Its safety record is, however, less impressive. Things reached an all-time low one night in 1989 when a female Wall Street executive went out jogging, only to be brutally raped and beaten by a gang of black teenagers. This example of inter-racial violence became an international news story. Irate black community leaders pointed out that on the same night a Harlem woman was murdered under even more gruesome circumstances and this episode was hardly mentioned in the local press.

Race relations in America may be as bad as ever, but Central Park has come bouncing back. The northern section of the Park, where the attack took place, has been the subject of a costly renovation programme that has begun to bear fruit. The Harlem Meer lake, for example, has been transformed from a marshy swamp into a playground where locals of all ages can go fishing and sunbathing. In actual fact the Parks and Recreation Department was working hard to improve things before 1989. Fun projects like Steve “Wildman” Brill´s “eating tour” of Central and other Parks were a case in point. Brill´s tour does not take you to restaurants: it shows the edible plants that are yours for free. Throughout the city, smaller parks are being transformed from havens for low-lifes into places where normal people can go and relax. The case of Central Park is a bit like that of New York as a whole: in spite of the image problem, things were probably never that bad. After all, Jackeline Kennedy Onassis used to go jogging in Central Park every day and the only people who used to bother her where the press photographers.

(adapted from Speak Up, nº 121)

Le rire n’est pas toujours drôle - FP Grado Superior 2015 - francés A2

Dans une interview accordée l’an dernier, le professeur de psychologie Peter McGraw, auteur d’une étude sur l’humour dans le monde, expliquait pourquoi les gens rient et pourquoi le rire peut être thérapeutique.

« Nous rions quand quelqu’un a fait quelque chose de mal. Quand il existe une menace, mais qu’il n’y a pas de réel danger. C’est ce que j’appelle la théorie de la violation bénigne. Prenons un exemple : dans une comédie, quelqu’un est blessé, on lui a tapé sur la tête avec un marteau. Or vous savez que la personne n’est pas réellement blessée parce que c’est un acteur, ou parce qu’elle continue de se comporter comme avant. Par contre, dans la réalité, taper sur la tête de quelqu’un avec un marteau, ce n’est pas drôle : il ya vraiment quelque chose de mal. »

« Mais le rire n’est pas toujours l’expression d’un amusement. Robert Provine, un psychologue qui a catalogué les situations dans lesquelles on rit dans le monde réel, a conclu que moins de 20% des cas étaient drôles. Entre autres choses, il a montré que le rire peut être une forme de politesse (« nous ponctuons nos phrases de rires et ils semblent faciliter nos interactions sociales »). Et le rire n’est pas toujours associé à des expériences positives. C’est sûr ! En 1962 on a parlé d’une épidémie de fou rire en Tanzanie. Elle a commencé chez quelques jeunes filles d’un pensionnat et ce serait propagée comme un virus, d’une personne à la suivante, d’un village à l’autre. Pour finir, on a fermé l’école et renvoyé les pensionnaires chez elles. Nous nous sommes rendus en Tanzanie pour rencontrer les personnes « contaminées ». D’emblée, ce qui nous a paru clair c’est que le pensionnat était très religieux et que la vie y était dure. (... …. ….). Nous sommes arrivés à la conclusion qu’il s’agissait d’un cas d’hystérie collective, une sorte de pathologie psychosomatique déclenchée par le stress. Le rire n’en est qu’un des symptômes »

« Enfin, on parle tout le temps des effets du rire sur le corps, et il ne fait aucun doute que le rire possède des effets physiques bénéfiques. Mais son intérêt va bien au-delà : Il peut changer notre manière de percevoir le monde. Assister à un événement menaçant ou tragique et en rire, c’est rire de ses difficultés ; cela permet de les voir différemment, de les dédramatiser. »

Courier International. Mars 2015. (Texte adapté)

Examen FP Grado Superior 2015 - From classroom to office

Getting an education and going into business are both hard work. But some teenagers manage to start their own companies while they are still at school! So, how did they do it? Has their age been a problem? I talked to some young entrepreneurs to find out.

Andrew Butt is the twenty-year-old manager of a computer software business. When he was twelve, he offered to do small jobs at a local helicopter training centre after school. At first, he made people cups of tea, then he began programming the centre´s computer system. During his time at the centre, Andrew realized that he might have the ability and experience to work for himself. Unfortunately, his teachers disagreed with him! At fifteen, Andrew left school. He hired a tutor, and by the age of sixteen he was running his own company, which was called Enable Software.

Harlem Lyrics Cards was launched by Chauncey Holloman in Arkansas, USA, when Chauncey was only sixteen. Her greeting cards are brightly-coloured, and they often feature hiphop characters and informal, colloquial language. Chauncey explained that she started designing cards because she couldn´t find anything suitable for her friends´ birthdays.

In California, seventeen-year-old student Ryan Glasgow has started his seventh company! His latest business is Pure Five Audio, which is an online shop that sells more than 700 products. Ryan certainly wasted no time in getting started in the business world. He started his career by selling locally-picked fruit to friends- before the age of eight!

All these young people became very successful entrepreneurs at an early age. All are very positive, ambitious people, who were prepared to give their all in fulfilling their dreams. But has their commitment to business had any negative impact on their lives? Andrew wonders whether some of his friendships might have been damaged by his decision to leave school early. If he hadn´t left school, it would have been easier to stay in touch. In general, however, he feels very glad that he took the risk! Chauncey has been able to rely on her family to help with her company. She has missed a few days of school, but she hopes to finish her education and go to business college. Ryan thinks that it is a challenge to keep school, business, and a social life in balance, but he feels that it is a challenge that he can meet. In conclusion, it seems that age is no barrier to business success. All you need is a good idea, confidence, and a willingness to put in a lot of hard work. After that, the sky is the limit!

Pas de sexe à l’école - FP Grado Superior 2013 - francés A2

Les nouveaux programmes scolaires en Croatie provoquent l’ire de l’Église catholique.

Le jour de Noël, les croyants venus assister à la messe dans une église de Split ont été surpris par une décoration atypique : la Sainte Famille avait été placée dans une cage à oiseaux. Ils ont dû attendre l’homélie du père dominicain qui y officie pour comprendre le sens de cette installation conceptuelle. « En Croatie, la chrétienté se trouve de nouveau en prison », a-t-il dit. Le même jour, dans l’église Saint Pierre, le prêtre n’a pas eu recours à la métaphore. Il a dit haut et fort que l’éducation sexuelle à l’école était « le refuge du diable »

Ces deux histoires illustrent bien le conflit qui fait actuellement rage entre le clergé et le gouvernement. Le torchon brûle entre l’Église et le gouvernement social-démocrate croate depuis que le ministre de l’Éducation, Zoran Jovanovic, a introduit dans le programme scolaire obligatoire des cours d’éducation sexuelle, dont un petit module traite de l’homosexualité et de la procréation médicalement assistée.

Selon le clergé, cet enseignement « initie les jeunes à la pornographie, à la masturbation, à l’homosexualité et favorise la propagation des maladies sexuellement transmissibles ». Le cardinal Bozanic a estimé que « l’éducation sexuelle menait à l’anéantissement de l’homme » alors qu’un théologien de renom, Adalbert Rebic, a affirmé que « la Croatie était en train de rejoindre le complot mondial des pédés et des gouines, qui menacent la société toute entière de leur déchéance »

Et pendant que les ministres se chamaillent comme des commères avec les évêques, on a l’impression de voir la société croate revenir avec un immense plaisir à son état naturel, celui de la guerre idéologique permanente. Parce que même si les croates ne vivent plus dans un système totalitaire, mais dans un pays démocratique, en démocratie le pouvoir est éparpillé, atomisé entre plusieurs instances. Et cela l’Église le sait : elle ne tient pas les commandes du ministère de l’Éducation, mais elle n’a pas perdu le pouvoir. Ni à la télévision, ni dans la sphère des affaires économiques ni dans les manuels scolaires.

Courrier International. Janvier 2013 (texte adapté)

Examen FP Grado Superior 2013 - Food for thought

What would happen if you ate nothing but fast food for a month? Film-maker Morgan Spurlock wanted to find out, so he made a documentary called ‘Super Size Me’. Morgan ate fast food meals three times a day, and he had large or ‘supersize’ servings whenever he was offered them. It was hard work, and after just two days he wished he had never started.

He was pushing his body to its limits, and his new diet made him ill. Several weeks later, his health had deteriorated so badly that doctors advised him to stop. ‘Unless there is an improvement in Morgan’s diet, he runs a risk of permanently damaging his liver´ said one medical expert. But it was not just Morgan’s body that was suffering - fast food was also having a negative influence on his mind. He would feel great just after he had eaten, then an hour later he would be grumpy, angry and tired. Even though he was suffering, Morgan continued this experiment for thirty days. Unfortunately, it took him nearly a year to return to previous levels of health and well-being!

Morgan Spurlock was not the first person to explore the connection between food and behaviour. Towards the end of the last century, American researchers carried out an investigation into diet and development. They analysed the behaviour of a group of children over several years, with surprising results. At eight years old, the children who ate a larger than average amount of junk food were more likely to get into fights than their healthy-eating peers.

Aged eleven, the same children were often more aggressive, bullying and attacking other classmates. By the age of seventeen, a large percentage of this group had left school, and they were more likely to have problems with drugs or alcohol. A few of these teens were victims of peer pressure; others had a difficult family background. However, they all had one thing in common: they all had bad diets. The study concluded that an unhealthy lifestyle was one of the most significant reasons for their behavioural problems.

Despite these grim statistics, fast food restaurants still feed more tan 45 million people a day! So why do we continue to eat this junk? In ‘Super Size Me’, Morgan Spurlock eventually got used to his diet of hamburgers and chips. After a while, he even started to enjoy it.

The sweet, fattening food is so tempting that many of us, like Morgan, develop an addiction to it. That is the problem with fast food: it is just too tasty!

Logement idéal . Francés A1 Graduado ESO

Le logement idéal des Français doit être lumineux (30% des personnes interrogées) et chaleureux (30%). Surtout les femmes et les retraités donnent priorité à la luminosité du logement. La pièce préférée est le salon, surtout pour les 15-34 ans, puis la cuisine, la chambre et enfin la salle à manger.

Autre révélation de cette enquête, 52% des Français rêvent d’une maison de campagne. 32% aimeraient vivre dans un chalet et 27% dans un corps de ferme.

Déménager pour avoir un meilleur logement 1 Français sur 5 ne souhaite pas déménager de son logement. Parmi les Français qui souhaitent déménager, les raisons qui motivent le changement de résidence sont : Une meilleure localisation pour 32% des sondées (notamment l’accès aux transports publics (12%), aux commerces et aux services (12%), un environnement moins bruyant (11%) et plus sécurisant (3%)).

Texto adaptado de : Le partenaire européen  (255 p.)