Sujet Anglais — Terminale — Métropole — Bac 2011

“Is this seat taken?” It was a woman; no, a girl. “Not as far as I know,” I said. She sat upright, looking out of the window. I picked my newspaper, but as I did so my glance swept 5 across my neighbour opposite, and was arrested for a moment. Although it was eleven o’clock in the morning, she was wearing a long dark green dress made of velvet like that worn at a formal dinner party, but not at eleven in the morning on a train. She was dark-haired, with a heart-shaped face and large dark brown eyes, so dark as to be almost black. Two ruby earrings glinted under the dark helmet of her hair. What caught my eye, however, was her gaze. 10 There was something familiar about her. With some difficulty, I turned my eyes away from her and looked at the view. I was not in the mood for talking to a stranger, no matter how attractive. Then, involuntarily, I glanced at her again and saw that she was looking straight at me. Why was she dressed in such old-fashioned clothes? I turned back to my Sudoku puzzle, but she was aware of my glance. 15 “Why were you staring at me?” she asked. I looked up in surprise and mumbled: “I thought we might have met before somewhere – but I’m afraid I have a terrible memory.” I blushed. It sounded as if I was trying to pick her up, which was the last thing on my mind. “You will remember me if we meet again, I’m sure.” 20 I could think of no reply to this and did not want to be drawn into conversation. There was something about the girl’s tone of voice that hinted at instability. Her dress alone was deeply eccentric. There was a silence as the train rattled through the Durham countryside. The girl spoke again. “As a matter of fact, you have seen me before – but I’m not surprised that you can’t remember where.” 25 “I’m sorry?” She gazed at me, her brown eyes looking directly into mine so that I found it hard to look away. “Can you not picture where you first caught sight of me? But perhaps you would not believe it if you could.” I wondered again whether she was mentally deranged and decided to change my seat. Perhaps I could 30 say