Questions/answers

[alexandro martin]

Bonjour, j'aimerais qu'on m'aide SVP.voici le texte que je dois résumer.

Back somewhere in England, the fires were burning in cosy rooms; in fancy I heard laughter and the thousand melodies of reunion on Christmas Eve. With overcoat thick with wet mud, hands cracked and sore with the frost, I leaned against the side of the trench, and, looking through my loophole, fixed weary eyes on the German trenches. Thoughts surged madly in my mind; but they had no sequence, no cohesion. Mostly they were of home as I had known it through the years that had brought me to this. I asked myself why I was in the trenches in misery at all, when I might have been in England warm anFrederickw.perous. That involuntary question was quickly answered. For is there not a multitude of houses in England, and has not someone to keep them intact? I thought of a shattered cottage in -- , and felt glad that I was in the trenches. That cottage was once somebody's home.

Still looking and dreaming, my eyes caught a flare in the darkness. A light in the enemy's trenches was so rare at that hour that I passed a message down the line. I had hardly spoken when light after light sprang up along the German front. Then quite near our dug-outs, so near as to make me start and clutch my rifle, I heard a voice. there was no mistaking that voice with its guttural ring. With ears strained, I listened, and then, all down our line of trenches there came to our ears a greeting unique in war: "English soldier, English soldier, a merry Christmas, a merry Christmas!"

Following that salute boomed the invitation from those harsh voices: "Come out, English soldier; come out here to us." For some little time we were cautious, and did not even answer. Officers, fearing treachery, ordered the men to be silent. But up and down our line one heard the men answering that Christmas greeting from the enemy. How could we resist wishing each other a Merry Christmas, even though we might be at each other's throats immediately afterwards? So we kept up a running conversation with the Germans, all the while our hands ready on our rifles. Blood and peace, enmity and fraternity - war's most amazing paradox. The night wore on to dawn - a night made easier by songs from the German trenches, the pipings of piccolos and from our broad lines laughter and Christmas carols. Not a shot was fired, except for down on our right, where the French artillery were at work.

Came the dawn, pencilling the sky with grey and pink. Under the early light we saw our foes moving recklessly about on top of their trenches. Here, indeed, was courage; no seeking the security of the shelter but a brazen invitation to us to shoot and kill with deadly certainty. But did we shoot? Not likely! We stood up ourselves and called benisons on the Germans. Then came the invitation to fall out of the trenches and meet half way.

Still cautious we hung back. Not so the others. They ran forward in little groups, with hands held up above their heads, asking us to do the same. Not for long could such an appeal be resisted - beside, was not the courage up to now all on one side? Jumping up onto the parapet, a few of us advanced to meet the on-coming Germans. Out went the hands and tightened in the grip of friendship. Christmas had made the bitterest foes friends.

Here was no desire to kill, but just the wish of a few simple soldiers (and no one is quite so simple as a soldier) that on Christmas Day, at any rate, the force of fire should cease. We gave each other cigarettes and exchanged all manner of things. We wrote our names and addresses on the field service postcards, and exchanged them for German ones. We cut the buttons off our coats and took in exchange the Imperial Arms of Germany. But the gift of gifts was Christmas pudding. The sight of it made the Germans' eyes grow wide with hungry wonder, and at the first bite of it they were our friends for ever. Given a sufficient quantity of Christmas puddings, every German in the trenches before ours would have surrendered.

And so we stayed together for a while and talked, even though all the time there was a strained feeling of suspicion which rather spoilt this Christmas armistice. We could not help remembering that we were enemies, even though we had shaken hands. We dare not advance too near their trenches lest we saw too much, nor could the Germans come beyond the barbed wire which lay before ours. After we had chatted, we turned back to our respective trenches for breakfast.

All through the day no shot was fired, and all we did was talk to each other and make confessions which, perhaps, were truer at that curious moment than in the normal times of war. How far this unofficial truce extended along the lines I do not know, but I do know that what I have written here applies to the -- on our side and the 158th German Brigade, composed of Westphalians.

As I finish this short and scrappy description of a strangely human event, we are pouring rapid fire into the German trenches, and they are returning the compliment just as fiercely. Screeching through the air above us are the shattering shells of rival batteries of artillery. So we are back once more to the ordeal of fire.

.Private frederick w. Heath north mail January 9th 1915.

Mon travail : this text is an article ( je me demande si ce n'est pas une lettre?) published in North mail in January 1915.private Frederick w.heath is talking about a Christmas truce. The scene takes place in ( on me demande probable country,exact place,year,time of year,time of day?) English and German trenches, on Christmas 1914, at night. The main event is the Christmas truce. The author is comparing his life in trenches with other English people. In England,they are celebrating Christmas in fancy whereas the soldier is risking his life in trenches.the soldiers exchanged cigarettes,their addresses,buttons and Christmas pudding.

Question: find out synonymous of the following words : bright light ( flare)? Trenches ( dig-out)? Jump (je n'ai pas trouvé), difficult experience ( ordeal)? Confused ( non trouvé), bursting ( non trouvé) ,ferociously ( fiercely)?.

Merci.

[Jean B]

Bonjour,

Mon travail : This text is an article ( je me demande si ce n'est pas une lettre?) <<Il ne faut jamais hésiter à faire des recherches ; avec google, c'est facile et instructif. a letter published in the North Mail on 9 January 1915. Private Frederick W.Heath is talking about a Christmas truce. The scene takes place in France on the Christmas Eve then Christmas morning 1914 in the no man's land between the English and German trenches. The main event is the Christmas truce. The author is comparing his life in trenches with other English people's. In England He thinks they are celebrating Christmas in England whereas the soldier he is risking his life in the trenches. Both side soldiers exchanged cigarettes, their addresses, buttons, badges and Christmas pudding but they never forgot they were still enemies. This is borne out by the fact that they were firing again at each other on the next day.

Question: find out synonyms for the following words : bright light ( flare) OK Trenches ( dig-outs) OK Jump = spring up (je n'ai pas trouvé), difficult experience ( ordeal) OK Confused = scrappy ( non trouvé), bursting = shattering ( non trouvé), ferociously ( fiercely) OK <<Si tu n'as aucun dictionnaire, ce qui serait profondément fâcheux sinon anormal, tu en as des tas consultables en ligne gratuitement dont wordreference ou linguee pour n'en citer que deux.

Merci.

[At Christmas 1914, Private Heath was in the trenches of Frelinghien and Houplines, in France. In the opposite trenches was the 158th German Brigade – which is specifically mentioned in the letter.]

http://www.christmastruce.co.uk/heath.html

http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Likely-account-man-s-land-truce-penned-local/story-20740006-detail/story.html