Retrieval grids: fact table, « pick out two … », cause–effect chart, dates, phases and flow charts

Reading comprehension. Read the text, then answer the question.

1. Sabra Oueslati was born in 1979 in Sejnane, in the hills of north-western Tunisia, where women have shaped clay pots by hand for centuries. She made her first pot at the age of nine, sitting beside her grandmother.

2. At twenty, she married and moved to Tunis, where she worked in a clothing factory for eleven years. When the factory closed, she went back to Sejnane and to the clay. Two years after her return, she sold her first figurines at a crafts fair in Tunis.

3. In 2018, the pottery of the Sejnane women was added to an international list of traditions to protect. The following year, Sabra opened a small workshop, where she now trains nine young women from the village. In 2024, one of her figurines was chosen for an exhibition in a gallery in Marseille.

Practice text written in the style of the adapted press articles of the bac papers.

Match the dates in Column A with the corresponding events in Column B. Write your answers in Column C. (There is an extra event in B.) (3 marks)

Reading comprehension. Read the text, then answer the question.

1. Every Friday evening, a group of about thirty people meets in front of the bus depot in Ben Arous for a brisk walk through the town. Their guide is Walid Hamdi, 46, a bus driver who, three years ago, could not climb the stairs of his own building without stopping twice.

2. For fifteen years, Walid spent up to ten hours a day behind the wheel. He ate sandwiches between routes, drank sweet sodas to stay awake and slept badly. He weighed 128 kilos and thought it was simply "the price of the job".

3. Then, during a routine check-up, the company doctor told him that his blood sugar was dangerously high. "She did not scold me," Walid remembers. "She just showed me the numbers and asked who would drive my children to their weddings." That evening, he poured every bottle of soda down the sink.

4. The changes came slowly. He started by walking home from the depot, then replaced the sandwiches with meals his wife packed for him. After a year, he had lost thirty-one kilos. His colleagues asked him how he had done it, and the Friday walks were born.

Practice text written in the style of the adapted press articles of the bac papers.

Reorder the phases of Walid's change of lifestyle. Write 1, 2, 3 or 4 in the spaces provided. (4 marks)

…… Encouraging others to follow his example.

…… Leading an unhealthy life behind the wheel.

…… Changing his habits little by little.

…… Receiving a warning about his health.

Reading comprehension. Read the text, then answer the question.

1. Every evening at seven, when the central market of Nabeul closes, the volunteers of a local association walk between the stalls with large plastic crates. They collect the fruit and vegetables that the traders cannot sell the next day, so that the food does not end up in the bins.

2. The food is sorted in a borrowed garage. The best produce is taken the same night to two soup kitchens in the town, in order to feed about 150 people who live alone or on the street. Damaged fruit is turned into jam by a group of retired women, who sell the jars at the Saturday market to pay for the association's fuel.

3. What cannot be eaten is not wasted either. It goes to a farm outside the town, where it is mixed into compost to make the soil of the olive groves richer. The traders, who were suspicious at first, now keep their unsold crates aside for the volunteers.

Practice text written in the style of the adapted press articles of the bac papers.

Complete each statement in Column A with the appropriate purpose in Column B. (There is an extra purpose in B.) (3 marks)

Reading comprehension. Read the text, then answer the question.

1. In the old district of Gabès, more than a third of the residents are over seventy, and many of them live alone since their children moved to the capital or abroad. Last winter, a retired tailor lay on his kitchen floor for two days after a fall before a neighbour noticed that his shutters had stayed closed.

2. The accident shocked Amel Zribi, the young pharmacist of the district. She drew up a list of eighty elderly customers and asked volunteers to call each of them every morning at nine. If nobody answers twice, a volunteer knocks at the door.

3. The scheme has already paid off. In its first six months, the volunteers found two residents who needed urgent care, and both recovered. Just as important, says Amel, is the chat: "For some of them, it is the only voice they hear all day."

Practice text written in the style of the adapted press articles of the bac papers.

Complete the flow chart below with information from paragraphs 1 and 3. (2 marks)

Many elderly residents live alone → a. …………………… → The pharmacist organises a daily phone call to each of them → b. ……………………

Reading comprehension. Read the text, then answer the question.

1. Until three years ago, the Belhaj family of El Menzah owned two cars and used them for everything, even to buy bread two streets away. Mohamed, the father, drove to his office every morning; the drive took about fifty minutes each way, and the family's fuel bill was around 450 dinars a month.

2. Then their second car was stolen, and they decided not to replace it. "We gave ourselves six months to see if we could manage," says Leila, the mother. They bought three bicycles, and Mohamed started taking the metro to work.

3. These days, the remaining car stays in the garage from Monday to Friday. Mohamed's journey takes forty minutes, door to door, and he reads on the metro. The fuel bill has fallen to about 120 dinars a month, and the children cycle to their sports club on their own.

Practice text written in the style of the adapted press articles of the bac papers.

Complete the table with information from paragraphs 1 and 3. (3 marks)