Brest during World War II

"Brest pendant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale"
French C1 writing exercise

Alex is talking about WWII in Brest with his granddad.

Pay attention to the hints!

Some vocabulary you may want to look up before or during this exercise: "would you mind telling...", "right next to", "a fishing harbour", "to run a company", "German occupation", "to set up camp", "a naval base", "this way... (thus)", "to have direct access to", "the Channel (sea)", "the Atlantic Ocean", "a U-Boat", "to send [something] to [do]", "to torpedo [something]", "a bombardment", "to be subjected to (bad treatment)", "it took years for...", "fateful day", "a gaping hole", "in place of", "to experience [something]".

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
How the test works

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

- Granddad, would you mind telling me about your childhood in Brest during the Second World War? - Of course, Alex! I used to live right next to Brest's fishing harbour because my dad ran a fishing company. I can tell you that we really suffered during the four years of the German occupation. The German Army had set up camp in the harbour, as they'd understood the strategic importance of the town's naval base. This way, German soldiers had direct access to the Channel and the Atlantic Ocean, where they would regularly send their U-Boats to torpedo Allied ships. - My history teacher told us that enormous bombardments had happened, which had nearly destroyed the whole city! - He's absolutely right! Brest was a beautiful city before the war started. Unfortunately, it was subjected to more than three hundred bombardments and it took years for it to be rebuilt. I'll always remember that fateful day when I'd come home from school and (that) I had found a gaping hole in place of our house. I hope that you'll never experience that!

Thinking...