Better Reading French : A Reader and Guide to Improving Your Understanding of Written French

by Heminway, Annie

• ISBN13: 9780071391399
• ISBN10: 0071391398
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-03-11
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

New reading series brings foreign language acquisition into the 21st century While the world produces more and more reading material each year, from magazines to newspapers to websites, why are most language learners still relying on contrived texts and classic literature for language acquisition? Providing entertaining contemporary texts in the original language, the Better Reading Language series is for those who want to brush up on a foreign language. With the authentic materials provided in this series, readers will be able to peruse a Latin Grammys write-up in Spanish, a feature on Alain Ducasse's favorite recipes in French, or a review of a Milan fashion show in Italian. Readings on everything from music and sports to cinema and contemporary family life are arranged in increasing difficulty within chapters. Along the way, learners will find instruction and exercises to help develop improved reading speed, comprehension, and vocabulary.

Author Biography

Annie Hemminway is an author and teacher at the French Institute/Alliance Française.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
How to use this book	p. xiii
Embrasse-moi
Les petits mots d'amour: A game of love, Valentine's Day cards, and proverbs about love	p. 3
L'horoscope: Horoscopes--Western and Chinese	p. 5
Les petites annonces classees: Looking for love in the classifieds	p. 9
L'amour eternel: A letter from Juliette Drouet to Victor Hugo	p. 11
La vie romantique: A letter from George Sand to Alfred de Musset	p. 13
L'amour au theatre: Moliere's pursuit of the perfect expression of love	p. 16
L'amour et les chats: Chateaubriand's love of cats	p. 18
L'amour et le chocolat: For the love of chocolate	p. 20
L'adieu: A farewell poem by Apollinaire	p. 23
Ecris-moi
Les notes: Sticky notes, to-do lists, e-mail, a love letter, a "Dear John" letter, postcards, and a wedding invitation	p. 27
Echanges entre voisins: Correspondence--neighborly and not so neighborly	p. 36
Correspondance administrative: A letter to city hall	p. 39
Lettre de cachet: An official request	p. 40
Lettres historiques: Letters from the battlefield	p. 41
Runes: The magic of writing	p. 44
Haikus: Poetry in three lines	p. 46
Poeme: A prose poem by Frank Smith	p. 47
Nourris-moi
La panoplie du chef: A chef's stock-in-trade	p. 51
Recettes: Three recipes, beginning with dessert	p. 53
Portrait de chef: Guy Martin of Le Grand Vefour	p. 59
Questions aux chefs: Interviews with three famous Parisian chefs	p. 61
Les critiques culinaires: A guide to Parisian restaurants	p. 64
Cuisine et litterature: Dejeuner with Proust	p. 66
Les manieres de table: Eating do's and don'ts in the 1800s	p. 67
Le menu: A Moroccan restaurant in New York City	p. 69
Enivrez-vous: An invitation from Baudelaire	p. 71
Chante, chante
A la claire fontaine: A seventeenth-century soldier's lament	p. 75
Le temps des cerises: Politics and love in a nineteenth-century song	p. 77
Les roses blanches: Lyrical white roses for maman	p. 79
Carmen: Romance in Bizet's opera	p. 82
Le chant gregorien: Centuries-old plainsong	p. 85
L'Olympia: Resurrecting a musical theater in Paris	p. 87
Le Musee de la Musique: A museum of musical instruments	p. 89
Interview avec Fabien Anselme: A young songwriter from Lyons	p. 92
Nous n'irons plus au bois: A song based on a nineteenth-century poem	p. 96
Emmene-moi
La France des musees: Museums--old and new	p. 99
Les musees ruraux: Bread, bees, and ostriches in the countryside	p. 103
Les musees urbains: Fabric and fashion in the city	p. 107
Les maisons d'artistes: The artist's spirit lives on	p. 112
Le Paris des jardins: The green space of Paris	p. 117
Emmene-moi au bout du monde
L'esprit TGV: Save time--take the train	p. 123
Dossier pratique: No car? No problem	p. 125
Un voyage d'affaires: Doing business in Venice	p. 128
L'Orient-Express: A history of the train of myth and mystique	p. 129
Un tour en montgolfiere: Up, up, and away	p. 134
Paris boheme: A stroll through 1920s Montparnasse	p. 138
Theodore Monod: A scientist and humanitarian whose passion was the desert	p. 140
Alexandra David-Neel: Pages from an explorer's journal	p. 143
Le vent dans le nez: A poem by Jean-Pierre Devant de Martin	p. 146
Fais-moi explorer
Les inventions: Hot-air balloons, garbage cans, Braille, and robots	p. 149
L'euro: Technology in your pocket	p. 154
Les vitraux: Craftsmanship in the restoration of stained glass	p. 157
Marie Curie, une pionniere du prix Nobel au Pantheon: The first woman to join the nation's "great men"	p. 160
Medecins Sans Frontieres: Relieving the world's suffering	p. 164
Adolphe Sax: The highs and lows of an inventor's life	p. 167
Explique-moi tous les symboles
Les symboles francais: Maxims, the rooster, Marianne, and La Marseillaise	p. 173
Les drapeaux: The flags of France and the European Union	p. 178
Symboles europeens: A hymn, a currency, and a motto	p. 179
L'Academie francaise: Protecting the mother tongue	p. 184
Les discours: Speech, speech! Victor Hugo delivers	p. 190
Hommage au monde francophone: A tribute to the mother tongue	p. 195
Chant a l'Indien: A poem by Khireddine Mourad	p. 202
Suggestions for further reading	p. 203
Answer key	p. 214
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