Version élève → Anglais · Lycée général · 2de · Seconde

Séquence 12 · Smoke and change: cities in transition

How have industrial cities changed, and what challenges do they face today?

Bonjour !

Dans cette séquence de anglais, tu vas chercher à répondre à la grande question écrite en haut de la page. Elle se fait en 3 séances. Pour chaque séance : lis la consigne, étudie les documents, réponds aux questions sur ta feuille ou sur l'ENT, puis recopie l'essentiel dans ton cahier. Tu peux imprimer cette page avec le bouton « Imprimer ».

À la fin, je serai capable de :

Les mots importants

present perfect vs past simplepollution and regenerationsimile (like / as)agreeing and disagreeing

Ressources de la séquence

Les notions, les repères et les pistes pour aller plus loin, utiles pour toutes les séances.

Les notions à maîtriser

Present perfect
have/has + past participle: a past action with a result now (The city has changed).
Simile
A comparison with like or as: like the head of an elephant.
Regeneration
The transformation of an old industrial area into new homes, offices, parks or museums.

Repères

DateÉvénement
1854Dickens publishes Hard Times, set in Coketown.
1952The Great Smog of London (December).
1956The Clean Air Act limits smoke in British cities.

Pour aller plus loin

Sources et bibliographie

Mon parcours : je choisis mon rythme

Séance 1 · From smoke to clean air

75 min

Séance approfondie : cours développé, documents sourcés, activités exigeantes avec coups de pouce.

La question du jour

How have industrial cities changed?

Mon plan de travail

Le cours à lire · Present perfect or past simple?

Use the past simple with a finished time: In 1952, a terrible smog covered London. Use the present perfect for a change with a result now: The air has become cleaner. Old docks have turned into museums. Key words: factory, chimney, smog, pollution, regeneration.

Document 1 · The Great Smog

Text written by the teacher.

In December 1952, a thick yellow fog covered London for five days. It was a mix of fog and smoke from coal fires and factories. People could not see their own feet; buses stopped, and thousands of people died. In 1956, Parliament passed the Clean Air Act, which limited smoke in cities. Since then, British cities have changed a lot: many factories have closed, and old industrial areas have become flats, offices, parks and museums.

Source : teacher's synthesis.

Pour bien lire ce document :

smog: smoke + fog; to pass a law: to vote a law.

Activité 1 · Understand

15 min
Essentiel

Supports : Documents

Consigne :

Read and answer.

  1. What was the Great Smog?
  2. What did the Clean Air Act do?
  3. What have old industrial areas become?

Ce qui est attendu (5 pts) : Reading

Activité 2 · Practise

15 min
Essentiel

Supports : Lesson

Consigne :

Past simple or present perfect?

  1. In 1956, Parliament (pass) ___ a new law.
  2. Since then, the air (become) ___ cleaner.
  3. Many factories (close) ___. (result now)
  4. The smog (last) ___ five days.

Ce qui est attendu (7 pts) : Language

Activité 3 · Produce (spoken)

25 min
Travail à rendre

Supports : Lesson, documents

Consigne :

Record 1 minute: present the changes of an industrial city of the English-speaking world (Manchester, Liverpool, Pittsburgh, Glasgow…). Sentence starters: In the 19th century,… / Since then, the city has… / Today,….

Ce qui est attendu (8 pts) : Production

Trace écrite · document à compléter (papier ou ENT)

Complète la trace écrite avec les mots de la banque, puis recopie-la dans ton cahier.

havelimited

In 1956, the Clean Air Act _______ smoke; since then, cities ______ changed.

Séance 2 · Coketown: a town of smoke

75 min

Séance approfondie : cours développé, documents sourcés, activités exigeantes avec coups de pouce.

La question du jour

How does Dickens make us see and hear an industrial town?

Mon plan de travail

Le cours à lire · Description: senses and similes

Dickens appeals to the senses: sight (red, black, purple), smell (ill-smelling), hearing (rattling, trembling). He uses similes (like the head of an elephant) and metaphors (serpents of smoke) to make machines look alive and mad.

Document 1 · Charles Dickens, Hard Times, « The Key-note »

Novel, 1854 (public domain).

It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it; […] It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which interminable serpents of smoke trailed themselves for ever and ever, and never got uncoiled. It had a black canal in it, and a river that ran purple with ill-smelling dye, and vast piles of building full of windows where there was a rattling and a trembling all day long, and where the piston of the steam-engine worked monotonously up and down, like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness.

Source : Charles Dickens, Hard Times, 1854, book I, chapter 5 (text on Wikisource).

Pour bien lire ce document :

ashes: what remains after fire; interminable: endless; uncoiled: unrolled; dye: colour for cloth; piston: part of an engine that moves up and down.

Activité 1 · Understand

15 min
Essentiel

Supports : Documents

Consigne :

Read and answer.

  1. What colour should the bricks be, and why are they not?
  2. Find a metaphor for the smoke.
  3. What is the river like?

Ce qui est attendu (5 pts) : Reading

Activité 2 · Practise

15 min
Essentiel

Supports : Lesson

Consigne :

Classify the words by sense.

  1. purple, black, red
  2. ill-smelling
  3. rattling, trembling
  4. « like the head of an elephant »

Ce qui est attendu (7 pts) : Language

Activité 3 · Produce (written)

25 min
Travail à rendre

Supports : Lesson, documents

Consigne :

Write a description of 80 to 100 words of a place today (a street, a station, a car park) using three senses and one simile. Sentence starters: It is a place of… / You can hear… / The cars move like….

Ce qui est attendu (8 pts) : Production

Trace écrite · document à compléter (papier ou ENT)

Complète la trace écrite avec les mots de la banque, puis recopie-la dans ton cahier.

sensessimiles

Dickens uses the ______ and _______ to make the machines look alive and mad.

Séance 3 · Debate: the future of an old factory

75 min

Séance approfondie : cours développé, documents sourcés, activités exigeantes avec coups de pouce.

La question du jour

What should a city do with an old factory?

Mon plan de travail

Le cours à lire · Agreeing and disagreeing politely

To debate: I agree with you / I see your point, but… / I'm not sure about that / On the other hand… Give a reason with because and an example with for instance.

Document 1 · Three proposals for the old mill

Model texts written by the teacher.

Proposal A (a museum). « The mill is part of our history. If we destroy it, our children will forget how people worked here. »

Proposal B (a park). « The town needs green spaces. A park would be good for health and for the climate. »

Proposal C (flats). « Young people cannot find homes. We should keep the walls and build flats inside. »

Source : teacher's model texts.

Pour bien lire ce document :

mill: a factory, here for cotton.

Activité 1 · Understand

15 min
Essentiel

Supports : Documents

Consigne :

Read and answer.

  1. Which proposal is about memory?
  2. Which one is about health?
  3. Which one keeps the building and helps young people?

Ce qui est attendu (5 pts) : Reading

Activité 2 · Practise

15 min
Essentiel

Supports : Lesson

Consigne :

Complete the debate phrases.

  1. I see your ___, but a park is better.
  2. I ___ with you: history matters.
  3. On the other ___, flats are needed.
  4. I'm not ___ about that.

Ce qui est attendu (7 pts) : Language

Activité 3 · Produce (spoken)

25 min
Travail à rendre

Supports : Lesson, documents

Consigne :

Choose a proposal and record a 1-minute argument, answering one other proposal politely. Sentence starters: I support proposal… because… / I see your point, but… / For instance,….

Ce qui est attendu (8 pts) : Production

Trace écrite · document à compléter (papier ou ENT)

Complète la trace écrite avec les mots de la banque, puis recopie-la dans ton cahier.

handpoint

To debate politely, I say: I see your ______, but… / On the other ______,…

Fiche à trous · je complète

Complète le texte avec les mots de la banque (sur papier ou dans le document de l'ENT).

1956elephanthaveindustrial

Coketown is an imaginary __________ town in *Hard Times*.

Dickens compares the piston to the head of an ________: this is a simile.

Since the 1990s, many old factories ______ become museums or flats.

The Clean Air Act was passed in ______ after the Great Smog of London.

Ce que j'ai appris

Les 3 idées que je retiens :
Une phrase en anglais que je veux retenir :
Ce qui reste difficile pour moi / ma question pour le professeur :