FRENCH HONOURS. PRELIMINARY. Dictation. [Examiners before dictating this extract are requested to read the "Instructions to Examiners."] Avant que les tentes fussent dressées, une troupe de l'ennemi, descendant das montagnes, avait lancé sur les croisés | une grêle de flèches. Cette première attaqué | fut courageusement soutenue. | Poursuivis par les cavaliers latins, | les Turcs ne purent trouver dans leur fuite | leur ressource accoutumée. | Ils avaient à gravir des hauteurs, et les chrétiens | les atteignirent sans peine; aussi ce détachement périt | sous la lance et l'épée; | les arcs et les flèches | étaient devenus inutiles | entre les mains de ces fuyards acculés au pied des monts. Mais, pendant que ce détachement de Turcs succombait, | une multitude d'ennemis, | poussant de grands cris, s'étaient précipités du haut des monts sur le camp des chrétiens; | la rivière avait été franchie; les femmes et les enfants, les vieillards et les malades, les hommes désarmés étaient tombés sans résistance; dans cet effroyable désordre, | les cris et les gémissements des pèlerins se mêlaient aux hurlements des barbares. HONOUR FRENCH. PRELIMINARY AND FINAL. Prose. Preliminary Honours students will take Questions 1 and 2; Final Honours, 2 and 3. 1. Translate into French : Not long since, I was stopping at an old castle in the northern part of Scotland. A certain tower in this castle, somewhat older than the other portions of the building, had for centuries been known by the villagers round to be inhabited by ghostsnot one, but in numbers. There is an old room in this tower which had not been touched or slept in within the memory of the oldest inhabitant. However, a love of the supernatural was so strongly implanted in my nature that I besought my hostess to allow me to sleep for one night at least in this ancient room. Accordingly the valet transferred my luggage, shortly after my arrival that afternoon, to the apartment in the tower. After dinner I was laughingly escorted by the family and other guests to my room; we said goodnight, and I carefully locked the door. The room was a very large one, but quite comfortable that evening, as my hostess had insisted on a large fire being lighted, and it was lighted up by the weird lights that come from burning wood; the only other illumination was from four large candles, two on the square table and the other two hanging from the wall. Outside the wind was blowing terribly and the rain beating against the windows, altogether a night containing the promise of some ghostly adventure. 2. Translate into French : One day in a brilliant assembly, Bonaparte accosted Ducis, as a poet is wont to be accosted, with compliments on his genius; but the praises were of no avail. He went further and spoke of the necessity of gathering all the celebrities and all the glories of France round a representative power; still the same silence, the same coolness. At length, as he insisted, Ducis, with true Shakespearian humour, seized his arm and said, "General, do you like shooting?" At this unexpected question the general stood perplexed. "Well, if you like shooting, did you ever shoot wild ducks? It is not an easy sport; it is hard game to get at; it scents the sportsman's gun at a great distance.-Well I am one of those birds. I have become a wild duck!" And, at the same time, he strode away to the other end of the drawingroom, leaving the conqueror of Arcola and Lodi much astonished at this sally. 3. Translate into French : Closeness to the facts of Life is characteristic of Molière, whom most Frenchmen regard as the Shakespeare of their nation. He never mixes with his satire the boundless fancy of Aristophanes nor the delicate creations of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." His interest is in life and the characters which everyday life presents. Such interest, indeed, was peculiarly fostered by the circumstances of his career. Born in the home of a prosperous furniture dealer in a bourgeois section of Paris, he must have seen more than one wealthy neighbour running up long bills in a ridiculous effort to become a gentleman in spite of many remonstrances from his sensible wife. He may have found in his own father an example of the unscrupulous money-lender. Certainly the bourgeois attitude, with its common sense and spirit of ridicule was familiar to his childhood and helped to mould the ideals of his school days. Later, when he had organized a company of actors and began his twelve years' wanderings through the provinces, he enlarged his view of man to include every variety of type with its peculiarities of costume and speech-simple peasant girls and rascally servants, unfortunate husbands and thick-witted suitors, with all the selfimportant village society aping the fashions of the metropolis. FRENCH HONOURS. PRELIMINARY AND FINAL. Unseen Translation and Composition. [This paper is to be given to candidates at 9 a.m.] Write a composition in French on one of the following subjects: The causes of the Renaissance. The pleasures of Spring. The horrors of war. The limits of social activities in a modern University. Give reasons for your choice of a profession. School days. The history of Ruth. |