INSTITUT SUPERIEUR DE TECHNOLOGIE

Concours d’entrée 2nd CYCLE – Mai 2005

EPREUVE D’ANGLAIS

Nombre de pages : 2 SUJET A RENDRE A LA FIN de

Durée : 1 heure 30 minutes l'EPREUVE
Calculatrices et documents : interdits
COMMENCEZ par inscrire vos noms et prénoms, le centre de passage de l’examen et le numéro
de votre place sur chaque copie que vous rendrez.
Les surveillants ont pour consigne d’exclure du concours tout candidat qui tente de vouloir
copier sur un de ses voisins, d’accéder à des documents quels qu’ils soient, ou d’écrire avant le
signal de départ ou après le signal de fin de l’épreuve

SECTION ONE: Comprehension (10marks)

Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.

Conditions in the factory were no better. As well as the dirt and overcrowding (owners packed as many
machines and workers as possible into their factories), there were the large, noisy and dangerous
machines. There were no laws governing factory conditions (factory laws were gradually introduced
during the nineteenth century) and it was quite common for workers to be seriously injured or even
killed by getting caught in the machines. No law forced workers to put guards on dangerous machines
or pay workmen for their injuries. Anybody unable to work simply lost his job and that often meant that
his family would starve. It was not only men who worked in the factories. Women and children were
employed there also. They worked very long hours for very low wages, the factory owners being
concerned only to make huge profits. It is worth noting that while many British politicians and
businessmen were fighting hard against the African slave trade, thousands of their fellow countrymen
were enduring conditions even worse than those of the slaves. Of course, not all the factory workers
were prepared to accept these conditions without protest. It was the European factory workers who
supported important new movements such as trade unionism, socialism and communism.

QUESTIONS

1. Why were the factory conditions no better?

2. Why were factory laws needed?
3. What were the consequences of being unable to work?
4. Were women and children treated better? Justify your answer.
5. What do you understand by ‘Not all the factory workers were prepared to accept these
conditions without protest’?

Page 1 / 2
CONCOURS IST 2ND CYCLE EPREUVE D’ANGLAIS MAI 2005

SECTION TWO: Vocabulary (5marks)

Answer the following questions

1. What word in the passage means too many people or too many things?
2. Find a word in the passage which means where goods are manufactured.
3. What is another word for ‘law’ as used in the passage?
4. What word can you use to describe a situation where people are made to do so much work for
little pay?
5. What word in the passage means money earned by a worker?
6. What is the opposite of ‘low’ as used in the passage?
7. In your own words explain the meaning of ‘enduring’.
8. Give a synonym for profit.
9. Give the opposite of ’unable’ as used in the passage.
10. Form nouns from the adjectives noisy and dangerous.

SECTION THREE: Grammar (5marks)

EXERCISE 1

Read the following newspaper report and put the verbs into the most suitable form.

A woman (1) ____________ (take) to hospital after her car collided with a lorry near Norstock
yesterday. She (2) ______________ (allow) home later after treatment. The road (3)
________________ (block) for an hour after the accident and traffic had to (4) _________________
(divert). A police inspector said afterwards: “The woman was lucky. She could (5)
___________________ (kill)”.

EXERCISE 2

Choose the correct form, with or without ‘the’

1. I’m afraid of dogs/the dogs

2. Can you pass salt/the salt please?
3. Apples/the apples are good for you.
4. The women/women live longer than men.
5. Life/the life is strange sometimes. Some very strange things happen.

Page 2 / 2