REA-HReading comprehension: the closed items

Lettres full reading block: seven items, 15 marks, with a chronology or cause–effect grid

Idée directrice

The Lettres reading block is longer than the other sections': 15 marks and seven items on one text of about 2,000 to 2,400 characters. Three things change. The false statements are usually four (4 marks), not three; the one-word summary spreads over two or more paragraphs; and there is a Lettres grid — dates matched to events, a Year | Event table, a flow chart or a cause–effect chart — whose cells often need a year or an age computed from two facts. Chronology grids alone (dates matched to events, a Year | Event table, a timeline) appear in 7 of the 23 Lettres papers counted from 2015 to 2026, and cause–effect charts or flow charts in others. Work the whole block in about 45 minutes so that the four false statements and the grid do not eat the time of the last three items.

Ce qui aide à reconnaître la démarche

« COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS (15 marks) » ; « For each of the following statements, pick out ONE detail from the text showing that it is false. (4 marks) » ; « Fill in each blank with ONE word from paragraphs 3 and 4 » ; « Complete the flow chart below … » ; « complete the table below with important dates and events … » ; « Complete this cause-effect chart … »

Besoin d’un point de départ ? Voir la méthode

Lettres = 7 items / 15 marks: plan about 45 minutes and keep the grid (item 4) for after the false statements.
Four false statements: one detail per statement, from the paragraph in brackets, copied without changes.
Summary spread over two paragraphs: the blanks follow the text's order; grammar tells you noun, verb or adjective.
Date grids: look for « at nineteen », « … years later », « Today, at 53 »; compute, then check the year against a second fact.
Reference: noun phrases (the widow of Hédi, the 64-year-old) and this for a whole situation are Lettres favourites.

Les pièges à vérifier dans ta démarche

Writing the age (19) instead of the year in a Year column.
Answering a false statement with a detail from the neighbouring paragraph.
Resolving this with one word when it stands for a whole situation.
Copying only helm for « at the helm »: the expression is the answer.
Running out of time on four false statements and a grid, and leaving the vocabulary and the personal answer blank.

Sujet principal

I. Reading comprehension — the Lettres block (15 marks, about 45 minutes)

1 questionCorrigé masqué

I. READING COMPREHENSION (15 marks). Read the text below carefully, then answer the questions that follow it. The underlined words are printed in bold.

1. Fatma Ben Rejeb was born in 1971 on the Kerkennah Islands, into a family of fishermen. As a girl, she knew every knot and every net, and she could tell from the smell of the wind whether the boats would come back early, but she was never allowed to go out to sea: "A boat is no place for a woman," her father used to say. At nineteen, she married Hédi, a fisherman from the next village, and for years her life stopped at the shore.

2. Then, in 2001, eleven years after their wedding, Hédi's boat was caught in a winter storm, and he never came back. Fatma was left with three children, a debt at the bank and a boat that nobody wanted to buy. The bank gave her six months to pay back what Hédi had borrowed for a new engine. The men of the harbour offered to rent it from her for a quarter of what it earned. "They were polite," she remembers, "but they all expected me to sit at home and wait for their money."

3. She refused. For two years she went out every night with her husband's old crew and an elderly fisherman called Am Salah, who showed her how to read the wind and find the fish. She lost eleven kilos in the first year and once spent a whole night lost in the fog. In 2004, three years after the storm, she obtained her captain's licence, the first woman on the islands to do so. At first, some fishermen refused to sail with her, and one buyer would not take her catch. By the end of the decade, the widow of Hédi owned two boats and employed six men. Even the buyer who had refused her catch became one of her regular customers.

4. Today, Fatma is retired, but her boats still go out every night. Her eldest daughter, Amira, runs the business, and two young women from the islands work on board. Twenty years ago, this would have been impossible. Last year, Fatma was invited to speak at a national conference on women at sea. "I did not want to prove anything," she told the audience. "I only wanted to feed my children. But when I see a girl at the helm today, I know the storm did not take everything."

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

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS (15 marks)

1. Tick (√) the most appropriate option. (1 mark)

The text is mainly about a woman who

a. lost her husband in a winter storm. ☐

b. took up a man's trade out of necessity and opened the way for others. ☐

c. sold her husband's boat to pay the bank. ☐

2. For each of the following statements, pick out ONE detail from the text showing that it is false. (4 marks)

a. Fatma's father encouraged her to become a fisherman. (paragraph 1)

b. After the storm, the men of the harbour offered Fatma a fair deal. (paragraph 2)

c. Fatma taught herself to fish. (paragraph 3)

d. Fatma's family has left the fishing business. (paragraph 4)

3. Fill in each blank with ONE word from paragraphs 3 and 4. (3 marks)

After two years at sea, Fatma became the first woman on the islands to get a captain's ____________. Not everyone accepted her: some fishermen ____________ to sail with her. Today, her daughter ____________ the family business.

4. Focus on paragraphs 1 and 3 and complete the table with important dates and events in Fatma's life. (2 marks)

Year	Event
1971	She was born on the Kerkennah Islands.
a. ……………	She got married.
2001	Her husband died at sea.
2004	b. ……………

5. What do the words underlined in the text refer to? (2 marks)

a. the widow of Hédi (paragraph 3) refers to: ____________.

b. this (paragraph 4) refers to: ____________.

6. Pick out words / expressions from the text meaning nearly the same as: (2 marks)

a. showing good manners (paragraph 2): ____________

b. in command of a boat (paragraph 4): ____________

7. Give a personal justified answer to the following question. (1 mark)

If you were Fatma, would you let your daughters work on a fishing boat? Why? Why not?

If I were Fatma, I ____________ let my daughters work on a fishing boat because ____________.

Voir la correction commentéeAprès avoir posé votre démarche

Idea: before reading, number the paragraphs each item sends you to: item 2 → 1, 2, 3, 4 (one statement each); item 3 → 3 and 4; item 4 → 1 and 3; items 5 and 6 → 2, 3, 4. The story in one line: a fisherman's daughter kept off the boats becomes, after her husband's death, the first woman captain of the islands, and now younger women work at sea.

1 a. is paragraph 2 only: too narrow. c. is contradicted: nobody wanted to buy the boat, and she refused to rent it. b. covers the necessity (paragraph 2), the trade she took up (paragraph 3) and the young women after her (paragraph 4). Answer: b.

2 Idea: four statements, four details, each from its own paragraph. Copy the detail; one short phrase is enough.

a. « "A boat is no place for a woman," her father used to say. »

b. « for a quarter of what it earned » (or « they all expected me to sit at home and wait for their money »)

c. « an elderly fisherman called Am Salah, who showed her how to read the wind and find the fish »

d. « Her eldest daughter, Amira, runs the business »

3 Idea: the blanks follow the text's order, one paragraph after the other. a captain's + noun → licence (paragraph 3). some fishermen + past verb + to sail → refused (paragraph 3). her daughter + present verb → runs (paragraph 4). Obtained would fit a verb blank, but the first blank needs the noun.

4 Idea: a Lettres date grid often hides a calculation. Look for an age or a … years later next to a year you know, and compute.

a. Born in 1971, married « at nineteen »: 1971 + 19 = 1990. Check with paragraph 2: « in 2001, eleven years after their wedding » gives 2001 − 11 = 1990 as well.

b. 2004: she obtained her captain's licence (the first woman on the islands to do so).

5 Idea: the Lettres paper also asks for noun phrases and demonstratives, not only pronouns. A noun phrase names someone already in the text by another description; this can stand for a whole clause.

a. the widow of Hédi → Fatma (Ben Rejeb).

b. this → the whole situation of the sentence before: women running a fishing business and working at sea (Amira running the business, two young women from the islands working on board).

6 a. showing good manners = polite (an adjective for an adjective).

b. in command of a boat = at the helm (a three-word expression: copy all of it).

7 One position, one reason on the same side. Accepted: « If I were Fatma, I would let my daughters work on a fishing boat because they should be free to choose their job, and I know from experience that a woman can do it. » Also accepted: « … I would not … because the sea took my husband, and I would want them to have a safer job. » 0 mark: « I would not, because women are good captains. » The reason argues for the other side.

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.

Variantes rencontrées : « Complete the flow chart below with information from paragraphs 1 and 3 » (principale 2026); « complete the table below with important dates and events in Sarah's life » with years computed from ages (contrôle 2021); « Match the dates in Column A with the corresponding events in Column B » with an extra event (contrôle 2017); « Complete this cause-effect chart with reference to paragraphs 1, 2 and 4 » (principale 2021, 4 marks); a table of ages and facts (contrôle 2019). The Lettres block also carries two adjectives (« Circle the two adjectives that best describe David », contrôle 2021) and expression MCQs worth 3 marks (contrôle 2018 and 2019). False statements go from 3 to 4 marks (« … showing that it is false. (4 marks) », principale 2026).

Exercices d'entraînement — une nuance à la fois

1 Drill REA-H.1 — the cause–effect version (Lettres): a four-cell chart, two adjectives and a singular « them »

Entraînement 01 / 02

Drill REA-H.1 — the cause–effect version (Lettres): a four-cell chart, two adjectives and a singular « them »

1 questionCorrigé masqué

I. READING COMPREHENSION (15 marks). Read the text, then answer the questions. The underlined words are printed in bold.

1. Anis Karoui was twenty-four and training to become an airline pilot when a rare disease of the optic nerve took most of his sight in less than six months. A year earlier, he had passed every medical test, and his instructors had called him one of the best pilots of his year. "One morning I could not read the numbers on my own watch," he says. He left the flight academy, moved back into his parents' flat in Bizerte and, for almost a year, hardly went out. His friends called less and less, and he stopped answering.

2. It was his younger sister, Rim, who refused to let him disappear. She was twenty and preparing for her own exams, but she never missed an evening with him. She read him the news every evening, dragged him to a centre for the visually impaired and signed him up, without asking him, for a radio workshop. Anis went to the first session only to please her. He came out of it three hours later, excited for the first time in months: he had recorded a short report on the fishermen of the old port, and the instructor had said his voice was made for radio.

3. The road from that workshop to a real job was long. Anis had to master a screen reader, to prepare his interviews from memory and to find his way alone around a city he could no longer see. He fell down the stairs of the market twice and once took the wrong bus for an hour. Two radio stations turned him down. The third, a small station in Bizerte, offered him a two-minute slot on Friday mornings.

4. Six years later, Anis presents a daily one-hour programme heard across the north of the country. Last year, his Friday programme won a national radio prize. Every Friday, he invites a guest with a disability and lets them tell their own story. He has also set up a free radio workshop for young blind people, which Rim helps him run. "I lost my eyes," he often says on air, "but I found my voice, and now I help others find theirs."

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

1. Tick (✓) the most appropriate title. (1 mark)

a. A voice born in the dark ☐

b. A pilot's dream comes true ☐

c. A sister's long illness ☐

2. For each of the following statements, pick out ONE detail from the text showing that it is false. (3 marks)

a. Anis's friends stayed close to him during his first year of blindness. (paragraph 1)

b. Anis went to the first radio session because he was eager to work in radio. (paragraph 2)

c. Anis found a radio job as soon as he started looking. (paragraph 3)

3. Complete this cause–effect chart with reference to paragraphs 1, 2 and 4. (4 marks)

Cause	Effect
a. ……………	Anis gave up his training as a pilot.
Rim signed her brother up for a radio workshop.	b. …………… c. ……………
Anis wants to help young blind people.	d. ……………

4. Circle the two adjectives that best apply to Rim. (2 marks)

a. caring b. indifferent c. determined d. jealous

5. Find words in the text meaning nearly the same as: (2 marks)

a. pulled someone somewhere against their will (paragraph 2) = ____________

b. a short period of broadcasting time (paragraph 3) = ____________

6. What do the underlined words in the text refer to? (2 marks)

a. them (paragraph 4) ____________

b. which (paragraph 4) ____________

7. Give a personal justified answer to the following question. (1 mark)

Do you think people with a disability are given enough chances to work in your country? Why? Why not?

I think people with a disability ____________ given enough chances to work because ____________.

Voir la correction commentéeAprès avoir posé votre démarche

Idea: in a cause–effect chart, read each row as « because of the left cell, the right cell happened ». The printed cell tells you which paragraph to search and whether you need a cause (what came before) or an effect (what came after).

1 b. is contradicted: he had to give up flying; c. is contradicted: it is Anis who is ill, not his sister. a. sums up the loss of sight and the career built on his voice. Answer: a.

2 a. « His friends called less and less »

b. « Anis went to the first session only to please her. »

c. « Two radio stations turned him down. »

3 a. (cause, paragraph 1) A rare disease of the optic nerve took most of his sight.

b. and c. (two effects, paragraph 2) — what happened to Anis because of the workshop, any two of: he recorded a short report on the fishermen of the old port; the instructor told him his voice was made for radio; he came out of it excited for the first time in months. Rim's other actions (reading him the news, dragging him to the centre) are not effects of the workshop: they are what she did before it.

d. (effect, paragraph 4) He has set up a free radio workshop for young blind people.

Two cells with the same fact score once: he was happy and he came out excited are one idea, not two.

4 Idea: list Rim's actions. She reads to him every evening (caring); she drags him out and signs him up « without asking him » (determined). Indifferent is the opposite of what she does; jealous has no support in the text. Answer: a. caring and c. determined.

5 a. = dragged (a past verb, as in the text). b. = slot.

6 Idea: them can refer to one person of unknown sex (« a guest … lets them tell their own story »): look for the singular noun just before.

a. them → a guest with a disability (each guest he invites).

b. which → the free radio workshop for young blind people.

7 Accepted: « I think people with a disability are not given enough chances to work because many buildings and offices are not adapted, and employers doubt them as two radio stations doubted Anis. » Also accepted: « … are given enough chances … because some places now take them on, as the small station in Bizerte did. » One position, one reason that supports it.

2 Drill REA-H.2 — the adjective and expression version (Lettres): four false statements, an age table, three expressions

Entraînement 02 / 02

Drill REA-H.2 — the adjective and expression version (Lettres): four false statements, an age table, three expressions

1 questionCorrigé masqué

I. READING COMPREHENSION (15 marks). Read the text, then answer the questions. The underlined words and expressions are printed in bold.

1. In a narrow street of Monastir, Youssef Gharsalli is on his knees in front of a blue door, measuring the three steps that lead up to it. Behind the door lives Mrs Najiba, eighty-seven, who has not left her home since she started using a wheelchair two years ago. Her son lives in France and phones every Sunday, but he cannot carry her down the steps. By Sunday evening, they will be covered by a wooden ramp, and the ramp will cost her nothing.

2. Youssef, born in 1997, left his studies at eighteen to work in his uncle's carpentry workshop. In 2022, his own grandmother broke her hip and could no longer climb the stairs of her building. His uncle lent him the tools, and Youssef built her a ramp in two days. "When she went out to the market for the first time in months, she cried," he remembers. "That's when I understood that a few planks could give someone their freedom back."

3. Since then, Youssef has built more than a hundred and twenty ramps, all free of charge, with wood offered by a sawmill and paint given by local shops. He works on them at weekends, because during the week he has to earn his living. He has twice refused payment from families who insisted, and on his phone he keeps a list of forty-three families still waiting for a ramp. "If I took money, people who can't pay would be ashamed to call me," he explains. "And the town has turned a blind eye to this problem for years."

4. Youssef knows that his ramps are a drop in the ocean: thousands of elderly and disabled people in the region live in buildings with no lift. He has written to the town council three times to ask for rules on access to public buildings. The council answered once, to say that the question was "being studied". "Every ramp helps one person get back on their feet, in their own way," he says. "But this should be the town's job, not mine."

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

1. Tick (✓) the most appropriate option. (1 mark)

The text is mainly about a young man who

a. builds ramps for money at weekends. ☐

b. gives elderly and disabled people their freedom back, for free. ☐

c. left his job to work for the town council. ☐

2. For each of the following statements, pick out ONE detail from the text showing that it is false. (4 marks)

a. Mrs Najiba will have to pay for her ramp. (paragraph 1)

b. Youssef built his first ramp for a customer of his uncle's workshop. (paragraph 2)

c. Youssef buys the wood for his ramps himself. (paragraph 3)

d. Youssef thinks the problem is solved in his region. (paragraph 4)

3. Tick (✓) the two adjectives that best apply to Youssef. (2 marks)

generous ☐ / resigned ☐ / committed ☐ / boastful ☐

4. Focus on paragraph 2 and complete the table about Youssef. (2 marks)

Age	Facts
18	a. ……………
b. ……………	He built a ramp for his grandmother.

5. Tick (✓) the most appropriate option. (3 marks)

A. “turned a blind eye” (paragraph 3) nearly means: the town has

a. lost its sight ☐

b. pretended not to see ☐

c. looked away in fear ☐

B. “a drop in the ocean” (paragraph 4) nearly means:

a. a very small part of what is needed ☐

b. a waste of water ☐

c. a sudden fall ☐

C. “get back on their feet” (paragraph 4) nearly means:

a. stand up and walk again ☐

b. become independent again ☐

c. go back to their homes ☐

6. What do the underlined words in the text refer to? (2 marks)

a. they (paragraph 1) ____________

b. this (paragraph 4) ____________

7. Give a personal justified answer to the following question. (1 mark)

Would you give up your weekends to help people in need as Youssef does? Why? Why not?

I ____________ give up my weekends to help people in need because ____________.

Voir la correction commentéeAprès avoir posé votre démarche

Idea: this Lettres order puts two inference items (adjectives, 3 expressions = 5 marks) between the copying items. Do not change method from one item to the next without noticing: copy for items 2 and 4, infer for items 3 and 5.

1 a. is contradicted (« all free of charge »); c. is contradicted: he writes to the town council, he does not work for it. Answer: b.

2 a. « the ramp will cost her nothing »

b. « his own grandmother broke her hip »

c. « with wood offered by a sawmill »

d. « thousands of elderly and disabled people in the region live in buildings with no lift »

3 Idea: one proof per adjective, from Youssef's own actions. generous ✓ — more than a hundred and twenty ramps, free, and payment refused twice. committed ✓ — every weekend for years, and three letters to the town council. resigned ✗ — he does not accept the situation: he asks for rules. boastful ✗ — nothing in the text; he even says it should not be his job. Answer: generous and committed.

4 Idea: the table asks for an age where the text gives a year. a. He left his studies to work in his uncle's carpentry workshop. b. Born in 1997, ramp in 2022: 2022 − 1997 = 25.

5 Idea: the text is about wheelchairs, stairs and eyes, so each literal option is tempting. Decide polarity and domain from the sentence.

A. The town has left the problem « for years » while Youssef acts: it chose to ignore it. a. is literal, c. adds fear. Answer: b.

B. « thousands of elderly and disabled people … live in buildings with no lift »: his ramps are very few compared with the need. Answer: a.

C. A wheelchair user will not walk again because of a ramp — a. is the literal trap. The ramp gives back the freedom to go out alone (« in their own way »). Answer: b.

6 a. they → the three steps (that lead up to Mrs Najiba's door).

b. this → building ramps / making buildings accessible to disabled people.

7 Accepted: « I would give up my weekends … because helping someone leave their home again matters more than my free time. » Also accepted: « I would not … because I need my weekends to study, but I would help by collecting money or materials. » A reason that supports the chosen side earns the mark.

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Lettres full reading block: seven items, 15 marks, with a chronology or cause–effect grid

I. Reading comprehension — the Lettres block (15 marks, about 45 minutes)

Changer d’énoncé, garder le raisonnement

Exercices d'entraînement — une nuance à la fois

Drill REA-H.1 — the cause–effect version (Lettres): a four-cell chart, two adjectives and a singular « them »

Drill REA-H.2 — the adjective and expression version (Lettres): four false statements, an age table, three expressions

Relier ce raisonnement au bac