Jeanne : la météo, les saisons et l'avenir

Module 8 of Adosphère 2 is called Jeanne. Jeanne is a curious 13-year-old who loves science. She asks a radio programme why there are seasons, imagines her life in 2030, reads about the planet Mars and even does an experiment on thunderstorms. Through her questions you learn to give details about a place (où), to talk about the weather, to speak about the future (le futur simple) and to compare two things. In the UASA paper these points come back in Partie 1 (grammar and vocabulary), Partie 2 (a short text, vrai ou faux, questions) and Partie 3 (writing a few sentences).

8.1The weather and the seasons

Lesson 1 starts at home. It is raining hard and Akiko and Antoine listen to the radio programme Science Ado. Jeanne asks: « Pourquoi est-ce qu'il y a des saisons ? » (book p. 98). The journalist explains it in four ideas.

1. The Earth turns around the Sun on a tilted axis (un axe incliné).
2. When the North Pole is nearer the Sun, it is summer in the northern hemisphere (l'hémisphère nord, for example France), so it is hot and often fine.
3. At the same time the southern hemisphere (l'hémisphère sud) is in winter: it is cold because those countries are not facing the Sun.
4. Countries near the equator (l'équateur) always face the Sun. It is always hot there, it never snows, and there is no spring and no autumn.

Adosphère 2, p. 98

Saying what the weather is like

The book (p. 99, ex. 5) gives the box Pour parler du temps qu'il fait. The question is Quel temps fait-il ? (What is the weather like?). Every answer starts with il, which means nothing: it is just the weather.

Adosphère 2, p. 99

8.2The relative pronoun où

The book's box (p. 99, ex. 7): we use the relative pronoun où to give more detail about a place. It joins two sentences, and it replaces a phrase of place such as dans ce pays or sur cette planète.

8.3The futur simple

Lesson 2 opens with Jeanne's page Ma vie en 2030 (book p. 100). She imagines flying taxis, a trip to Mars, a wall screen in her room and robots at home. She uses the futur simple, the tense for what will happen.

Adosphère 2, p. 100

Regular verbs

Take the whole infinitive and add the endings. For verbs in -re, drop the final e first (book p. 101, box Le futur simple).

Irregular stems

Irregular verbs change the stem, but the endings are exactly the same (book p. 101, ex. 7). Every stem ends in -r and you hear that r.

In ex. 8-9 (p. 101) Antoine is pessimistic (pessimiste: he thinks the future will be bad, for example the Earth will be very ill) and Jeanne is optimistic (optimiste: « Il n'y aura plus beaucoup de maladies. Nous vivrons très vieux ! »). The final task (ex. 10) is to write a short text, Imagine ta vie en 2030.

8.4Comparing two things

In Lesson 3 (book pp. 102-103) you read the article Mars 2030 from the magazine Science Ado. To compare two things the book gives the box Pour comparer deux éléments (p. 103).

Adosphère 2, p. 107

8.5Mars, Venus and the solar system

The article asks why people have always dreamed of going to Mars. The answer: Mars looks like the Earth in some ways (it has seasons and storms), but it is very different in others. Read the facts in the box and compare them yourself.

Adosphère 2, p. 103

Why is Mars so cold with a long year? It is farther from the Sun than the Earth (Mars est plus loin du Soleil que la Terre), so it needs more time to go round the Sun, and it is much colder. It looks like a big desert because the water is not on the surface but in the ground as ice (sous forme de glace). A question for scientists: there may once have been an ocean on Mars, so why is there no more water? The 2030 expedition may answer this.

The solar system (le système solaire)

8.6Science and fiction, and a thunderstorm

Lesson 4: Sciences et fiction (p. 104)

Science fiction (la science-fiction) imagines a future world. The timeline in the book mixes works of fiction and real science.

Mon cours de sciences: Qu'est-ce qu'un orage ? (p. 105)

A storm (un orage) happens when the temperature changes too fast. The clouds are full of static electricity (l'électricité statique). To release it they make a flash of light (un éclair) and a noise (le tonnerre). You always hear the thunder some seconds after the flash because light travels faster than sound. The book's experiment rubs a plate on a plastic bag in the dark to make a small spark and a small bang.

8.7Sounds and learning to learn

Le e caduc (p. 101, ex. 6; p. 107, ex. 10)

In the futur simple, the e before the ending is usually not pronounced. Say je visit(e)rai [vizitʁɛ], on parl(e)ra [parlʁa]. Read aloud without the written e: Jeanne observ(e)ra les étoiles. Les voitures n'exist(e)ront plus. La Terre s(e)ra très malade ! The spelling stays the same: only the pronunciation changes.

Learning to learn (p. 107)

How to understand a conversation in French when everyone speaks at the same time: (1) look for the general subject, (2) do not try to hear everybody, (3) concentrate on one or two people, (4) take part and ask questions.

Adosphère 2, p. 108

Summary