Ahmed the elephant : an Ivory Coast story

"Ahmed l'éléphant : une histoire ivoirienne"
French B2 writing exercise

Discover the heartwarming true story of Ahmed the elephant.

Pay attention to the hints!

Some vocabulary you may want to look up before or during this exercise: "Ivory Coast (country and nationality)", "to draw attention", "imposing", "a herd", "a plantation/a planter", "big-eared", "to name [someone]", "leaving [something] in one's wake", "to wreck (places)", "palm spirits", "to transfer (animal)", "children and adults alike", "a pachyderm", "a habitat".

I’ll give you some sentences to translate into French

  • I’ll show you where you make mistakes
  • I’ll keep track of what you need to practise
  • Change my choices if you want
Start the exercise

Here's a preview of the text for the writing challenge, when you're ready click the start button above:

In the small Ivory Coast town of Guitri, 225km from Abidjan, a lone elephant drew a lot of attention. The imposing animal must have left a herd from Assagny National Park before arriving on the rich plantations of Guitri's region. Local children immediately adopted the big-eared elephant, whom they named Ahmed, and with whom they used to play and dance. But Ahmed didn't leave only nice stories in his wake. Indeed, the lost animal started to wreck the plantations, eat the fruit, and even drink the bandji and (the) koutoukou, the artisanal palm spirits that the planters make. Annoyed by the elephant, a part of the Guitri population referred the matter to the authorities who had Ahmed transferred to a natural reserve in the centre of the country. Though his departure left children and adults alike in tears, the big pachyderm is adapting perfectly to his new habitat.

Thinking...