La sortie au musée : une consigne générale n'est pas une réponse ciblée
Harpreet, a Class 10 student at a government school in Ludhiana, is practising the reading section with a notice from a partner collège in Nantes:
« SORTIE AU MUSÉE D'ART - classe de 3e Départ 8 h 30 devant le collège ; retour prévu 16 h. Apporter : un pique-nique et une gourde. Boissons sucrées interdites. Les élèves qui ont musique le jeudi à 15 h rentreront par le bus de 14 h et doivent prévenir le professeur avant mardi. La sortie est annulée si la météo annonce de la pluie. »
Three questions follow. Harpreet marks Q1 (« La sortie occupe toute la journée scolaire ») true. For Q2 (« Que doit faire un élève qui a musique le jeudi ? ») she chooses « Il doit apporter un pique-nique ». The teacher marks Q2 wrong, and Harpreet protests: both sentences are printed in the notice, so both must be true. For Q3 she writes that the outing will go ahead if the sky is cloudy but dry, since the notice only mentions rain.
1. Explain to Harpreet why Q2 is wrong, and give the answer the examiner expects. Refer to how the notice is organised, not just to the content.
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Harpreet is treating the notice as a list of statements that are each true or false. Q2, however, asks what a particular subgroup must do, and the notice deals with that subgroup in one sentence containing a relative clause: « Les élèves qui ont musique le jeudi à 15 h rentreront par le bus de 14 h et doivent prévenir le professeur avant mardi. »
The picnic and the water bottle come earlier and apply to the whole class. They are true, but they do not answer a question about music students - true but irrelevant is still wrong in a reading test. The expected answer has two parts joined by « et »: take the 14 h bus and inform the teacher before Tuesday. Two details decide marks: « rentreront » is future, so it is a plan, not a choice; and « prévenir » means to inform or warn, not to ask permission. A candidate who writes only « il doit apporter un pique-nique » has answered a different question.
2. For Q3, is Harpreet's conclusion justified by « La sortie est annulée si la météo annonce de la pluie »? Explain how the « si » clause works and what the notice does not say.
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The sentence contains a condition: cancellation happens if the forecast announces rain. Logic tells us that if the condition is not met, this particular clause does not cancel the trip. So Harpreet is right to reject cancellation on the strength of this sentence alone when the forecast is cloudy but dry.
She is not entitled, however, to conclude that the trip will take place. The notice gives one cancellation clause, not a guarantee. It does not say the trip is confirmed, does not give a phone number or a website, and does not cover other reasons (a transport strike, too few teachers). There is also a vocabulary point: « annonce » means the forecast, so the decision depends on what is predicted, not on the weather at 8 h 30. A careful answer separates the two claims: 'this sentence does not cancel the trip' and 'the trip is certain' are different statements, and only the first is supported by the text.
3. A classmate claims he can inform the teacher on Tuesday at 16 h, because « avant mardi » includes Tuesday. Judge this reading and say what a careful candidate should write in the exam.
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« Avant mardi » means before Tuesday, so the last compliant moment is Monday evening. Tuesday is not before Tuesday - the classmate is reading the deadline as « mardi au plus tard », which the notice does not say. In real French, speakers are sometimes loose with deadlines, but in a school notice the wording is chosen precisely because a bus list has to be prepared.
A careful candidate writes: « Il doit prévenir le professeur lundi au plus tard » or « avant mardi, donc au plus tard lundi ». If the question offers options, the one containing Tuesday itself is the distractor. Note the further trap: the notice says « prévenir le professeur », not « demander la permission au professeur ». The student is not asking whether he may leave early; he is telling the teacher that he will. Both elements (bus at 14 h, teacher informed by Monday) belong in the answer.