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Enseignement supérieur

Classes préparatoires aux grandes écoles

Année scolaire 2020-2021

– Consignes estivales pour préparer la rentrée –

ECE – 2ème ANNÉE

ANGLAIS

Professeur : Marina GUIBERT (guibert@lamerci.com)

Voici quelques petits conseils et quelques recommandations pour bien préparer la rentrée 2020 et les concours 2021. 1/ LECTURES et CIVILISATION :

a) DOSSIER de PRESSE : Vous devez continuer à lire REGULIEREMENT la presse anglophone (minimum 3 articles par semaine) et faire des fiches de vocabulaire (travaillez la reformulation des idées) à chaque fois que vous lisez un article. N’oubliez pas que les sujets des épreuves écrites seront souvent choisis entre juillet et décembre. Rappel Voici des exemples de sites (la liste n'est pas exhaustive). British newspapers or magazines: http://www.timesonline.co.uk http://www.guardian.co.uk/ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ http://www.economist.com/ American newspapers or magazines: http://www.nytimes.com/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/ http://www.usatoday.com/ http://www.newsweek.com/

b) Vous devez connaitre les chefs d’Etat des principaux pays anglophones. (The USA / The UK / The Republic of Ireland / Australia / New Zealand / Canada / South Africa / India )

c) Suivez l’actualité et faites des recherches et des fiches sur les thématiques suivantes : The next US presidential election The relationship between the UK and the EU The pandemic

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d) RELISEZ et APPRENEZ vos cours de civilisation de 1ère année.

Un test sera organisé lors de notre 1er cours. Voici la liste des thématiques abordées en 2019-2020 :

1. Religion

2. Globalization

3. The legalization of Marijuana

4. The death penalty

5. The gender gap / gender equality

6. American institutions

7. Health and Veganism

8. What happened in 2019 in the English speaking world

9. The British monarchy

10. Brexit

11. British institutions

12. Education

13. South Africa

14. Fame

15. The media

16. Democracy

17. Climate change / The environment

18. Science and genetic engineering

19. Trump’s presidency: The Coronavirus / His re-election campaign

20. The Democratic Party and Joe Biden

21. The American Dream

22. Immigration in the USA

23. The Labour Party in the UK

24. Gay rights

25. Australia

2/ VOCABULAIRE : Continuez à apprendre du vocabulaire EN CONTEXTE lorsque vous lisez la presse. 3/ LA TRADUCTION : Ne perdez pas le rythme !! a) Traduisez les deux textes proposés dans ce dossier. (extraits de The Island de Victoria Hislop et de Fanfan d’Alexandre Jardin.) Ils seront corrigés lors de notre 1er cours. b) Entraînez-vous de façon autonome et faites un thème et une version par semaine. Vous trouverez des traductions corrigées et des conseils dans les manuels suivants : 10 ans d’annales corrigées aux concours des Grandes Ecoles de Commerce. Ouvrage coordonné par Joël Cascade Chez Ellipses Thèmes et versions d'anglais / Traduire en classes préparatoires. Auteurs: Charles Watkins et Sylvie Watkins. Vous pouvez aussi travailler la version en lisant des nouvelles (short stories). Il existe des éditions bilingues comme les éditions POCKET qui proposent plusieurs tomes, en voici un exemple : 16 very short stories - 16 très courtes nouvelles. Jean-Pierre BERMAN (Direction de collection) chez Pocket. Ces éditions proposent pour chaque nouvelle une traduction et des explications lexicales.

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c) Lorsque vous lisez un article de presse en anglais, entraînez-vous et traduisez certains passages. d) Lisez aussi la presse française et traduisez certains articles. 4/ EXPRESSION ECRITE et GRAMMAIRE:

a) Si vous pensez que vous avez encore des lacunes en grammaire, il faut profiter de l’été pour faire des révisions.

b) Revoyez le tableau des erreurs que vous avez très sérieusement rempli au cours de la 1èreannée. c) Révisez les verbes irréguliers.

Un test sera organisé au cours de notre 1er cours en septembre. d) Révisez les conjugaisons françaises.

6/ L’ORAL :

Vous devez conserver votre classeur de Khôlle et vous devez continuer à vous entraîner. a) Préparez un oral sur les 2 textes donnés. (Synthèse + commentaire) b) Ecoutez des radios anglophones. En voici quelques exemples (la liste n'est pas exhaustive)

http://www.bbc.co.uk *** http://www.npr.org *** http://www.cbc.ca c) Visionnez des films ou des séries en version originale : Au moins 1 / semaine. d) L’été est propice aux rencontres, parlez anglais autant que possible !!! 7/ DERNIER CONSEIL : Travaillez régulièrement et dans la bonne humeur et je suis sûre que vous prendrez plaisir à effectuer toutes ces tâches. And don’t forget that ‘practice makes perfect’ !!!!’ Si vous avez des questions, vous pouvez me contacter à l’adresse suivante : guibert@lamerci.com Je serai ravie de vous retrouver en septembre ; en attendant, je vous souhaite de passer de très bonnes vacances studieuses !!! Marina Guibert

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KHÔLLES Continuez à vous entraîner ! N’oubliez pas la méthode !! PREPARER une synthèse et un commentaire sur l’article suivant : ARTICLE n°1 : 5

'Blown away’: Australian coronavirus researchers examine everything from breastfeeding to explosives

technology

Melissa Davey Sat 27 Jun 2020 The Guardian

More than 200 Australian studies into Covid-19 are under way, extending far beyond the search for a vaccine.

Almost every Covid-19 research project being led by Australians has been captured in a report published on Saturday, 10 including studies of breastfeeding guidelines for parents with Covid-19, filter systems to remove the virus via air-

conditioning systems, monitoring of sewage to detect the prevalence of Covid-19, and repurposing technology

normally used to identify explosives to see if it can detect the presence of Covid-19. The report was compiled by

Research Australia, the national peak body for health and medical research. It’s chief executive, Nadia Levin, said the

report was not a complete catalogue of Covid-19 related research in Australia, but provided a useful insight into the 15 scale of the response from the health and innovation sectors. “All of this Australian research kept popping up and we

were blown away by the scale and scope of it, so we asked all of our members to share what they are working on,”

Levin told Guardian Australia. “There is research occurring here people wouldn’t necessarily think about. We seem to

hear about the vaccine research every day, but a whole lot of other essential pandemic and virus work is occurring.

(…)” 20

The research outlined in the report includes work at Bond University in Queensland to figure out what should be done

if no vaccine is ever found, or if it takes several years to find one. It aims to map out a Plan B and identify some of the

research required to establish how we can most effectively live with Covid-19 in the long term. Researchers led by the

University of Tasmania are working to identify those susceptible to Covid-19, and whether certain people are more

capable of asymptomatic transmission. As part of the study they are examining whether smoking or vaping makes 25 people more susceptible to the virus, and whether these activities can increase community transmission.

However, the report says the response of Australia’s health and medical researchers has come at a cost. The sudden

“downing of tools” that happens when researchers are called upon to pivot towards an urgent pandemic throws

existing projects, and their funding streams off course, the report says.

“When social distancing forces us out of our laboratories or prevents studies from progressing, it means experiments 30 go cold and precious time and data is lost,” it says. “Like other parts of the economy, health and medical research is

suffering. Without income from international students, university funding for health and medical research comes

under threat. So too does the pipeline of research and researchers relied upon by Australians to safeguard their

health.”

Research Australia’s next report will examine the impact of Covid-19 on health and medical researchers and the 35 challenges they now face. Dr Peter Collignon, an infectious diseases physician and microbiologist at the Canberra

Hospital and a professor at the Australian National University, says Australia is punching above its weight in Covid-

19 research and science generally. “When I’ve looked into the medical research Australia is doing, it is clear that

proportionally we are doing more for the size of our population than even the US or most parts of Europe,” he says.

“So it doesn’t surprise me that we have a lot of diverse research being done on Covid-19. Equally important as finding 40 a vaccine is understanding what to do if a vaccine doesn’t work, how to prevent future pandemics, and what drugs

may or may not work and why.”

Other important areas to understand include infection control techniques and the most effective use of face masks.

“This is not the sexy, cutting-edge stuff that vaccine research may seem to be, but it is equally, if not in some ways

more, important,” Collignon says. 45

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ARTICLE n°2 : Lisez l’article ci-dessous, faites un résumé (100 mots) et apprenez par cœur les phrases en caractères gras. (Vous devrez être capables de les citer lors de notre 1er cours)

Who runs the world? Jun 18th 2020 The Economist

CRISES CAN bring clarity. In the financial crisis of 2008-09, the G20 club of big economies came into its own, 5 reflecting how economic power had spread beyond the rich world’s G7. One thing the covid-19 pandemic has laid

bare is an absence of global leadership. This time the G20 has done little beyond a rhetorical pledge to “do

whatever it takes” and supporting debt-repayment suspension for poor countries. America, which led global

campaigns to defeat HIV/AIDS and Ebola, has been absorbed in its internal arguments. And the UN Security Council

has confirmed its dysfunctionality. 10

The council’s five permanent members (P5) are split between the Western three and Russia and China; some suspect

the authoritarian duo of having a formal pact. Russia wields its veto often, sometimes alongside China. Instead of

leaping into action over covid-19, the council mustered its first discussion of the crisis only in April. France and

Russia have both been keen for the leaders of the P5 to get together in the UN’s anniversary year, but have found this

hard to arrange. 15

The pandemic hit when competition between America and China, the world’s dominant and emerging

superpowers, was already intense, stretching from trade and technology to finance and regional dominance in

Asia. In America there is a bipartisan perception of China as a rival that steals intellectual property, takes advantage

of America’s openness and is intent on chipping away at America’s lead. For its part, China is increasingly brazen in

pushing back against America (or any country that resists it). 20

The covid-19 crisis is proving a telling case study of this rivalry, as America blames China for causing the pandemic

and China positions itself as the country most capable of dealing with it. Any retreat by America from global

leadership is an opportunity for China to gain ground. Whereas America has suspended funding to the WHO, China

has promised $2bn to fight the pandemic.

President Xi Jinping portrays China as a champion of multilateralism and talks of taking “an active part in leading the 25 reform of the global governance system”. China has been building channels of influence outside the institutions

that America designed. It set up the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, encroaching on the World Bank’s

territory. It has championed the BRICS (bringing it together with Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa) and the

Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, an eight-member group that includes Russia and Central Asian countries as well

as India and Pakistan. And then there is Mr Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an all-embracing infrastructure and 30 development campaign.

China has also been methodically increasing its influence in existing institutions, not least the UN. It has raised its

financial support even as America became stingier, becoming the second-biggest contributor to both the general and

the peacekeeping budgets. It has grown more assertive. “Ten years ago, China was pretty discreet, pretending to be

just an emerging country,” says one European diplomat at the UN. “Now I can tell you they are totally uninhibited, 35 they want to run the system.”

China has been patiently placing high-fliers to work their way up through the ranks. Chinese nationals now head four

of the UN’s 15 specialised agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome and the International

Telecommunication Union in Geneva. Americans lead only one. Chinese officials toil away at inserting into

documents favourable references to the BRI and language friendly to their interpretation of human rights, stressing 40 national sovereignty and development (“mutual respect and win-win co-operation”). Behind the scenes China twists

arms to avoid criticism of its repression in Xinjiang or Tibet.

Small victories for China have mounted up, often in obscure documents and little-noticed forums, but occasionally

raising eyebrows. In the 15-member Security Council, for example, the West and its friends can normally count on the

requisite nine votes to get their way on procedural matters. But in March 2018 an American-backed proposal for the 45 UN high commissioner for human rights to brief a formal session on abuses in Syria was defeated when, after Chinese

pressure, Ivory Coast switched sides at the last minute.

The aim may not be to replace America as a superpower that bears burdens all around the world. More likely, China

simply wants an unencumbered path for further development. “People’s Republic of the United Nations”, a report last

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year from the Centre for a New American Security (CNAS), a think-tank, concluded that China was “making the

world safe for autocracy”. For a long time America paid little attention, but it is now pushing back. In January the

State Department appointed a senior diplomat, Mark Lambert, to counter the “malign influence” of China and others

at the UN. In March these efforts succeeded in thwarting China’s bid for the top job at a fifth UN agency, the World

Intellectual Property Organisation in Geneva. 5

At least such moves reflect a recognition by the American administration that multilateral institutions matter.

Just as Mr Trump no longer calls NATO “obsolete”, as he did before coming to power, he may yet find more use in

the UN. He would not be the first American president to come to believe that, annoying as international forums are,

they are better than a constant free-for-all, and they can take some of the load off a superpower. But his transactional

approach has unnerved allies, and badly dented their trust in American leadership. 10

As a result, “middle powers” have been searching for other ways to defend the liberal order. A white paper presented

last year by Norway’s foreign ministry to its parliament identified preventing the erosion of international law and

multilateral systems as a “primary foreign-policy interest”. In New York, France and Germany launched an Alliance

for Multilateralism, with the aim of forging varied coalitions to take the initiative on issues ranging from fake news

and responsible use of cyberspace to gender equality and strengthening international institutions. 15

Coalitions of like-minded countries have proliferated. After Mr Trump abandoned the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a

free-trade deal, Australia, Japan and nine other countries pressed ahead on their own. The EU and Japan completed a

trade agreement covering a third of the world’s GDP. On defence, President Emmanuel Macron of France has

gathered 13 other countries into a European Intervention Initiative and is ever keener on “strategic autonomy” for

Europe. Asian countries worried about growing Chinese assertiveness, and unsure of America’s commitment, are 20 deepening ties.

In such “minilateralist” or “plurilateralist” ventures, national governments are not the only actors. Regional states,

non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and business leaders are on stage too. In the response to covid-19, the Bill &

Melinda Gates Foundation, a philanthropic giant, is taking a more prominent part than many governments. Several

American states have been busy since Mr Trump withdrew from the Paris agreement. California’s governor, Jerry 25 Brown, hosted a Global Climate Action Summit in 2018. Totting up actions at subnational levels that collectively

would amount to the world’s second-biggest economy, one estimate suggests they could reduce America’s

greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030 by as much as 37% from 2005 levels. Whether these scattered mid-level moves

can amount to more than the sum of their parts is unclear. Michael Fullilove of the Lowy Institute, an Australian

think-tank, suggests that like-minded countries should form a “coalition of the responsible”. Since some middle 30 powers, such as Taiwan and South Korea, have distinguished themselves by their response to the pandemic, he also

proposes “coalitions of the competent”. Further bungling by the big powers over covid-19 could make a concert of

middle powers more urgent. But do not bank on this being a middle-power moment, says Kori Schake of the

American Enterprise Institute, another think-tank. Without a dominant power to set an agenda, force momentum and

provide a chunk of funding, it is very hard for co-operation among lesser countries “to reach escape velocity”. At best 35 it may slow rather than stop the erosion of the liberal order.

If middle powers are active, so are smaller ones. By clubbing together, even minnows can have influence. Under its

charter the UN is “based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its members”, so each of the 193 countries in

the General Assembly has one vote. India (1.4bn people) counts the same as Tuvalu (12,000).

The Group of 77, formed in 1964 and now embracing 134 members, pushes the interests of developing countries. It is 40 less homogenous than it was but it can have influence (eg, over the choice of secretary-general) and get attention

(picking Palestine to serve as its chair last year). The Alliance of Small Island States helped put the climate-change

issue on the map. Samantha Power, America’s UN ambassador during Barack Obama’s second term, made a point of

visiting her counterparts from every member country at their New York missions: she managed all except North

Korea’s. With just six embassies around the world, the diplomatic footprint of the Caribbean state of St Vincent and 45 the Grenadines (population: 111,000) is tiny, but a good example of small-country influence. One of its embassies is

in Taipei: it is among a handful of states that officially recognise Taiwan. Its mission in New York has been

expanding, since St Vincent currently has one of the ten non-permanent seats on the 15-member Security Council.

“The bedrock principle that all small states advocate for is adherence to international law,” says Inga Rhonda King, St

Vincent’s ambassador. They’re “very hard core” over sovereign equality, non-interference and non-intervention, she 50 adds. The Security Council seat gives her a chance to press core concerns (especially climate security and relations

with Africa) and, hers being a small country, to do so nimbly. Ms King would like to see similar nimbleness in the

council’s response to covid-19, drawing attention to Africa as the pandemic’s likely next frontier.