Title: Brevet de Technicien Supérieur Commerce International - Session 2003
Author: Philippe Dudoué
Last saved by: Dudoué
Company: Education Nationale

Brevet de Technicien Supérieur Commerce International - Session 2005
Epreuve d'Anglais

Durée 3 heures 

L'usage d'un dictionnaire bilingue est autorisé. 
Les dictionnaires numériques sont interdits
Les calculatrices sont interdites.

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Poland's Silent Spring

Almost alone in Eastern Europe, Poland escaped the huge collectivizations enforced elsewhere under communism. Instead, land was divided into narrow strips to be shared out among villagers. Today Poland boasts nearly 2 million farms, averaging just 7.2 hectares each - less than a fifth the size of a typical French or British farm. Don't look for shiny new tractors and harvesters, either. Horses often haul plows and carts. And environmentally damaging chemical fertilizers are almost unknown.

To be sure, the EU offers some enticing rewards, not least access to the rich markets of Western Europe and fat agricultural subsidies from Brussels. Farm incomes should rise 35 percent over the next year, according to government estimates - which explains why most farmers voted to join, says Krzystof Mularczyk of the Foundation for the Development of Polish Agriculture.

In the longer term, however, Poles must learn to compete in the broader European market. EU hygiene standards, previously unknown in Poland, must be complied with. By some accounts, Poles have already slaughtered thousands of cattle rather than meet EU rules on documentation. Experts foresee a dramatic change: "If Poland still has 500,000 farms in 20 years," says Mularczyk, "that will be a lot."

But the loudest complaints come from the country's small but growing eco-lobby. The introduction of West European farming not only threatens to displace Poland's farmers but could destroy one of the last and largest of Europe's ecologically unspoilt regions. Bigger, richer farms will surely mean the wider use of chemicals and other destructive elements of industrial agriculture. "If the small farms die out, the landscape will be changed completely," says Dorota Metera, who represents the World Conservation Union in Warsaw. The Polish countryside, she says, has maintained the kind of natural diversity that has been sacrificed to the interests of agribusiness elsewhere in Europe. Amid the famous Mazurian lakes and elsewhere, farmland is scattered with small ponds and untended fields and forests that offer ideal habitats for a hugely varied range of birds and insects that are vanishing elsewhere.

The risks are not at once apparent, but the experience of Western Europe should promote caution, conservationists argue. Since 1980 the number of farm birds in Western Europe has dropped by a third, mostly through the heavy use of chemicals and the draining of ancient wetlands.

Salvation might lie in making a strength of Poland's weakness. The poverty that prevented the widespread use of chemicals means that, by default, much of the country's produce is organic - a potential boon as demand for untainted food soars across the Continent. The Danes and Dutch are already lining up to buy cheap Polish farmland.
Abridged from Newsweek, June 7/June 14, 2004

I - COMPTE RENDU EN FRANÇAIS (20 points) 

Après avoir lu ce texte attentivement, vous en ferez un compte rendu, en français, en faisant apparaître les idées essentielles (200 mots + ou - 10 %).

II - ELABORATION D'UNE LETTRE COMMERCIALE EN ANGLAIS (20 points) 

Lettre à élaborer et à rédiger en anglais selon l'usage commercial courant.
Expéditeur : Claude Dupont, directeur du magasin BIOASIS (spécialisé dans vente de produits biologiques)
19, boulevard de Strasbourg
31000 Toulouse, France

Destinataire : M. Slavinski, directeur de SLAVCOOP (coopérative agricole)
Ul. Swietokrzyska 36, Krucza, Pologne

Objet : Recherche de fournisseurs

Date : 2 mai 2005

Corps de la lettre :
Présentation de votre entreprise: chaîne créée en 1980, 25 magasins, chiffre d'affaires de 6 millions d'euros, 250 employés.
Projet de passer commande hebdomadaire de pommes de terre et carottes biologiques.
Demande d'informations sur conditions de vente, délais de livraison, conditions de transport et assurance.
Demande de certifïcat sur la qualité bio des produits, en conformité avec normes françaises.
Conditions de paiement par BIOASIS : 30 jours après présentation de la facture.
Demande d'octroi de réduction pour commande en gros.
Formules d'usage.

III - REDACTION EN ANGLAIS (20 points) 

Répondre en anglais aux deux questions suivantes :
1)	According to the text, do all the new developments expected from Poland's entry into the E.U make Polish farmers happy ? What are their reasons for being happy and their fears? (180 words +or- 10%)
2)	What are the economic strengths and weaknesses of the newly enlarged Europe? (180 words +or- 10%)