‘Impossible’ English trips up French teens in baccalaureate examination

Thousands of disgruntled French teenagers have signed a petition claiming that a question about Ian McEwan’s Atonement in their baccalaureate English paper was “impossible”, and called on the Education Minister to instruct examiners not to include the question in evaluation.

Pupils were instructed to read a passage from Atonement and complete two questions about how a character copes with being accused of rape. Arthur, a 17-year-old French student behind the petition, told BFMTV: “Many people didn’t understand the word ‘coping’; it’s not a very common word.”

The petition complained: “The majority of students in the bac were not able to answer Question M because they found it too difficult, with words only someone bilingual or with an excellent level in English could answer.”

Atonement was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2001 and is on Time magazine’s list of the 100 greatest English-language novels since 1923. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2015