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learning > grammaire anglaise - niveau avancé
groupe verbal
présent simple, actif affirmatif
sens, effets, valeurs énonciatives
information "qui tombe", inédite, factuelle, brute, sans commentaire
TALIBAN SEIZE AFGHANISTAN;
U.S. SCRAMBLES TO EVACUATE AMERICANS (toviseur -> Base Verbale)
August 16, 2021.
AFGHANISTAN GOVERNMENT COLLAPSES
August 15, 2021.
TALIBAN FORCES ENTER KABUL
August 15, 2021.
http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/mtrail/about.htm
http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/mtrail/about.htm
Avec le présent simple, l'énonciateur / l'énonciatrice se veut informatif, descriptif, analytique, objectif, impartial, invisible, presque anonyme (ce qui n'interdit pas un effet emphatique, théâtral ou dramatique ) :
I waspassé guarding the house, see...
All of a sudden two eyes comeprésent simple at me out of the darkness
Dans l'énoncé ci-dessus, le présent simple a valeur de passé théâtral / extraordinaire, à l'inverse du passé en be + -ing, qui exprime le continuum, la routine, l'ordinaire.
Peanuts Charles Schulz GoComics August 07, 2024 https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/2024/08/07
FBI agent Larry Morgan wastes no time coming to the point of his visit...
My information indicates your mother left a large sum of money with you, Danny!
http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/sroper/about.htm
A l'inverse, be + -ing marque un énonciateur-observateur impliqué, qui commente, déduit, dit, dialogue.
Dans les 3 cases ci-dessous, tous les éléments participent à une histoire, même la pie, "soupçonnée" d'avoir pris un collier précieux sur le site d'un accident d'avion.
On retrouve ici la valeur de gros plan discursif de be + -ing, renforcée graphiquement par les jumelles et par les deux gros plans sur Mark Trail :
I think that magpie is interested... it's acting like it's going to...
Oh no, it's flying away!
Hello, Trail... surprised to see me?
What are you doing up here?
http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/mtrail/about.htm
A l'inverse, l'information au présent simple - ci-dessous dans les carrés jaunes - peut ne s'inscrire dans aucun dialogue, ne s'adresse pas à un-e protagoniste.
Ce co-énonciateur "virtuel", ce n'est pas un personnage de l'histoire, c'est le lecteur / la lectrice :
http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/sroper/about.htm
5.4.2005 / 6.4.2005 / 7.4.2005 / 8.4.2005 / 9.4.2005 / 11.4.2005 / 12.4.2005 / 13.4.2005 http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/mtrail/about.htm
Celle / Celui qui énonce au présent simple se présente avant tout comme une voix impartiale, objective, un oeil : voir la description de Mars par un astronome.
Cette voix n'a besoin de personne pour exister. Enonciateur et co-énonciateurs ne peuvent d'ailleurs ni se voir, ni s'entendre.
Celui qui reçoit est ici spectateur muet, passif.
L'énonciateur ne cherche nullement à l'impliquer, ni à s'adresser à lui en personne : lui ou un autre, peu importe.
Celui qui lit ou écoute n'a d'ailleurs pas la parole, puisqu'il ne peut répondre.
La forte relation énonciateur / co-énonciateur, valeur majeure des énoncés en be + -ing, est ici absente.
Même dans les "commentaires" sportifs - qui sont des descriptions - l'énonciateur, pour enthousiaste qu'il soit, ne se met pas en avant et ne cherche pas à impliquer l'autre, dans le sens de le faire entrer dans le discours.
L'action parle pour elle-même, le discours univoque se suffit à lui-même.
L'énonciateur reste au présent simple pour décrire ce qui se passe, et ne commente que rarement l'action (avec be + -ing).
Si commentaire il y a, il s'inscrit souvent dans le cadre d'un dialogue, avec un invité ou un autre journaliste :
Popeye Hy Eisman 22 August 2004 http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/popeye/about.htm
Le présent simple donne du réel une impression photographique, cinématique (découpage à la Muybridge).
La réalité est perçue et / ou présentée comme une photo, une image dans laquelle les locuteurs ne peuvent pas, ne doivent pas intervenir (interdit).
Il s'agit d'une présentation première, inédite. Il n'y a pas, comme dans nombre d'énoncés en be + -ing, de re-présentation.
Les légendes de photographies de presse, lorsqu'elles sont descriptives et ne commentent pas l'image, sont d'ailleurs souvent au présent simple, même si elles comportent un marqueur de temps passé :
A New York Mercantile Exchange trader shouts and signals an order [ présent actif affirmatif ] across a trading pit early in the trading day, October 6, 2004 in New York.
Oil prices neared $52 for U.S. crude, [ passé actif affirmatif ] fueled by the impact of Hurricane Ivan on U.S. winter inventories.
Oil has surged more than 55 percent since the start of the year, [ présent perfect actif affirmatif ] driven by the strongest demand growth in a generation and a thinning cushion of spare production capacity to cope with supply outages. R 6 October 2004
http://photos.reuters.com/pictures/ViewImage.aspx?type=
A 16-year-old Bill Clinton shakes hands with President John F Kennedy at the White House in 1963 Kill Bill (volume one), I, p. 29, 10.10.2003.
Chris Patten walks in procession to be sworn in as Oxford University chancellor yesterday. GI, p. 9, 26.6.2003.
Emotional farewell for Messier as he leaves Vivendi's headquarters in Paris last year. GI, p. 14, 26.6.2003.
Il y a des exceptions (surtout dans la presse américaine), où les légendes sont parfois au passé :
President Bush watched [ passé actif ] Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice walk through a receiving line [ base verbale non conjuguée > structure WATCHED + Base Verbale ] at a state dinner in New Delhi Thursday.
The president is on his first visit to India, and is to continue on to Pakistan tonight.
Photograph: Jim Young Reuters
In India, Bush Urges Americans to Welcome Global Competition NYT March 3, 2006
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/
Dans les journaux et les dépêches, les titres informatifs sont souvent au présent simple.
Le journaliste est ici un énonciateur en retrait.
Il ne prend pas part à l'action (comme c'est parfois le cas pour des reporters pris dans "le feu de l'action"), il ne fait qu'enregistrer, transcrire, transmettre.
Il n'y a pas de voix narrative : tout journaliste utiliserait à peu près les mêmes mots, et dans presque tous les cas le présent simple, pour donner un instantané des événements :
Bomber kills 20 in holiday horror · Palestinian woman launches suicide attack on crowded Haifa restaurant · Israel hits back with missile strikes on Gaza after Yom Kippur atrocity
O,
Fighting rages in Chechnya PA, 26.9.2003.
Bomb explodes at UN in Baghdad PA, 22.9.2003.
Palestinian militants offer 3-month truce
GI, p. 10,
Civilians flee as rebels advance in Liberia's capital
G,
Japan freezes aid to Burma to force junta to release Suu Kyi
G,
Au présent simple, lorsque l'énonciateur / l'énonciatrice parle et agit (cuisinière, magicien, etc.), il n'est souvent qu'un exécutant : un-e autre ferait presque les mêmes gestes, dans le même ordre.
Les énoncés du chef qui détaille sa recette à la télévision, ou du prestidigitateur qui fait son numéro, sont souvent au présent simple.
L'énonciateur est bien celui qui parle / écrit, mais ce pourrait être un autre, l'énoncé - dépersonnalisé - serait presque le même, et resterait au présent simple.
présent simple
sens / effets / valeurs
irréalité, étrangeté
Lorsque l'énonciateur n'est pas un simple figurant du discours, et qu'au contraire il veut exprimer l'extraordinaire d'une situation, le présent simple irréalise l'action, intensifie les sensations, dépersonnalise les voix narratives.
L'extraordinaire, l'étrangeté de la situation sont mis en relief, avec toute une palette d'effets énonciatifs : anormal, surréel, vérisme, cubisme, nature morte, décomposition / fragmentation, prisme.
Outside, the dusty yard is checked with bright, white squares of noon sun and blocks of black shade full of mosquitoes. Old women sell hard-boiled eggs and dried fish. The toilets reek of stale urine. Inside, patients line the corridor of the clinic. Each clutches an orange binder with their notes. They sit very still and wait. Nhem Sokunthea, 24 years old and four months pregnant, sits on a bench near the door with her palms folded over her swollen belly and her eyes on the floor. She has put on her best clothes - and borrowed the bus fare - for the visit to the hospital. Her story is harrowing - and familiar to many in Cambodia. HIV infection rates in the country of 12 million people are just under 3 per cent, the highest in Asia. Almost everyone sitting in the clinic corridor has the virus. Aids, the new killer in the fields: A nation still recovering from years of political bloodletting, Cambodia is being weakened by a new scourge, O, 17.10.2004, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/oct/17/ aids.cambodia
D'où un effet de rêve éveillé, d'étrangeté, de vertige : est-ce bien moi qui parle ? suis-je bien "en train de" faire ce que je fais ?
On rencontre parfois ces voix fantômatiques chez Dickens :
There is probably a smell of roasted chestnuts and other good comfortable things all the time, for we are telling Winter Stories-- Ghost Stories, or more shame for us--round the Christmas fire; and we have never stirred, except to draw a little nearer to it. But, no matter for that. We came to the house, and it is an old house, full of great chimneys where wood is burnt on ancient dogs upon the hearth, and grim portraits (some of them with grim legends, too) lower distrustfully from the oaken panels of the walls. We are a middle-aged nobleman, and we make a generous supper with our host and hostess and their guests--it being Christmas-time, and the old house full of company--and then we go to bed. Our room is a very old room. It is hung with tapestry. We don't like the portrait of a cavalier in green, over the fireplace. There are great black beams in the ceiling, and there is a great black bedstead, supported at the foot by two great black figures, who seem to have come off a couple of tombs in the old baronial church in the park, for our particular accommodation. But, we are not a superstitious nobleman, and we don't mind. Well! we dismiss our servant, lock the door, and sit before the fire in our dressing-gown, musing about a great many things. At length we go to bed. Well! we can't sleep. We toss and tumble, and can't sleep. The embers on the hearth burn fitfully and make the room look ghostly. We can't help peeping out over the counterpane, at the two black figures and the cavalier--that wicked- looking cavalier--in green. In the flickering light they seem to advance and retire: which, though we are not by any means a superstitious nobleman, is not agreeable. Well! we get nervous-- more and more nervous. We say "This is very foolish, but we can't stand this; we'll pretend to be ill, and knock up somebody." Well! we are just going to do it, when the locked door opens, and there comes in a young woman, deadly pale, and with long fair hair, who glides to the fire, and sits down in the chair we have left there, wringing her hands. Then, we notice that her clothes are wet. Our tongue cleaves to the roof of our mouth, and we can't speak; but, we observe her accurately. Her clothes are wet; her long hair is dabbled with moist mud; she is dressed in the fashion of two hundred years ago; and she has at her girdle a bunch of rusty keys. Well! there she sits, and we can't even faint, we are in such a state about it. Presently she gets up, and tries all the locks in the room with the rusty keys, which won't fit one of them; then, she fixes her eyes on the portrait of the cavalier in green, and says, in a low, terrible voice, "The stags know it!" After that, she wrings her hands again, passes the bedside, and goes out at the door. We hurry on our dressing-gown, seize our pistols (we ascsays travel with pistols), and are following, when we find the door locked. We turn the key, look out into the dark gallery; no one there. We wander away, and try to find our servant. Can't be done. We pace the gallery till daybreak; then return to our deserted room, fall asleep, and are awakened by our servant (nothing ever haunts him) and the shining sun. Well! we make a wretched breakfast, and all the company say we look queer. After breakfast, we go over the house with our host, and then we take him to the portrait of the cavalier in green, and then it all comes out. He was false to a young housekeeper once attached to that family, and famous for her beauty, who drowned herself in a pond, and whose body was discovered, after a long time, because the stags refused to drink of the water. Since which, it has been whispered that she traverses the house at midnight (but goes especially to that room where the cavalier in green was wont to sleep), trying the old locks with the rusty keys. Well! we tell our host of what we have seen, and a shade comes over his features, and he begs it may be hushed up; and so it is. But, it's all true; and we said so, before we died (we are dead now) to many responsible people.
A Christmas Tree,
Dream: I am skating on a disco board, flexi-metal and light pink with the grip tape going down the centre. Sailing down a hill that never ends but curves around islands of tree-filled parks, my hair billows behind me and brushes past my face as I swerve around each curve. My friends and family watch and cheer. There is no rush, and every movement seems to be caught in a single flow. My skateboard moves with the slightest turn of my hips. At the end of the hill, there is a 10-foot vertical ramp that I drop into, leaning forward, knees loose and slightly bent. Hips and knees guiding the board upward and downward, my hands are up in the air with the breeze slipping through my fingers. On the board, I could be the kind of girl I wanted to be:
I decide to try. Many things are the same. The sky is a poignant blue. The trees are turning, each scarlet leaf like a little hand falling down on our green autumn lawn. "You're what?" my husband says to me. "I'm going to try it," I say. "Repeat the experiment exactly as Rosenhan and his confederates did it, and see if I get admitted." "Excuse me," he says, "don't you think you have your family to consider?" "It'll never work," I say, thinking of Spitzer. "I'll be back in an hour." "And suppose you're not?" "Come get me," I say. I do my preparations. I don't shower or shave for five days. I call a friend with a renegade streak and ask if I can use her name in lieu of my own, which might be recognised. The plan is to use her name and then have her, later, with her licence, get the records so that I can see just what has been said. This friend, Lucy, says yes. She should probably be locked up. "This is so funny," she says. I spend a considerable portion of time practising in front of my mirror. "Thud," I say, and crack up, no pun intended. "I'm, I'm here ..." - and now I feign a worried expression, crinkled crow's-feet at my eyes - "I'm here because I'm hearing a voice and it's saying thud", and then, each time, standing in front of this full-length mirror, smelly and wearing a floppy black velvet hat, I start to laugh. If I laugh, I'll obviously blow my cover. Then again, if I don't laugh, and if I tell the whole truth about my history save for this one little symptom, as Rosenhan and company did in the original experiment, well, then I might really go the way of the ward. There is one significant difference in my re-test setup. None of Rosenhan's folks had any psychiatric history. I, however, have a formidable psychiatric history that includes lots of lock-ups, although, really, I'm fine now. I kiss the baby goodbye. I kiss my husband goodbye. I haven't showered for five days. My teeth are smeary. I am wearing paint-splattered black leggings and a T-shirt that says, "I hate my generation." "How do I look?" I say. "The same," my husband says. I drive there. I have chosen a hospital miles out of town with an emergency room set up specifically for psychiatric issues. I have also chosen a hospital with an excellent reputation, so factor that in. It is on a hill. It has a winding drive. In order to enter the psych ER, you must stand in front of a formidable bank of doors in a bustling white hallway and press a buzzer, at which point a voice over an intercom calls out, "Can I help you?" I say, "Yes." The doors open. They appear to part without any evidence of human effort, to reveal a trio of policemen sitting in the shadows, their silver badges tossing light. On a TV mounted high in one corner, someone shoots a horse - bang! - and the bullet explodes a star in the fine forehead, blood on black fur. "Name?" a nurse says, bringing me to a registration desk. "Lucy Schellman," I say. "And how do you spell Schellman?" she asks. I'm a terrible speller and I hadn't counted on this little hurdle; I do my best. "S-H-E-L-M-E-N," I say. The nurse writes it down, studying the idiosyncratic spelling. "That's an odd name," she says. "It's plural." "Well," I say, "it was an Ellis Island thing. It happened at Ellis Island." She looks up at me and then scribbles something I cannot see on the paper. I'm worried she's going to think I have a delusion that involves Ellis Island so I say, "I've never been to Ellis Island - it's a family story." "Race," she says. "Jewish," I say. Into the cuckoo's nest :Thirty years ago psychiatry was rocked by the revelation that nine sane volunteers had faked hearing voices and fooled thier way on to locked wards. Has diagnosis improved since? Psychologist Lauren Slater repeats the experiment, G, 31.1.2004, http://www.guardian.co.uk/ weekend/story/0,3605,1134105,00.html - broken link
présent simple
sens et valeurs énonciatives > fiction du jamais-dit
Postulat de l'énoncé au présent simple : ce que je dis ne dépend pas / plus de moi, même si je suis en train de faire ce que je décris.
Ce postulat peut se doubler d'une fiction, celui de "la première fois" :
même si le magicien a déjà fait son numéro des centaines de fois, il le présente comme du jamais-vu, de l'inédit.
Le présent simple est un découpeur, un effaceur, un "fascinateur" : il découpe le temps énonciatif / chronologique, efface toute référence au passé, même immédiat, focalise le co-énonciateur sur l'instant.
Il n'y a pas de bilan possible, on est constamment dans l'instant :
Environment: Every 15 seconds, a child dies because of a shortage of fresh water.
Frontpage headline,
The Guardian fin 2004- début 2005
The Guardian p. 7 8 February 2005
fiction du jamais-dit / de l'inouï (suite)
Le présent simple permet de se démarquer du déjà dit en faisant comme si les mots étaient assemblés pour la première fois :
The Guardian p. 10 10 September 2004
A l'inverse du présent simple, le présent en be + -ing marque souvent une reprise, un retour à du pré-énoncé / jugé, à du commun, à un continuum discursif.
Les services religieux sont souvent au présent simple :
face à la parole de Dieu, l'officiant n'a pas à dire "je", qui est l'une des valeurs énonciatives de be + -ing.
Le prêtre se contente d'assembler des éléments déjà connus, comme si ils n'avaient jamais été dits.
La rhétorique religieuse passe ici par la négation de l'anaphore (reprise, déjà dit) : ce qui va être dit, vous ne l'avez jamais entendu, vous allez l'entendre pour la première fois.
Comme tout discours liturgique, le texte ci-dessous, extrait du service donné à St Paul's en 2003 pour les soldats tués en Irak, vise, via le présent simple, à se démarquer du dit profane, d'un continuum discursif banal, en perte de sens (continuum en be + -ing).
Une transposition en be + -ing serait ici ridicule :
??? We're praying especially...
THE DEAN gives THE BIDDING
W E come to this Cathedral todayfrom all parts of this nation to remember before God all who have died in Iraq in the course of the hostilities of this year. We pray especially for all servicemen and women from the United Kingdom who have lost their lives or who have suffered injury, and with them we remember their families, their colleagues and their friends. We continue to hold before God all who are still on active service in Iraq; we pray for their well-being and for all who hold them in their hearts at home. We give thanks for all who work for peace, for freedom, for justice; for the armed services; for the emergency services; for all who carry the burdens of government. We bring before God in penitence the hatreds of our world, the deep divisions of our humanity. We ask for a new understanding, a new resolve, a new obedience to the law of love. We pray for peace. And we pray in particular for Iraq, and for all who work in the face of great danger day by day to establish peace and security and the well-being of all its people. And so we come from many places, from different traditions of faith, to unite in thanksgiving, in remembrance, in prayer before God, as we say together OUR Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. Sit
Service of Remembrance Iraq 2003:
présent simple (présent sans -ing)
sens et valeurs énonciatives > effets narratifs
The war is over and the World War I flying ace is home...
Nervous and restless, he searches for something to do...
State fairs clamor for his act!
The crowds scream with terror as he performs incredible aerial acrobatics...
Peanuts Charles Schulz GoComics August 29, 2021 https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/2021/08/29
Le présent simple permet à l'énonciateur / l'énonciatrice de mettre en scène son récit avec des styles / effets très différents :
(voir paragraphe précedent : Service of Remembrance Iraq 2003),
récit héroïque (comics Peanuts ci-dessus).
objectivité scientifique (énoncé 1),
style télégraphique (2-3),
résumé factuel (4), ennui (5),
fascination (6-7),
narration distanciée (8),
découpage cinématographique (9),
description picturale / géographique (10),
présentation rapide d'une personne (11),
dramatisation (voir 4 comics ci-dessous).
L'instant est souvent présenté comme indépassable, intemporel / mythique (// clichés narratifs à l'imparfait en français : "le temps semblait s'être arrêté", "chaque instant était une éternité", etc.).
Même dans une chronologie ou dans un récit, la lectrice / le lecteur n'a pas toujours l'impression d'un déroulement temporel et discursif, d'une relation prévisible de cause à effet, où l'on peut anticiper :
chaque énoncé semble coupé des autres, est présenté pour lui-même, et non dans sa relation avec ce qui suit ou ce qui précède (// film : succession de plans brefs et non-raccords - photographie : décomposition du mouvement, à la manière de Muybridge).
A l'inverse de be + -ing, dont l'une des valeurs est souvent de marquer un lien / un continuum énonciatif, le présent simple permet de découper le discours, de le décomposer, de marquer une discontinuité / un vide entre chaque énoncé, de les séparer en mettant chacun d'entre eux en évidence.
On sort du banal, du réglé, du prévisible, ce qui crée un effet de suspense :
The Phantom George Olesen and Graham Nolan created by Lee Falk 17 October 2004 http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/phantom/about.htm
Autre différence essentielle avec be + -ing : ce qui est dit au présent simple échappe au commun, au banal, au bruit de fond.
Dans le texte publicitaire ci-dessous, qui rappelle à quel point la politique en matière de transports influe sur chaque élément de notre vie quotidienne, tous les énoncés sont au présent simple, séparés par un symbole graphique :
The Guardian 17 May 2004
1 - Only the moon is brighter in our current night sky; it stands more than 20° right of Mars at midnight tonight, 10° right of the planet tomorrow night and 4° left of Mars on Wednesday. Mars lies in the constellation Aquarius, rises in the ESE during evening twilight tonight and stands some 20e to 25° high in the S at about 02:40 BST, moving into the SW by dawn. Opposition comes on the 28th when it stands opposite the sun and is visible throughout the hours of darkness. Through a telescope, Mars appears 24 arcsec across tonight, as against 25 arcsec on the 27th and 21 arcsec when it stood at its closest in 2001. Starwatch, G, p. 20, 11.8.2003 (Monday).
2 - 9am Tony Blair arrives in Basra on an RAF Hercules from Kuwait. Meets British commanders. 10 am In Basra airport's VIP suite, once reserved for Saddam and his associates, Mr Blair meets John Sawers, the UK special representative, and Paul "Jerry" Bremer, head of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. 11 am At a school on the outskirts of Basra, which reopened with Ministry of Defence funding, a boy kisses Mr Blair's cheek. He tells them: "You children are the future for this country."
Mr Blair's big day out in Basra:
3 - 9.30am Tuesday A joint British patrol with Iraqui guards and interpreters searches for arms. They are attacked by a crowd throwing stones. They come under fire from Iraqis and return fire. A vehicle is hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. One British soldier is wounded. A rapid reaction force, including light tanks and a Chinook helicopter, arrives to help, but the helicopter also comes under fire. It retreats, after seven people on board are wounded, two seriously. A second rapid reaction force arrives and recovers the wounded ground soldier 11am A police station comes under fire. The siege lasts two hours. Six British military police training Iraqui police officers are found dead
'Run or you will die.' The soldiers did not go and they died...
4 - Emma tells Brenda that she slept with Ed. She's completely torn between the brothers, and doesn't want to give up either of them. Brenda says she mustn't see them until she makes up her mind. Clarrie visits Will and asks about Emma. He says that she isn't talking to him. Debbie tells Adam that she went for an interview to be a development manager for a seed company based in France. She thinks she's done well. Will drops in on Emma and tells her that she's all he's ever wanted and that he needs to know how things stand. Emma asks for time to think. Chaba phones Kirsty and tells her he's gone back to his old girlfriend in Hungary.
The Archers: what happened last week,
Mark Trail Jack Elrod Created by Ed Dodd 26 August 2004 http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/mtrail/about.htm
at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, flies around in Air Force One and speeds through red lights in motorcades. The loser sulks at home, or begins to raise money for 2004. The winner rewards his supporters with plum jobs. The loser endures the odium of disappointed supporters and power-hungry rivals. And the real winner is..., E, p. 64, 2.12.2000.
6 - After cradling one of the 475 white nylon sacks laid out on the concrete floor, Um Jassim opens the shroud and sifts through the bones. She strokes a bone attached to a blindfolded body, and kisses the teeth. My only son she wails, beating her chest. Bring him back.
Iraq's mass graves:
7 - It is past nine now. UM 006 has begun to put out a subtle gamey smell, the mild but unmistakable fetor of a butcher's shop on a hot day. John Cavanaugh calls down that there's pizza upstairs, and the three of us, Deb, Matt Mason and I, leave the dead man by himself. It feels a little rude. By half past eleven, all that remains is to get UM 006 into driving posture. He is slumped and leaning to one side. Cavanaugh takes the cadaver by the ankles and pushes back on him, to try to get him to sit up in the seat. He steps back. The cadaver slides toward him. He pushes again. This time he holds him while Matt encircles UM 006's knees and the entire circumference of the car seat with duct tape. "This probably won't make it into the '101 Uses' list," observes Matt. 'The smell is not
too bad today',
8 - Saddam Hussein, Taha Yassin Ramadan and Tariq Aziz are lounging on the balcony of one of Saddam's palaces when a flock of geese flies over. "Ramadan, shoot the geese," Saddam says. The vice president lifts his AK-47 and empties a clip into the sky, but doesn't hit a single goose. "You try, Tariq," Saddam says. The deputy prime minister fires and misses as well. "Damn, I have to do everything around here," Saddam says. He fires five rounds in the air. None of the birds fall. There's an awkward silence. Then Tariq Aziz points at the receding flock and says, "My God, would you look at that! Dead birds flying!" Telling a joke like that could get you maimed, tortured and even killed in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Iraq: Killer Jokes, pp.4-5, N, 19.5.2003.
Footsteps sound across a warehouse floor. A helicopter swoops down and a police siren suddenly blares. We are at the Crime scene, and the chase is on. Our anti-hero ducks through back alleys, skirts scrambled voices, dodges a volley of bullets and dives through a dimly lit window, surprising the dopeheads inside listening to reggae.
When the lights go down, GE2, p. vI, 30.08.2002,
10 - On the southern side of Madagascar lies a wilderness paradise. The Indian Ocean washes over white sands. There is a primeval rainforest which is home to thousands of plant and animal species found nowhere else.
Mining giant threatens to scar island paradise:
11 - Hamza al-Gahnem is 12 years old, and lives in building number 32 in an estate with 55 identical seven-storey buildings. He likes football, and pines for a Sony PlayStation, but what he wants most of all is to meet Iraq's president, Saddam Hussein, so he can tell him the story of his birthday.
Waiting for war:
Rex Morgan M.D. Woody Wilson and Graham Nolan 5 July 2004 http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/rmorgan/about.htm
Steve Roper and Mike Nomad Fran Matera 26 September 2004 http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/sroper/about.htm
Voir aussi > Anglonautes > Grammaire anglaise explicative - niveau avancé
Présent simple ≠ présent en be + -ing
du continuum discursif en be + -ing >
Voir aussi > Anglonautes > Grammaire anglaise explicative en BD - niveau débutant
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