Texte et Questions (CNED)

Sujet du devoir

Texte :

Oslo, Norway February 12, 1994 6.29 a.m.

In the predawn gloom of a Norwegian winter morning, two men in a stolen car pulled to a halt in front of the National Gallery, Norway’s preeminent art museum. They left the engine running and raced across the snow. Behind the bushes along the museum’s front wall they found the ladder they had stashed away earlier that night.
Silently, they leaned the ladder against the wall.
A guard inside the museum, his rounds finished, basked in the warmth of the basement
security room. He had paperwork to take care of, which was a bore, but at least
he was done patrolling the museum, inside and out, on a night when the temperature
had fallen to fifteen degrees. He had taken the job only seven weeks before.
The guard took up his stack of memos grudgingly, like a student turning to his homework. In front of his desk stood a bank of eighteen closed circuit television monitors. One screen suddenly flickered with life. The black-and-white picture was shadowy—the sun would not rise for another ninety minutes—but the essentials
were clear enough. A man bundled in a parka stood at the foot of a ladder, holding it steady in his gloved hands.
His companion had already begun to climb. The guard struggled through his
paperwork, oblivious to the television monitors. The top of the ladder rested
on a sill just beneath a tall window on the second floor of the museum.
Behind that window was an exhibit celebrating the work of Norway’s greatest
artist, Edvard Munch. Fifty-six of Munch’s paintings lined the walls. Fifty-five of them
would be unfamiliar to anyone but an art student. One was known around the world,
an icon as instantly recognizable as the Mona Lisa or van Gogh’s Starry Night. In poster form, it hung in countless dorm rooms and office cubicles; it featured endlessly
in cartoons and on T-shirts and greeting cards. This was The Scream.
The man on the ladder made it to within a rung or two of the top, lost his balance, and crashed to the ground. He staggered to his feet and stumbled back toward the ladder. The guard sat in his basement bunker unaware of the commotion outside. This time the intruder made it up the ladder. He smashed the window with a hammer,
knocked a few stubborn shards of glass out of the way, and climbed into the
museum. An alarm sounded. In his bunker, the guard cursed the false alarm. He
walked past the array of television screens without noticing the lone monitor that
showed the thieves, stepped over to the control panel, and set the alarm back to
zero.
The thief turned to The Scream—it hung only a yard from the window— and snipped the wire that held it to the wall. The Scream, at roughly two feet by three feet, was big and bulky. With an ornate frame and sheets of protective glass both front and
back, it was heavy, too—a difficult load to carry out a window and down a slippery metal ladder. The thief leaned out the window as far as he could and placed the painting on the ladder. “Catch!” he whispered, and then, like a parent sending his toddler down a steep hill on a sled, he let go. His companion on the ground, straining upward, caught the sliding painting. The two men ran to their car, tucked their
precious cargo into the back seat, and roared off.
Elapsed time inside the museum: fifty seconds. In less than a minute the thieves
had gained possession of a painting valued at $72 million. It had been absurdly
easy. “Organized crime, Norwegian style,” a Scotland Yard detective would later marvel. “Two men and a ladder!”Oslo, Norway February 12, 1994 6.29 a.m. In the predawn gloom of a Norwegian winter morning, two men in a stolen car pulled to a halt in front of the National Gallery, Norway’s preeminent art museum. They left the engine running and raced across the snow. Behind the bushes along the
museum’s front wall they found the ladder they had stashed away earlier that night. Silently, they leaned the ladder against the wall.
A guard inside the museum, his rounds finished, basked in the warmth of the basement
security room. He had paperwork to take care of, which was a bore, but at least
he was done patrolling the museum, inside and out, on a night when the temperature
had fallen to fifteen degrees. He had taken the job only seven weeks before.
The guard took up his stack of memos grudgingly, like a student turning to his
homework. In front of his desk stood a bank of eighteen closed circuit television monitors. One screen suddenly flickered with life. The black-and-white picture was shadowy—the sun would not rise for another ninety minutes—but the essentials
were clear enough. A man bundled in a parka stood at the foot of a ladder, holding it steady in his gloved hands.
His companion had already begun to climb. The guard struggled through his paperwork, oblivious to the television monitors. The top of the ladder rested
on a sill just beneath a tall window on the second floor of the museum.
Behind that window was an exhibit celebrating the work of Norway’s greatest
artist, Edvard Munch. Fifty-six of Munch’s paintings lined the walls. Fifty-five of them
would be unfamiliar to anyone but an art student. One was known around the world,
an icon as instantly recognizable as the Mona Lisa or van Gogh’s Starry Night. In poster form, it hung in countless dorm rooms and office cubicles; it featured endlessly in cartoons and on T-shirts and greeting cards. This was The Scream. The man on the ladder made it to within a rung or two of the top, lost his balance, and crashed to the ground. He staggered to his feet and stumbled back toward the ladder. The guard sat in his basement bunker unaware of the commotion outside.
This time the intruder made it up the ladder. He smashed the window with a hammer,
knocked a few stubborn shards of glass out of the way, and climbed into the
museum. An alarm sounded. In his bunker, the guard cursed the false alarm. He
walked past the array of television screens without noticing the lone monitor that
showed the thieves, stepped over to the control panel, and set the alarm back to zero. The thief turned to The Scream—it hung only a yard from the window— and snipped the wire that held it to the wall. The Scream, at roughly two feet by three feet, was
big and bulky. With an ornate frame and sheets of protective glass both front and back, it was heavy, too—a difficult load to carry out a window and down a slippery metal ladder. The thief leaned out the window as far as he could and placed the painting on the ladder. “Catch!” he whispered, and then, like a parent sending his
toddler down a steep hill on a sled, he let go. His companion on the ground, straining upward, caught the sliding painting. The two men ran to their car, tucked their precious cargo into the back seat, and roared off. Elapsed time inside the museum: fifty seconds. In less than a minute the thieves had gained possession of a painting valued at $72 million. It had been absurdly easy. “Organized crime, Norwegian style,” a Scotland Yard detective would later marvel. “Two men and a ladder!”

The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece, Edward Dolnick, 2005





Questions :

General comprehension (10 points)

 1) Give the right answer. This text is an extract from: (0,5 pt)
a. a novel b. a play c. article d. a review

2) Where does the story take place? Give the right answer. Justify with a quotation from the text. (1 pt)
a. In England b. In Scandinavia c. In the States

3)Identify the characters and the real people. Indicate their profession where possible. (6 pts)
Main characters:
Characters mentioned:
Real people mentioned:

4) Indicate the time at the beginning and at the end of the scene. (2 pts)


5) Which element in the title best corresponds to the scene described in this extract:
(0,5 pt)
-The Rescue Artist
-A True Story of Art
-Thieves
-The Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece?

Où j'en suis dans mon devoir

Bonjour, ce devoir me pose problème je n'est répondue à aucune question...
Vous pouvez m'aider svp sur cet exercice ?? Merci de votre aide précieuse.