SEQUENCE 6 - PORTRAITS OF POWER

PART 1

The splendour of the monarchy on display: the power of

enhancement through art

Durée : 5 heures 30

Objectives
You will study three documents which portray different images of the British monarchy at different periods
of history. This corpus of documents will enable you to:
• note the evolution of the manner in which British sovereigns have been portrayed over the centuries;
• further practice oral and written comprehension and writing skills, and learn to work within a limited
time frame, devoting sufficient time to the three parts of the final assessment;
• revise the modals may and might (present and past forms) and the superlative;
• study the use of adjectives and adverbs to enrich a description of an outstanding event;
• pay attention to the stressed syllables in certain adjectives and adverbs;
• check the spelling of adjectives in the superlative form;
• pay attention to the two pronunciations of the letter ‘s’.

Activity 1 – Warming up: the impact of photography

1. Look at the photo and read the comment of the royal photographer, Chris Jackson.
When Prince George checked on Princess Charlotte.
At Princess Charlotte’s christening, Prince George was
photographed peering into his little sister’s carriage. ‘Some
images really resonate, and that was one of those ones—that
makes you smile, or it makes you unhappy; you know they
make you burst into hysterics. But it generates some kind of
response in the person looking at it, then you’ve sort of done
your job. That was one of those pictures’.
Taken from ‘3 of the Most Surprising (and Candid) Royal
Chris Jackson/Getty Images
Family Moments Ever, According to Royal Photographer Chris
Jackson’ by Greta Heggeness, Purewow 05-27-2020
2.Give your own first impression:
…
Check the correction.

CNED – TERMINALE – ANGLAIS 1

 Activity 2 – compréhension de l’oral : The day a princess was born

1.Faites des hypothèses à partir du titre pour anticiper le contenu de la vidéo que vous allez étudier :
The day a princess was born.

2.Regardez la vidéo et utilisez la méthode ‘WH checklist’ (voir encadré ci-dessous) pour en faire un
compte rendu.

Conseil : Essayez de réaliser cette activité en trente minutes maximum pour vous habituer à travailler en
temps limité.

video 1 : de 0” à 1’50” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=benNZtPVHRA

Rappel de la méthode et des consignes

Vous devrez faire un compte rendu en français d’un enregistrement (vidéo ou document audio d’une
durée d’une minute 30 à une minute 50).
Le titre sera communiqué.
Vous entendrez le document trois fois, chaque écoute étant espacée d’une minute d’intervalle.
Vous prendrez des notes (en anglais autant que possible).
Vous devrez montrer dans votre compte-rendu que vous avez compris :
• le thème principal;
• à qui s’adresse le document;
• le déroulement des faits, la situation, les événements, les informations;
• l’identité des personnes ou personnages et, éventuellement, les liens entre elles/entre eux;
• les éventuels différents points de vue;
• les éventuels éléments implicites du document;
• la fonction et la portée du document (relater, informer, convaincre, critiquer, dénoncer etc…)

Rappel : WH Checklist

Préparez les questions ci-dessous sur votre feuille de brouillon et essayez d’y répondre lors des trois
écoutes. Pensez à aérer vos réponses et à utiliser des couleurs différentes à chaque écoute :
Qui :
Où :
Quand :
Quoi :
Pour quelle raison :
Pourquoi :

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Etudiez le corrigé où vous trouverez également une analyse détaillée de la grille d’évaluation et le
script de la vidéo.

Activity 3 – Grammar check: the superlative

Your project at the end of this first part of the sequence is to write the page of a diary, putting yourself in
another person’s shoes to relate an outstanding event. The description of exceptional events will entail
the use of the superlative forms of adjectives. This exercise will enable you to revise this grammar point.
a) Read the script of the video studied in Activity 2 again, and pick out a superlative form. Translate it into
French.

Check the correction.

b) If necessary, revise the superlative in your grammar book, ‘Petite grammaire anglaise’ by
Sylvie Persec, Chapitre 28, ‘Superlatif des adjectifs’. Then translate the following sentences into
English:
1. C’est le jour le plus incroyable de ma vie.
2. C’est le prince le plus populaire de ce siècle.
3. C’est le plus grand événement des derniers mois.
4. C’est la femme la plus radieuse que j’ai jamais vue.
5. C’est le moment le plus euphorique que j’ai jamais vécu.

Check the correction.

c) Put the following adjectives into the superlative form:

1. big
2. tall
3. lovely
4. awesome
5. hot
6. nice

Check the correction.

d) Complete this sentence which summarizes the spelling rule:

One syllable adjectives ending in a consonant after one vowell_______________the consonant
in the superlative. Two syllable adjectives ending in ‘y’ transform the ‘y’ into___________________in
the superlative form.

Check the correction.

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Activity 4 – Intensifiers
Study the following sentences. Note down the adverbs expressing intensity, then class the adverb and the
adjective it intensifies into a grid:

Negative idea expressed Positive idea expressed

… …

1. It was awfully hot.

2. It was horribly frightening.
3. She was absolutely charming.
4. The talk was totally uninteresting.
5. He was awfully nice.
6. We were completely bowled over by it.
7. They were utterly adorable.

Check the correction.

Activity 5 – Pronunciation
As you are well aware, it is difficult to know which syllables to stress in words containing more than one
syllable! However, stressing the correct syllable can mean the difference between being understood or
not by native speakers, and it’s the key to mastering the intonation patterns of English. Knowing the rules
can help, but the best way to assimilate these rules is to practice saying the words aloud.
1. Example of the importance of correct stress:
a P
 ractice saying the following sentences aloud, paying particular attention to the pronunciation of the
words in bold:
   1. Her Royal Highness presented the nation with her best wishes for the coming year.
   2. Some of the presents the Royal Family has received from visiting statesmen over the years are on
display in Buckingham Palace.
   3. In the present-day situation, the Queen’s speeches are particularly appreciated.

Check the correction.

b) Underline the stressed syllables of the words in bold in exercise a), and determine the function of each
word in the sentence:
1. presented
2. presents
3. present

Check the correction.

4 CNED – TERMINALE – ANGLAIS

c) Complete the pronunciation rule:

When ‘present’ is a noun, it is stressed on the_____________________syllable.

When ‘present’ is an adjective, it is stressed on the_________________syllable.
When ‘present’ is a verb, it is stressed on the ____________________syllable.

Check the correction.

2. Check the pronunciation of these adjectives and adverbs in the Jones pronouncing dictionary:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/jones
• amazing; incredible; popular; biggest; radiant; elated.
• tallest; loveliest; awesome; hottest; nicest.
• awfully; horribly; absolutely; totally; completely; utterly.

Check the correction.

Word stress :

Note that most words in English, including adjectives and adverbs, are stressed on the first syllable,
unless the first syllable is a prefix, such as ‘un’, ‘dis’ etc. Grammatical suffixes, for example ‘est’,’ly’ don’t
alter the stress.

3. Class the adjectives and adverbs of exercise 2. into the grid:

First syllable stress Stress on another syllable

… …

Check the correction.

Activity 6 – Mediation
For your project at the end of this first part of the sequence—writing the page of a diary—it is helpful to
practise using lexical, grammatical and cultural elements of the documents you have studied.
This mediation activity is part of this practice. It is useful to record yourself, bearing in mind the
pronunciation rules of Activity 5.

1. Do the written preparation in note form only.

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 2. Record yourself - Instruction: Put yourself in the shoes of the young American lady who is
interviewed in the CNN report entitled ‘The day a princess was born.’ This lady gives an account of
the event she has witnessed in front of St Mary’s hospital to her mother in the US over the phone
that same evening. (Approximately 1 minute).

Tip : Follow the steps suggested here :

1) Pick out all the adjectives and phrases in the document expressing feelings.
2) Add adverbs to emphasize your excitement.
3) Putting yourself in the shoes of the young American lady, note down all the details of the scene that
are likely to interest your mother.
4) Make sure that the verbs are conjugated correctly (Ved past simple).

Check the correction.

Activity 7 – Written comprehension - The Crystal Palace

A) Reading
Use the same method as for oral comprehension to tackle the following three texts - anticipate the
main theme after studying the title and the source, then note down the answers to the ‘WH checklist’
(Who, Where, When, What, What for, Why).

In order to practice time management, spend no more than 30 minutes on this part of the exercise. It
is advisable to spend another 30 minutes answering the comprehension questions. These questions
are modelled on the type of questionnaire that you are likely to be given in the final assessment.

The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park for Grand International Exhibition of 1851 - Read & Co. Engravers & Printers, 1851

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 Text 1

The Crystal Palace

The Crystal Palace 1851-4 seemed to lie outside
the world of architecture, outside even the world of
engineering. The criteria by which it might be judged
still awaited formulation. In Hitchcock’s words, Paxton’s
scheme ‘owed its aesthetic qualities to factors hitherto
unrecognized-the repetition of units manufactured in
series, the functional lace-like patterns of criss-cross
trusses, the transparent definition of space, the total
elimination of mass and the sense of tensile, almost live
strength as opposed to the solid and gravitational quality
of previous masonry architecture’.
J. Mordaunt Crook. The Dilemma of Style: Architectural
Ideas from the Picturesque to the Post-Modern, 1987
Nick Hewetson / istock/ Getty Images Plus
Nick Hewetson / istock/ Getty Images Plus

Text 2

A description of Crystal Palace

It’s a wonderful place -vast, strange, new and impossible to describe. Its
grandeur does not consist in one thing, but in the unique assemblage of
all things. Whatever human industry has created you find there, from great
compartments filled with railway engines and boilers, with mill machinery in full
work, with splendid carriages of all kinds, with harness of every description, to
Charlotte Brontë
the glass-covered and velvet-spread stands loaded with the most gorgeous work
of the goldsmith and silversmith, and the carefully guarded caskets full of real
diamonds and pearls worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. It may be called a bazaar or a fair, but it is
such a bazaar or fair as eastern genii might have created. It seems as if only magic could have gathered
this mass of wealth from all the ends of the earth-as if none but supernatural hands could have arranged
it thus, with such a blaze and contrast of colours and marvellous power of effect. The multitude filling the
great aisles seems ruled and subdued by some invisible influence.
Published in Clement Shorter, The Brontës Life and Letters, 1908

J. McNeven, The interior of the Crystal Palace in London during the Great Exhibition, coloured lithograph, 1851

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 Text 3

The Great Exhibition: 1 May 1851

This day is one of the greatest and most glorious days of our lives, with which, to my pride and joy, the
name of my dearly beloved Albert is forever associated. It is a day which makes my heart swell with
thankfulness…The park presented a wonderful spectacle, crowds streaming through it-carriages and
troops passing, quite like the Coronation day, and for me, the same anxiety. The day was bright and all
bustle, and excitement. At half past eleven the whole procession in 9 state carriages was set in motion.
Vicky and Bertie (her two eldest, the Princess Royal and the Prince of Wales) were in our carriage. Vicky
was dressed in lace over white satin, with a small wreath of pink wild roses, in her hair, and looked very
nice. Bertie was in full Highland dress.
The Green Park and Hyde Park were one mass of densely crowded human beings, in the highest good
humour and most enthusiastic. I never saw Hyde Park look as it did, being filled with crowds as far as
the eye could reach. A little rain fell, just as we started; but before we neared the Crystal Palace the sun
shone and gleamed upon the gigantic edifice, upon which the flags of every nation were flying.
We drove up Rotten Row and got out of our carriages at the entrance on that side. The glimpse through
the iron gates of the Transept, the moving palms and flowers, the myriads of people filling the galleries
and seats around together with the flourish of trumpets, as we entered the building, gave a sensation
I shall never forget, and I felt much moved…In a few seconds we proceeded, Albert leading me having
Vicky at his hand, and Bertie holding mine. The sight as we came to the centre where the steps and chair
(on which I did not sit) was placed, facing the beautiful crystal fountain was magic and impressive. The
tremendous cheering, the joy expressed in every face, the vastness of the building, with all its decorations
and exhibits, the sound of the organ (with 200 instruments and 600 voices, which seemed nothing), and
my beloved Husband, the creator of this great ‘Peace Festival’, uniting the industry and arts of all nations
of the earth, all this, was indeed moving, or a day to live forever. God bless my dearest Albert, and my
dear Country which has shown itself so great today.
Excerpt from Queen Victoria’s journals, 1851.
The Victorian Half Century: A Jubilee Book by C.M. Yonge, 1887.
www.royal.uk

Louis Hague, Queen Victoria opens the Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London - 1851.

8 CNED – TERMINALE – ANGLAIS

B) Comprehension questions
Answer the following questions in English:
Try to spend no more than thirty minutes answering these questions.

Text 1
1) What is the subject of the author’s description? Answer in your own words.
2) What are the main characteristics of what is being described? Answer in your own words, and justify
your answer with one quote from the text.

Text 2
3) What experience is the author relating? Answer in your own words.
4) What effect has this experience had on the author? Answer in your own words, and justify your answer
with one quote from the text.

Text 3
5) What is the genre of the text? Pick out two examples which characterize this genre.
6) Explain briefly, in your own words, what happens in the text and the author’s reaction to the events.

Texts 1, 2 and 3
7) What are the most striking features1 that are common to the three descriptions?

Check the correction.

Activity 8 – Culture file: the Victorian era

1. Check the following series of words taken from the three texts about Crystal Palace
and summarize, in English, what they teach us about the Victorian era:

a) ‘repetition of units manufactured in series’; ‘functional lace-like

patterns’; ‘human industry’; ‘railway engines and boilers’; ‘mill machinery’;
‘industry and arts of all nations of the earth.’

b) ‘gathered this mass of wealth from all the ends of the earth’; ‘fair’; ‘upon
which the flags of every nation were flying’; ‘great ‘Peace Festival’; ‘my dear
Country which has shown itself so great today’.

c) ‘tensile, almost live strength’; ‘grandeur’; ‘splendid carriages’; ‘the

Queen Victoria (1837-1901)
Albumen silver print, about 1855
The J. Paul Getty Museum,
Los Angeles
https://media.getty.edu
most gorgeous work of the goldsmith and the silversmith’; ‘real diamonds
and pearls worth hundreds of thousands of pounds’; ‘multitude filling
the aisles’; ‘crowds streaming through it’; ‘carriages and troops passing’;
‘whole procession in 9 state carriages’; ‘one mass of densely crowded
human beings’; ‘with crowds as far as the eye could reach’; ‘myriads of
people’; ‘flourish of trumpets as we entered the building’.

1 A feature = a distinctive attribute or aspect of something; a characteristic.

CNED – TERMINALE – ANGLAIS 9
 You can check the following websites for information if you wish, and/or use the vocabulary in the
wordbox as a guideline:
https://www.victorianweb.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/victorian_era
https://www.britannica.com/event/Victorian-era

Wordbox
wealth(N): richesses; wealthy (adj); prosperity;
industrial; industrialization; Industrial Revolution;
Empire; imperial;
transport; transportation; means of transport; railway; connect (V); locomotion; goods : marchandises;
export (V); trade: commerce; global network;
machines; machinery; engineering;
heyday (N): l’apogée;
to manuafcture(V): fabriquer;
grand: grandiose; great: grand; grandeur(N); splendid; glorious; glory (N);
proud (adj): fier; pride (N): fierté;
to showcase (V): servir de vitrine; display (V/N): exposer
demonstration; mass; crowd: foule.

Check the correction.

2. Quiz on the Victorian era

You can do this quiz to check your basic knowledge about the Victorian age.
Choose the correct answers to these questions. For certain questions, more than one answer may be
correct:

1. The Victorian era was characterized by:

a.upward social mobility b. an immutable social hierarchy c. the growth of the working class

2. It was a time of:

a.political reform b. reactionary politics c. political inaction

3. It was a period of:

a.economic stability b. economic expansion c. economic recession

4. During this age, the British Empire was:

a. expanding b. declining c. being challenged

10 CNED – TERMINALE – ANGLAIS

5. At the time, the monarchy was at the height of its:
a. unpopularity b. upheaval2 c. glory

6. New technologies included:

a. photography b. telegraphy c. X-rays

7. The standard of living:

a. remained stable b. rose c. fell

8. The new means of locomotion was:

a. the railway b. the personal automobile c. the bus

9. Culturally-speaking, the era was influenced by

a. rationalism b. orientalism c. romanticism

10. On the international scene, Great-Britain was:

a. at the heyday of its power b. losing prestige c. gaining recognition as a Great Power

Activity 9 – Ideas file

Use the two documents studied so far in the sequence to answer the following question:
-What image of the British monarchy is conveyed by the two documents (video and texts)? How
has this image been created and enhanced? Answer in no more than 100 words.

Check the correction.

Activity 10 – Describing a painting

In this exercise, you will only focus on one document. Make sure that your description illustrates
the link between art and power. In other words, here, note how the royal portrait, which is most
probably a commission, enhances the monarch’s splendour, and, consequently, her authority.
NB : Entraînez-vous surtout à respecter l’intonation descendante aux virgules et à la fin des
phrases, et à bien accentuer les mots clés. Etudiez attentivement le corrigé oralisé dans cette
optique.

2 Upheaval = bouleversement

CNED – TERMINALE – ANGLAIS 11

 Méthode : Décrire une image

• Précisez la nature de l’image: photograph; cartooon; engraving; drawing; painting…

• Dans l’introduction donnez le sujet principal: The picture shows a/an… the main subject of the picture is…
• Décrivez brièvement le sujet principal: In the foreground/ in the background there is; in the middle we
can see; in the top/bottom left/right-hand corner we can note…
• Analysez les couleurs, les symboles, les expressions, l’atmosphère: The skull symbolizes our mortality;
the King’s expression is haughty…The colours are bright; muted; gaudy…
• Conclude by noting the general impression created by the picture and what seems to be the artist’s
aim: The picture conveys a sense of pride and power. The artist might have aimed to demonstrate the
nation’s pride in its institutions…

Using the method provided, give an oral description of the picture

that follows. You can check activities 11 and 12 first for a quick
revision of useful grammar and pronunciation guides. Do the
activity without any preparation as you will be required to do for the
oral of your bac assessment. The correction will be both written
and oral.
 Check the correction.

Elizabeth I, oil on panel, circa 1575

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Activity 11 – pronunciation check: /S/ or /Z/?

Say these words aloud, paying particular attention to the pronunciation of the ‘s’ (/z/ or /s/). The check
with the correction:
clothes; close(adj ); to close (V); pearls; eyes; hands; fingers; distant; feathers; precise; use (N); to use(V);
British Isles; Charlotte’s; George’s.

Check the correction.

12 CNED – TERMINALE – ANGLAIS

Activity 12 – Grammar check: may, might + have + past participle.
Translate these sentences into French:
a) The portrait may be a Royal Commission.
b) Elizabeth I may have worn pearls for a symbolic reason.
c) The feathers might represent prosperity.
d) The painter might have enhanced the Queen’s features.

For further practice, check your Grammar book, ‘Petite grammaire anglaise’, on pages Chapter
12, entitled: ‘Les modaux: du ‘moins certain’ au ‘plus certain’’.

Use these modals in your description to express possible interpretations of certain symbols.

Check the correction.

Activity 13 – Written expression: writing the page of a diary

Your project is to write the page of a diary.
We suggest two different situations. Take a look at the different situations, and at the following analysis of
how your work would be assessed at the exam.
We suggest that you do a little research in order to make the situation plausible. The person you have
chosen records an important event involving the monarchy in his or her diary. Think about the role
played by art in enhancing the image of royalty.

• Situation 1: Put yourself in the shoes of the artist from Northern Ireland, Mr Davidson, who was
commissioned to paint a portrait of the Queen. He records his feelings (use adjectives and intensifiers)
about this portrait and writes about “the gravity and the responsibility” involved in painting the monarch.
Bear in mind the role of a portrait of a monarch in enhancing the image, and, therefore, the popularity and
authority of the institution.

CNED – TERMINALE – ANGLAIS 13

 For this particular portrait, check the following extract from a 2016 BBC article:

Queen unveils new portrait by NI artist Colin Davidson

By Robbie Meredith BBC News NI Education
Correspondent
9 November 2016

Jeff Spicer/Getty images

The Queen unveiled the portrait at a Co-Operation Ireland reception in London on Tuesday evening
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk
A new portrait of the Queen by the Northern Irish artist Colin Davidson has been unveiled in London by
the monarch.
It was unveiled on Tuesday at a Co-Operation Ireland reception, attended by the Queen and the Duke of
Edinburgh.
Speaking prior to the unveiling, Mr Davidson told the BBC he was very aware of “the gravity and the
responsibility” involved in painting the monarch. (…)
source : www.bbc.com

You can check the internet for ideas about other portraits, for example the following website:
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/30-portraits-of-queen-elizabeth-ii-332442

For other ideas, you can check one of the following videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8oou_7VBw4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7WQjguqSk8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXw4mJECoTE

14 CNED – TERMINALE – ANGLAIS

•Situation 2: Queen Victoria records her coronation in her diary.

Edmund Thomas Parris, The coronation of Queen Victoria, 1838

Remember to use superlatives to express the exceptional nature of the event, and intensifiers and
adjectives to convey the feelings of the person confiding his or her innermost emotions and thoughts to
his or her diary.

You can check the following website for information and ideas.
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/30-portraits-of-queen-elizabeth-ii-332442

There is an excerpt from Victoria’s diary that you can use as a model to be continued, if you find this
helpful.

CNED – TERMINALE – ANGLAIS 15

 Tips : Writing a diary

a) Be careful to show that this is a diary-write the date and use the first person.
b) Express your feelings and their intensity using adjectives and adverbs studied in the sequence.
c) Use superlatives to show that this is an exceptional event.
d) Use the present participle in your description, eg ‘My sister was there, wearing her favourite hat.’
e) Narrate a few events, and add some descriptions, for example of the weather which often mirrors our
feelings! (‘pathetic fallacy’)
f) Don’t hesitate to ‘copy’ expressions and phrases that you have learnt from the texts studied, but, of
course, not complete paragraphs!
g) You can do a little research to make your work plausible, but you don’t need to spend too much time on
it.

Expression écrite - Critères d’évaluation

Vous serez évalué(e) en fonction de la grille que vous pouvez consulter dans le sujet de devoir évaluant
l'expression écrite.
Voici les critères :
Qualité du contenu
Un maximum de points sera accordé si vous donnez des références culturelles précises, mais, bien
entendu, on n’exigera pas des connaissances aussi pointues. Choisissez pour cet exercice le domaine qui
vous intéresse : art, histoire, politique… Essayez de vous mettre dans la peau du personnage qui exprime
sa vision personnelle et son ressenti par rapport à un événement qui concerne le plus grand nombre.
C’est votre capacité à exprimer un point de vue adapté au personnage qui vous permettra d’atteindre le
niveau B2.

Cohérence de la construction du discours

Vous serez évalué(e) sur votre capacité à relater une expérience.

Correction de la langue
Soyez attentif ici à l’emploi des superlatifs et du prétérit simple (le temps de la narration).

Richesse de la langue
Veillez à la richesse et à la précision des adjectifs évoquant des sentiments, et à l’emploi des
intensificateurs.

Check the suggested corrections.

16 CNED – TERMINALE – ANGLAIS