Fiche Corrigé 2

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ANGLAIS – LYCEE / B1 - B2 – LA THEORIE DU BIG BANG © 2010 – SCÉRÉN – CNDP
Anglais
Discipline associée : SVT (sciences de la
vie et de la terre)
Lycée / B1 - B2
Dossier pédagogique
La théorie du Big Bang
The Big Bang Theory
Fiche Corrigé 2
GROUP 1
GET READY: vocabulary: match the words and their definitions and translate the
words into French. Use a dictionary if need be:
a hole = a cavity, a place where there is nothing
matter = something that occupies space and can be perceived by one or more senses ; a
physical body, a physical substance or the universe as a whole.
evidence = a thing or things helpful in forming a conclusion or a judgement
Question 1: compare the video you watched and the text:
Common points:
 the universe was a tiny point at the beginning;
 a big explosion created the universe.
Differences:
 the date: 13.6 billion years in the text and 13.7 billion years in the video.
Question 2: what new elements concerning the universe do you learn?
 the explosion was hot;
 the universe is constantly expanding.
Question 3: focus on the two scientific theories in contradiction with the Big Bang
Theory and complete the following chart:
NAME of the THEORY
ARGUMENTS
The Oscillating Theory
The universe is one of many.
The Steady State Theory
As the universe expands, new matter is created: the
overall appearance of the universe never changes.
GROUP 2
GET READY: vocabulary: read the following text from the BBC News website and
find the synonyms of:
 big : huge (line 4)
 to contest : to challenge (line 3)
 to invent : to coin (line 1)
 to support/approve of : to advocate (line 5)
 regular/constant : steady (line 5)
 related to the university : academic (line 1)
Question 1: collect information to quickly present Sir Fred Hoyle:
He was born in 1915 and died in 2001. He was en English astronomer and writer.
Question 2: focus on his scientific theory of the origins of the universe:
What did he call the « Big Bang »?
□ The explosion that created the universe.
□ His own theory.

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ANGLAIS – LYCEE / B1 - B2 – LA THEORIE DU BIG BANG © 2010 – SCÉRÉN – CNDP
 The usual scientific theory which explains the creation of the cosmos (according to
which the universe was created from a big explosion).
What scientific theory did he support? He supported the Steady State Theory.
Complete the following passage on his scientific ideas:
Sir Fred Hoyle didn’t believe that the cosmos was created by a big explosion and
criticized the Big Bang Theory. On the contrary, he claimed that the cosmos had no
beginning but that new galaxies were constantly formed as the universe expanded so
that the universe was steady. Moreover, he rejected Darwin’s theory of evolution and
defended the Panspermia theory, which is the hypothesis that life exists throughout the
universe and is distributed by meteorites, asteroids and planetoids.
Question 3: in the text, find the sentence meaning that Sir Fred Hoyle thought that the
Big Bang Theory had been created by clever human beings who absolutely wanted to
explain the origins of the universe: “He believed it had all been arranged by a super -
intelligent civilisation who wished to seed our planet.”
GROUP 3
Question 1: what is the nature of the document? It is a cartoon.
Question 2: describe it:
It is composed of two frames.
On the left, scientists are working. The scene must take place in a laboratory. We can see
a skeleton, a microscope, a skull, a bone, a magnifying glass, a bottle and umpteen other
things. They must be carrying out scientific tests.
On the right, we can see two creationists. The one on the left is holding the part of the
Bible explaining the origins of the universe, created by God.
Question 3: what visions of the origins of the universe does the cartoonist oppose?
The cartoonists opposes two visions of the origins of the universe:
 a scientific one: you draw conclusions from facts (observations, evidence…);
 a religious one: you find justifications to convince people on something which
has no scientific evidence.
The conclusion is not the same: for scientists, the conclusion is that the world was created
by the Big Bang whereas for Creationists, God created the universe.
Remarques :
À l’issue des trois présentations, une mise en commun s’effectue.
On rappelle que dans les années 1950, 1960 et dans une moindre mesure 1970, des
théories scientifiques sont venues contredire celle du Big Bang. On aborde également
rapidement la question de la religion.
On insiste sur le fait que ces théories scientifiques n’ont plus cours aujourd’hui. En effet, la
théorie de Hoyle est devenue incorrecte dans les années 1960, quand de nouvelles
observations scientifiques ont été faites. Quand à la « théorie de la lumière fatiguée »
(oscillating theory) défendue par Richard Tolman, elle fut abandonnée dans les années
1960.
Toute la communauté scientifique reconnaît aujourd’hui la théorie du Big Bang comme la
seule valable.
Le but est d’illustrer la notion de conflit mais également le fait que les idées évoluent et
qu’à une théorie valable pendant un temps en succède une autre, etc. Qui sait si une autre
théorie ne viendra pas un jour expliquer l’origine de l’univers ?
Grammaire :
On rappellera aux élèves que l’on utilise le prétérit dans une biographie.
Phonologie :

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ANGLAIS – LYCEE / B1 - B2 – LA THEORIE DU BIG BANG © 2010 – SCÉRÉN – CNDP
On demandera aux élèves de rechercher tous les verbes réguliers au prétérit dans le
deuxième document : expanded, defended, coined, challenged, advocated, rejected,
believed, wished, described, opened ; on rajoutera à cette liste les deux verbes
rencontrés lors du travail sur la vidéo : happened et created.
On leur demandera de compléter cette règle :
Comment prononcer la marque ED finale du prétérit ? La prononciation change en
fonction du son final du radical du verbe. Exemple : « play » se termine par le son |ei|,
« start » se termine par le son |t|.
Il s’agit du son final et non de la dernière lettre. Exemple : le verbe « fix » se termine par le
son |s|, car, phonétiquement, il s’écrit et se prononce |fiks| Une fois qu’on a identifié ce son
final, il est très facile de savoir comment le prononcer :
> | | en règle générale, c’est-à-dire qu’on le prononce comme s’il y avait un « d » à la
fin. C’est le cas pour :
> | | après certains sons : si le verbe se termine par le son |p|, |k|, |f|, |s|, |ʃ|. Exemples :
> | | après les sons |d| et |t|. Exemples :
Corrigé :
> |d| en règle générale, c’est-à-dire qu’on le prononce comme s’il y avait un « d » à la fin.
C’est le cas pour : coined, challenged, believed, described, opened, happened.
> |t| après certains sons : si le verbe se termine par le son |p|, |k|, |f|, |s|, |ʃ|. Exemples :
wished.
> |id| après les sons |d| et |t|. Exemples : expanded, defended, advocated, rejected,
created.
Lexique :
On peut aussi refaire le point sur les verbes d’opinion : believe, reject, support,
approve/disapprove of, defend, think, etc.