VERSION A · LYCÉE GÉNÉRAL · Première: B1+ towards B2 · Terminale: B2 (LVA) · documents reaching towards C1

Assessment out of 20

End of sequence written test. Suggested time: 55 minutes. Total: 20 points. All documents were studied in class.

Documents

Document 1 · Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
Guy Montag is a fireman: in his society, firemen do not put out fires, they burn books. People spend their days in front of giant wall screens. A young neighbour, Clarisse, asks him questions that change his life.
“It was a pleasure to burn.” (first sentence of Part One)
“Are you happy?” (Clarisse to Montag)
“There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there.” (Montag)

Document 2 · The Air Canada chatbot
In 2024, a Canadian tribunal ordered Air Canada to pay a customer after its website chatbot gave him wrong information about a discount on fares. The airline argued that the chatbot was responsible for its own words; the tribunal rejected this argument.

Document 3 · The law
In 2024, the European Union adopted the AI Act, the first major law to regulate AI according to the level of risk.

Part A · Understanding the documents 6 points

1. What is the job of a fireman in Fahrenheit 451, and what does the first sentence reveal about Montag at the beginning? 2 points

2. Why is Clarisse's question “Are you happy?” important? 1 point

3. What does Montag understand when the woman stays in her burning house? 1 point

4. Document 2: what went wrong, and what did the tribunal decide? 2 points

Part B · Language and key ideas 6 points

5. Complete with can, cannot or could: AI ______ recognise faces. AI ______ feel emotions. One day, AI ______ become more intelligent than humans in every field. 1.5 points

6. Use the present perfect: Waymo / run / a self-driving taxi service in Phoenix and San Francisco. 1 point

7. Define narrow AI and give one example from Session 1. 1.5 points

8. Define two of these words: filter bubble, deepfake, singularity. 2 points

Part C · Writing: should AI be limited? 8 points

9. You are a candidate in the US presidential election. Write the opening of your Silicon Valley speech (180 to 230 words). Say whether AI should be limited, use one example of AI that helps, one example of AI gone wrong, and one idea from Fahrenheit 451. Use a rhetorical question and the rule of three. 8 points

Marking scheme

Part A · Understanding the documents: 6 points
Part B · Language and key ideas: 6 points
Part C · Writing: should AI be limited?: 8 points

Total: 20 points

Answer key

Firemen burn books instead of putting out fires (1). “It was a pleasure to burn” shows that Montag enjoys his job and does not question it at first (1).
It makes Montag think for the first time; it is the start of his critical thought and of his change.
That books must contain something precious, ideas worth dying for.
The chatbot gave a customer wrong information about a fare discount (1); the tribunal ordered Air Canada to pay and refused the idea that the chatbot was responsible for its own words: the company is responsible (1).
can; cannot; could (0.5 each).
Waymo has run a self-driving taxi service in Phoenix and San Francisco.
AI that is excellent at one task only (0.5); for example Deep Blue at chess in 1997, AlphaGo at Go in 2016, or ChatGPT for text (1).
Filter bubble: algorithms show us only content we already like. Deepfake: a fake video or picture made with AI that looks real. Singularity: the hypothetical moment when AI becomes more intelligent than humans in every field (1 point each).
See the model answer and the teacher marking grid.

Model answer

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for welcoming me to Silicon Valley. Here, you build the future. But who will make sure that this future stays human?

I strongly believe that AI is a wonderful tool. It already helps doctors read X-rays and mammograms, and Waymo cars drive people around Phoenix and San Francisco with no one in the driver's seat. However, AI can also make mistakes. In 2024, Air Canada's chatbot gave a customer wrong information, and a tribunal decided that the company, not the machine, was responsible.

More than seventy years ago, Ray Bradbury imagined a society where people stared at giant wall screens and firemen burned books. In Fahrenheit 451, nobody asked questions any more, until a girl asked Montag: “Are you happy?” We must not let screens think for us.

That is why I will defend clear rules, like the European AI Act: rules that protect our data, our jobs and our freedom. Innovation, yes. Blind trust, no. Responsibility, always.