GLO-EGlobal Issues, Culture and Society

Reading: school campaign against single-use plastic

Idée directrice

Session models: 2017 principale (Anna Hankins plastic-bottle campaign) + 2018 contrôle reading item set. Attested types: MCQ title/objective, false statements + full sentence/detail, purpose/table or tick options, synonyms, reference words, personal justified answer. Original passage; anchors on instructions and plausibility rule.

Ce qui aide à reconnaître la démarche

reading environment global society culture campaign

plastic bottles petition false statements

personal justified answer title MCQ

Besoin d’un point de départ ? Voir la méthode

Locate environment / global / society vocabulary to stay oriented. For false items, prefer a full sentence from the named paragraph. For personal answer, state position + because-clause.

Les pièges à vérifier dans ta démarche

Title (a) is a holiday trap; (c) invents technology not in the text. Do not answer question 6 with a slogan and no justification.

Sujet principal

Reading comprehension

1 questionCorrigé masqué

Reading comprehension. (Fictional passage written for practice; no official mark allocation is claimed.) Read the passage carefully, then answer the questions.

(1) How many times have you thrown away a plastic bottle without thinking of the environment? That is the question Sara Mansour, a secondary-school student and young campaigner, wants people to ask. The idea started in an environmental studies class when a film showed plastic waste harming oceans and coastal culture worldwide. Shocked that classmates treated the issue as distant, Sara began sharing facts about global pollution with teachers and anyone ready to listen.

(2) In 2022 she launched a petition to remove vending machines that sold only single-use water bottles from her school. Within weeks the petition gathered thousands of signatures from people around the world. Sara and friends collected bottles thrown into school bins for one week and built a tall display in the main hall. “We want students to see the damage,” she said. Posters invited everyone to “take back the tap” and protect the climate of daily habits on campus.

(3) Sara believes leaders in society must set an example. She asks public officials to join the movement and hopes high schools and colleges elsewhere will copy the campaign. “If we start locally,” she argues, “we can start a snowball effect nationwide — and remind our culture that the environment is a shared global duty.”

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1. Tick (√) the most appropriate title for the text.

- a. A holiday guide to coastal resorts
- b. A school campaign for the environment
- c. A new technology for cleaning oceans

2. For each of the following false statements, pick out one full sentence (or clear detail) from the text showing that it is false.

a. Sara’s project is known only inside her own town. (paragraph 2)

b. Sara wants the campaign to stop at her school gate. (paragraph 3)

3. Complete the following paragraph with words from paragraph 2. One word per blank.

Sara’s __________ collected bottles from school trash to create a large __________. She also used __________ inviting everyone to “take back the tap”.

4. Find words or expressions in the text meaning nearly the same as:

- collected, brought together (paragraph 2): __________
- containers where rubbish is put (paragraph 2): __________

5. What do the words refer to?

- That in “That is the question Sara Mansour…” (paragraph 1) refers to __________
- We in “We want students to see the damage” (paragraph 2) refers to __________

6. Give a personal justified answer to the following question.

Had you been a student in Sara’s school, would you have supported her campaign? Why or why not?

(Your answer must be plausible and justified / any personal and justified answer is accepted as long as there is no contradiction.)

7. Tick the TWO adjectives that best describe Sara.

☐ indifferent ☐ persevering ☐ unwilling ☐ committed

Voir la correction commentéeAprès avoir posé votre démarche

1. b — A school campaign for the environment.

2. False + textual support

a. “Within weeks the petition gathered thousands of signatures from people around the world.”

b. “She asks public officials to join the movement and hopes high schools and colleges elsewhere will copy the campaign.” / “we can start a snowball effect nationwide”

3. Gap-summary: friends — display — posters. Each answer is copied from paragraph 2, as required. “Group” and “campaigners” are plausible paraphrases but are absent from that paragraph, so they do not satisfy this extraction task.

4. Synonyms / near-equivalents
- gathered or collected — both occur in paragraph 2 and fit the first definition;
- bins — containers where rubbish is put.

5. Reference words
- That → the opening question about throwing away a plastic bottle / thinking of the environment
- We → Sara and friends (the student campaigners)

6. Personal justified answer
Must be plausible and justified; no contradiction between opinion and reason (2017 principale / 2018 contrôle rule).

7. persevering and committed.

Item-type map
Title MCQ · false + detail · gap-summary · synonyms · reference words · personal justified answer · adjectives — shapes attested on 2017 principale and 2018 contrôle Reading blocks.

Changer d’énoncé, garder le raisonnement

Choisis un seul transfert après le sujet principal. Qu’est-ce qui change ? Quel résultat ou quelle méthode peux-tu réutiliser ? Les autres exercices restent disponibles pour une prochaine séance.

Exercices d'entraînement — une nuance à la fois

1 Reading: a coastal clean-up network — purpose table, false statements, reference words

Entraînement 01 / 01

Reading: a coastal clean-up network — purpose table, false statements, reference words

4 questionsCorrigé masquéEn cours de relecture

Reading comprehension. Read the passage carefully, then answer the questions. (Fictional passage written for this exercise; its people, network and figures are invented.)

(1) Every winter, storms push tonnes of plastic onto the beaches of the Mediterranean, and every spring a group of volunteers in the small port of Ghar El Melh goes out to collect it. The group was created in 2019 by a retired fisherman, Salah Ben Amor, who was tired of pulling more bags than fish out of the sea. He started with six friends; today the network counts more than four hundred members along the coast, and it has inspired similar groups in Italy and Spain.

(2) The volunteers do not only fill sacks. They weigh and sort everything they collect, in order to know which products end up in the water most often. Last year they published their figures on a public map so that town councils could see where the waste comes from. They also visit fishermen and hotel owners to convince them to stop using single-use plastic. “Cleaning a beach is useless if the same bottles come back the next month,” Salah explains.

(3) For the members, the environment is not a local question. Plastic travels with the currents, and a bag thrown away in one country ends its life on another shore; that is why the network shares its data with scientists who study pollution and the climate on a global scale. Salah does not believe that a few volunteers can solve the problem of the whole world, but he is convinced that a society which sees the damage with its own eyes will change its habits faster than one which only reads about it.

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

Complete the following table with the appropriate purpose for each action from paragraph 2.

| Action | Purpose |
|---|---|
| The waste is weighed and sorted | …………… |
| The figures were published on a public map | …………… |
For each of the following false statements, pick out one full sentence from the text showing that it is false.

a. The network has remained a small local group. (paragraph 1)

b. Salah thinks that cleaning beaches is enough to solve the problem. (paragraph 2)
What do the words in italics refer to?

a. it (paragraph 1)

b. them (paragraph 2)
Give a personal justified answer to the following question.

Would you join a group like Salah’s? Why or why not?

Cet exercice et sa correction sont en cours de relecture. Tu peux les consulter ; l’exercice n’est pas encore proposé en séance.

Voir la correction commentéeAprès avoir posé votre démarche

1. Action → purpose (paragraph 2). The waste is weighed and sorted → to know which products end up in the water most often. The figures were published on a public map → so that town councils could see where the waste comes from. The purpose is the in order to / so that clause attached to the action, not a repetition of the action: writing they weigh and sort everything they collect in the right-hand column earns nothing, because it restates the left-hand cell.

2. False statements. The question asks you to pick out one full sentence from the text showing that it is false — not to write false, and not to turn the statement into its negative.

a. “He started with six friends; today the network counts more than four hundred members along the coast, and it has inspired similar groups in Italy and Spain.”

b. “Cleaning a beach is useless if the same bottles come back the next month,” Salah explains. (The sentence “They also visit fishermen and hotel owners to convince them to stop using single-use plastic.” is also accepted: it shows that Salah acts beyond cleaning.)

3. Reference words. a. it (paragraph 1) refers to the group / the network of volunteers created in 2019 — not to the coast, which is the nearest noun but does not fit has inspired similar groups. b. them (paragraph 2) refers to fishermen and hotel owners.

4. Personal answer. Any answer is accepted as long as it is plausible and justified and there is no contradiction between the answer and the reason. Two acceptable shapes: Yes, I would join, because collecting and sorting waste shows people the damage better than a lesson does. / No, I would not, because I think the real solution is to stop producing single-use plastic, not to clean after it. A slogan without a reason (Yes, the environment matters!) does not meet the criterion.

Where marks are lost on this item set: copying the action instead of its purpose in question 1; answering question 2 with a half-sentence (more than four hundred members) when a full sentence is required; giving the coast or the sea for it; a personal answer whose reason contradicts the stance.

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