PLEASE RETURN THIS DOCUMENT TO: Department of European Cultures and Languages Birkbeck, University of London

43 Gordon Square Bloomsbury London WC1H 0PD Tel: 020 7631 6170/6113 Email: culturesandlanguages@bbk.ac.uk Web: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/study/ce/languages/index.html

FRENCH LANGUAGE PLACEMENT TESTS

The following placement tests are for applicants who have knowledge of French in varying degrees through formal education, self-study or contact with native speakers. Oral assessments of applicants ability will be conducted at the discretion of the Admissions Tutor. Applicants who are complete beginners in French should tick this box and are only required to fill in the section on personal details below (items 1-6 and 9-11). Other applicants should complete 1-12. Please type or complete this section in BLOCK CAPITALS.

PERSONAL DETAILS
1. Name 2. Address

3. Telephone (including area code)

4. Email

5. Name of (BA) programme applied for (if any):

6. Name of (BA) programme you are currently enrolled on at Birkbeck (if any)

7. Please list below any qualifications (e.g. GCSE, etc.) in French (if any). Qualification Grade Year

8. Please list any French language modules recently completed at Birkbeck (if any): Module Year

9. Period spent in a French-speaking country (if any)

10. Mother tongue

11. Other languages that you speak (if any)

12. Date(s) and time(s) when you cannot attend for an oral assessment

FOR USE BY ADMISSIONS TUTOR

Oral Assessment: YES NO

Level assigned and recommended course(s): Language group to which applicant has been assigned: Day: Time:

French Language placement tests

FRENCH LANGUAGE MODULE APPLICANTS ONLY

If you are completing the test because you want to study French language at post-beginners, intermediate or advanced level only (i.e. you ARE NOT applying for a place on a BA degree), please indicate below which day of the week you would prefer to study. If you know now that other commitments will prevent you from studying on a particular day, please also state that. All classes start at 6pm and finish at 9pm unless stated otherwise.

Places are allocated on a first come, first served basis, so please return this test to us as quickly as possible.
Module name Day Start Date Please state your preferred day, or write no preference

French II (Central London) French IIA* (Central London) French IIB* (Central London) French III (Central London) French IV French V (Central London) French VI (Central London)

Monday, Tuesday Saturday, 10am5pm (for 6 weeks) Saturday, 10am5pm (for 6 weeks) Wednesday, Thursday Wednesday, Thursday Monday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday Wednesday (7.40pm-9pm), Tuesday or Friday (6pm-7.25pm)

10 & 11 October 2011 22 October 2011 28 January 2012 12 & 12 October 2011 12 & 12 October 2011 10, 12, 13 & 14 October 2011 11, 12 & 14 October 2011

Not applicable Not applicable

*French IIA plus French IIB is the equivalent of French II. We also expect to offer French IIA and IIB in summer 2012, dates to be confirmed.

If there is a day on which you are unable to study, please state it here:

I cannot attend classes on the following days of the week (all classes from Monday-Friday are in the evening, on Saturdays during the day):

Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday / Saturday (circle or underline as appropriate).

French Language placement tests

INSTRUCTIONS If you are a Beginner in French, and are applying for French I, you do not need to complete a language placement test. However, if you are applying for a degree programme, such as BA Culture and Language (French) or BA Modern Languages, please complete Section 1, in English, below. Applicants with a basic knowledge of French, who are applying for French II or French Intermediate (Stratford) should complete Section 2 below. In addition, if you are applying for a degree programme, such as BA Culture and Language (French) or BA Modern Languages, please ALSO complete Section 1, in English. Applicants with an intermediate (e.g. approximately GCSE) level of the language, who are applying for French III, French through Film (Stratford), or for a degree programme (e.g. BA French Studies), should complete Section 3 below. Applicants with an advanced level (e.g. approximately A-level or above) of the language, who are applying for French IV or V, or for a degree programme (e.g. BA French Studies), should complete Section 3 below. If you start to attempt a section and it seems too easy, please proceed to the following section.

Other instructions: All answers need to be written in FRENCH or in ENGLISH, as instructed for each section. Each section and item within each section should be completed within a certain period of time. Do not exceed the time stipulated next to each item / section. You may not use a dictionary or other reference work, nor should you seek help, for any of the following tests.

Space has been included for your answers, but please feel free to add extra space or to continue on an extra page.

Once completed, the test should be returned to the postal address above or via e-mail to the following address: culturesandlanguages@bbk.ac.uk

French Language placement tests

Section 1: Admissions test for applicants for BA Culture & Language (French). NB You DO NOT have to complete this test if you are applying for French I or French II/French Intermediate. Please proceed to Section 2.
A. Write a commentary of approximately 500 words on the following passage from Simone de Beauvoirs 1967 short story The Monologue [Monologue], translated into English by Patrick OBrian in the collection The Woman Destroyed (London: Fontana, 1971). You can write on language, structure, grammar, themes, and anything else you think might be of interest, bearing in mind that it is the opening section of the narrative. The silly bastards! I drew the curtains they keep the stupid coloured lanterns and the fairy lights on the Christmas trees out of the flat but the noises come in through the walls. Engines revving brakes and now here they are starting their hooters big shots is what they take themselves for behind the wheel of their dreary middle-class family cars their lousy semi-sports jobs their miserable little Dauphines their white convertibles. A white convertible with black seats thats terrific and the fellows whistled when I went by with slanting sunglasses on my nose and a Herms scarf on my head and now they think theyre going to impress me with their filthy old wrecks and their bawling klaxons! If they all smashed into one another right now under my windows how happy I should be happy. The swine they are shattering my ear-drums they are utterly repulsive yet still Id rather have my ears shattered than hear the telephone not ringing. Stop the uproar silence: sleep. And I shant get a wink yesterday I couldnt either I was so sick with horror because it was the day before today. Ive taken so many sleeping-pills they dont work any more and that doctor is a sadist he gives them to me in the form of suppositories and I cant stuff myself like a gun. Ive got to get some rest I must be able to cope with Tristan tomorrow: no tears no shouting. This is an absurd position. A ghastly mess, even from the point of view of dough! A child needs its mother. Im going to have another sleepless night my nerves will be completely frazzled Ill make a cock of it. Bastards! They thump thump in my head I can see them I can hear them. They are stuffing themselves with cheap foie-gras and burnt turkey they drool over it Albert and Madame Nanard Etienette their snotty offspring my mother: its flying in the face of nature that my own brother my own mother should prefer my ex-husband to me. Ive nothing whatever to say to them only just let them stop preventing me sleeping; you get so you are fit to be shut up you confess everything, true or false, they neednt count on that though Im tough they wont get me down.

French Language placement tests

B. Write a commentary of approximately 500 words on the following passage from C.L.R. James analysis of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), The Black Jacobins: Toussaint LOuverture and the San Domingo Revolution (London: Allison and Busby, 1980 [1938]). You can write about the historical characters as presented here, comment on the situation that serves as their backdrop, and reflect on the historical phenomena evoked, but might also wish to address the style and tone of the historian himself. Sonthonax, as dictatorial and self-willed as ever, dominated the Commission and began a pronounced pro-black policy. He loved the blacks, said that he wished he was a black man, and lived openly with a Mulatto woman. If all the whites had been like Sonthonax, the labourers would have lost their anti-white feelings by which they meant only anti-slavery. For Laveaux and Sonthonax they would have done anything. But the blacks could not trust the old slave-owners; the British bribed, intrigued, and gave money and guns, and the insurrections all over the colony continued. Sonthonax wrote secretly to the Directory that the blacks hated the whites, but he understood the reason for their hate. Three weeks after he landed he published a proclamation in creole which declared that everyone who was convicted of saying in the markets or elsewhere that the Negroes had not acquired their liberty for ever, or that a man could be the property of another man, was a traitor to his country and would be punished accordingly. To reassure a people so sensitive to freedom he abolished restraint for debt and put at liberty all those who were in prison for this offence. He worked hard to instil into them the necessity for labour. Everybody is free in France, he said, but everybody works. Yet he stood firmly against coercion. Work hard, was his advice, but do not forget that no one has the right of forcing you to dispose of your time against your will. He rigorously forbade beating on the plantations. He instituted schools where blacks were given an elementary education and learnt Greek and Roman history. He sent the sons of the blacks and Mulattoes to France to be educated in a special school that the Republic opened for them. He announced that he would not deliver a commission to anyone who could not sign his name. And thus in every house in Le Cap could be seen blacks, men and women, some of 50 years of age, learning to read and write. In the country districts the labourers begged Sonthonax to send them as teachers even young European children who knew how to read and write. The blacks knew their ignorance and were willing to learn from the whites, to be guided by men from France, men like Laveaux and Sonthonax, to learn from the white children. All they asked was to be rid for ever of the fear of slavery. But the British were there spending millions to enslave them once more. They knew that the old slave-owners for whom they worked now as free men would make them slaves again at the first opportunity. Their hope was Toussaint, a black man, ex-slave, with his army of black men, ex-slaves. All the black labourers of San Domingo had their eyes on him.

French Language placement tests

Section 2: Test for French II / French Intermediate (Stratford) / BA Culture and Language (French) /other language programmes Time allowed: One hour and thirty minutes
1. Vous avez reu cet email de vos amis Christine et Laurent. Vous leur envoyez un court message pour accepter leur invitation. Vous leur dites quel film vous avez envie de voir et pourquoi. Malheureusement vous ne pouvez pas dner avec eux : expliquez pourquoi. (100 mots) Please write your answer in French.
De : chrislau@youpi.fr A: Objet : cin + resto ? Nous allons au cinma vendredi soir vers 18h. Tu veux venir avec nous ? Nous ne savons pas quel film choisir : tu peux nous en conseiller un ? Tu aimerais dner avec nous ensuite ? Nous connaissons un bon restaurant japonais prs du cinma. A vendredi ? Bisous Christine et Laurent De : A : chrislau@youpi.fr Objet : cin + resto ?

French Language placement tests

2. Lisez ce texte et rpondez aux questions. Please write your answers in English.

Marc Levy, auteur succs

Directsoir, 25 juin 2009

Il est lun des auteurs franais les plus lus travers le monde, avec prs de 17 millions de livres vendus, traduits dans une quarantaine de langues. Son neuvime roman, dont la sortie tait annonce aujourdhui, sannonce dj comme lun des best-sellers de lt. Le premier jour raconte les aventures de Keira, archologue, et dAdrian, astrophysicien, runis autour dun trange objet retrouv dans un volcan teint. Les fans de lcrivain devraient une nouvelle fois tre enthousiasms par cet ouvrage riche en aventures. Avant de rencontrer le succs en tant que romancier, Marc Levy a intgr la Croix-Rouge comme secouriste lge de 18 ans. Le jeune homme, qui y reste pendant six ans, poursuit paralllement des tudes de gestion et dinformatique dans une universit parisienne. Aprs avoir travaill aux Etats-Unis, il revient en France et cre un cabinet darchitecture avec deux amis. Encourag par ses proches, notamment par sa soeur Lorraine, ralisatrice, Marc Levy propose en 2000 son premier ouvrage, Et si ctait vrai. Steven Spielberg en achte les droits. Ladaptation cinmatographique se classe en tte du boxoffice aux Etats-Unis ds sa sortie en salles, en 2005. 1. What is happening in Marc Levys professional life these days?

2. According to the text, what makes Marc Levy a successful writer?

3. What is the plot of his latest book?

4. What did he do before becoming a writer?

5. Why does the text mention Steven Spielberg?

French Language placement tests

Section 3: Test for French III (Language and Films) / BA French Studies You should also take this test f you are applying for: French through Films (Stratford) Time allowed: One hour and thirty minutes
No dictionaries allowed. There are three Parts to this test, which is printed on three pages. A. Please summarise the two paragraphs below IN ENGLISH. Please note, you are not being asked to translate, but to summarise (in about 100 words). En 1789, monsieur Grandet, encore nomm le pre Grandet, tait un petit commerant de Saumur qui vivait bien, savait lire, crire et compter. Lorsque la Rpublique franaise avait mis en vente les biens de lglise, il avait achet trs bon march les plus beaux vignobles de la rgion et des terres. la mme poque, il avait pous la fille dun riche marchand. En 1806, monsieur Grandet avait 57 ans, et sa femme environ 36. Leur unique fille, Eugnie, avait 10 ans. Cette anne-l, monsieur Grandet avait hrit des parents de sa femme et stait retrouv la tte dune fortune dont limportance ntait connue que de deux personnes de la ville.

French Language placement tests

B. Please now read the continuation of the chapter and answer the questions about it IN FRENCH. Please avoid copying out the text in your answers, although you may use the words of the text rearranged in your sentences. Monsieur Grandet vivait dans une maison froide et silencieuse, situe en haut dune rue troite dans laquelle il ne passait jamais personne. Il ne dpensait pas beaucoup dargent pour vivre. Ses fermiers lui donnaient la viande, les fruits et les lgumes. Et la grande Nanon, son unique servante, faisait elle-mme le pain. Monsieur Grandet ne disait jamais ni oui ni non. Quatre phrases lui servaient rsoudre toutes les difficults de la vie et du commerce : je ne sais pas, je ne peux pas, je ne veux pas, nous verrons . Il nallait jamais chez personne et ne voulait pas recevoir chez lui. Physiquement, ctait un homme fort avec un air calme et des cheveux gris, toujours habill de la mme manire. Au rez-de-chausse de la maison se trouvait la pice la plus importante. Madame Grandet et Eugnie soccupaient du linge de la maison. Du mois davril jusquau mois de novembre, elles travaillaient toute la journe prs de la fentre. Puis, en hiver, elles sinstallaient prs de la chemine ; en novembre, Grandet permettait dallumer le feu de la chemine et il le faisait teindre le 31 mars. Nanon travaillait toute la journe : elle faisait la cuisine, elle allait laver le linge la Loire, le rapportait sur ses paules Grandet laimait comme on aime un chien. H de Balzac, Eugnie Grandet, (1833) 1. Pourquoi, votre avis, la maison de monsieur Grandet tait-elle froide ? (20 words approx)

2. Pourquoi, votre avis, la maison de monsieur Grandet tait-elle silencieuse ? (20 words approx)

3. Quelle attitude Grandet adoptait-il avec les gens qui voulaient ngocier avec lui ? (10-20 words)

4. Que pensez-vous de Grandet qui ne permettait dallumer le feu que de novembre mars ? (20 words)

5. Quelle diffrence y a-t-il entre aimer un chien et aimer une personne ? (40 words approx)

French Language placement tests

C. Petite rdaction en franais. Please write your answer in French, in 100-150 words. EITHER Choisissez un animal, soit un animal que vous connaissez, soit un type danimal, et dites pourquoi vous laimez ou vous ne laimez pas. Voici quelques noms danimaux : un chat, un chien, un oiseau, un cheval, une chvre, un mouton, une vache, un buf, une poule, un zbre, un pingouin, un lion, un tigre, un ours, un singe, un gorille, une baleine, un poisson, un dauphin, une gazelle, une souris, un rat, un cureuil, un pigeon, un renard, un ouistiti, un serpent, un lzard, un crocodile, un girafe, un lphant OR Choisissez une personne que vous connaissez bien et dcrivez-la.

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French Language placement tests

Section 4: Test for French IV / BA French Studies Time allowed: One hour and thirty minutes
The following is an extract (adapted) from Azouz Begags 1989 novel Bni ou le paradis priv Characters mentioned here are: the narrator, Bni, his sister, Naoual and their parents. Je ne sais pas comment agir avec elle. Des fois elle me fait piti et des fois jai envie de ltrangler. Il y a deux ans, elle a pass son cap, en majuscules : C.A.P. de mcanicienne. Pas dautomobile, mon pre naurait jamais accept. Mcanicienne de fil couture : rparation de vtements. Malheureusement pour elle, elle na pas pu russir, passer le cap, en minuscules, de la thorie. La pratique, oui. Elle savait coudre. Lchec a bris llan de sa vie. Net. Elle disait toujours quelle voulait tre htesse de lair Air Algrie, mais comme elle navait pas lair du tout, un CAP de mcanicienne en couture aurait pu lui donner le grade de diplme de la socit franaise. Elle a dit tout le monde quelle avait gagn le diplme. Enfin, elle la surtout dit aux parents et ils ont t contents, a augmentait son prix de vente lors du mariage. Depuis, chaque fois quelle me voit, elle voit ce quelle aurait pu tre et ce quelle ne sera jamais : un cerveau ! Ce matin-l, ds laube, elle a pris son balai et sa serpillire, ouvert tout grand les fentres, fait couler les robinets, balanc draps et couvertures lair pur. Et pour meubler lambiance : informations, musique, jeux, publicit sur RTL grandes ondes. Et Naoual chante. Elle chante pour se faire plaisir, mais aussi pour mnerver. Tes rien quune bonniche, vieille con ! Mais elle ne prend pas. Elle continue mme comme avant. De toutes les faons je vais avertir le papa que tarrtes pas de chanter des chansons damour ! Au lieu de venir sexcuser, elle sapproche de moi, le balai en main, tend la figure vers la mienne comme pour me cracher dessus et lche au ralenti : Gros cochon ! Tas qu y dire cque tu veux au papa. Jmen fous et jmen contrefous ! Vivement quon te marie, vieille folle ! Elle se tourne brusquement prend sa robe dans ses mains, se cache les yeux et clate en sanglots. Je la regarde, dsempar. Je regrette. Je voudrais la consoler, la prendre dans mes bras. Mais cest ma sur. Je ne peux pas prendre ma sur dans mes bras ! Je nai jamais fait a de toute ma vie. Mon pre non plus na jamais fait a ma mre. la maison, quand quelquun pleure, on le regarde et cest tout. On peut pleurer avec lui si on veut. Tavais qu pas me chercher ! je dis avec une voix douce. Elle renifle dans sa robe, essuie ses yeux, reprend le balai et ses bidons. Toute faon, bientt, vous mverrez plus, va ! Je suis all la salle de bains, un peu pas bien. Javais limpression dtre trop fort et davoir le pouvoir de dtruire les esprits faibles.
Vocabulaire : Passer le cap russir, franchir une tape C.A.P. Certificat dAptitude Professionnel Llan le progrs Une serpillire torchon pour laver le sol

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French Language placement tests

A. Rpondez aux questions suivantes. Please write your answers in French. : 6. Quapprenons-nous sur le niveau scolaire de Naoual ? (10 15 mots)

7. Il sagit dune famille dorigine algrienne vivant en France. Rsumez ici un aspect de cette scne entre frre et sur, qui rappelle la socit dorigine. (30 mots environ)

8. Quels gestes de Naoual ont pouss le narrateur ragir comme il le fait? (15 20 mots)

9. Que pensez-vous de lattitude du narrateur ? Justifiez votre rponse. (25 50 mots)

B. Answer the following questions in English (Continue on another sheet if you like): 10. What do we learn about the role and behaviour of the father in this family?

11. What is the cause of the problem faced by Naoual?

12. What humour is there in this text? Please explain your answer, referring to the text.

13. What do you like or not like about this text and the way it is written? Please give reasons.

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French Language placement tests