French kids don't throw food?

"Les enfants français ne jettent pas la nourriture ?"
French C1 writing exercise

Adeline and Thomas discuss this stereotype about children's behaviour at the table.

Pay attention to the hints!

Some vocabulary you may want to look up before or during this exercise: "a New Yorker (living in New York)", "for a while", "to be better behaved", "at the table", "are you kidding me?", "to know how [adj.] something is", "to sit still", "to seem to remember...", "the fact that + [Subjonctif]", "to tend to [do]", "to feed [oneself]", "chicken nuggets", "if only...", "to let [someone] (do)", "to play a big part in", "to make a point to [do]", "to pass on (knowledge)", "once again", "to apply to [something]", "to give up on [doing]", "to go to restaurants (general)", "until...".

I’ll give you some sentences to translate into French

  • I’ll show you where you make mistakes
  • I’ll keep track of what you need to practise
  • Change my choices if you want
Start the exercise
How the test works

Here's a preview of the text for the writing challenge, when you're ready click the start button above:

- A few years back, I read a book written by a New Yorker who had lived in Paris for a while, and in which she wrote that French children were better behaved at the table. - Are you kidding me? I don't know how difficult American children are, but I don't think that all French children know how to sit still! - I seem to remember that she was also impressed by the fact that they tended to eat more varied dishes, whereas her children would have exclusively fed themselves with chicken nuggets and pasta with ketchup, if only she had let them. - That I can believe, as it's true that food plays a big part in French culture, so I can imagine that French people make a point to pass this tradition on to their children. But once again, it doesn't mean that this applies to every child. My own sister and her partner gave up on going to restaurants until my niece and nephew were at least 8 years old!

Let me take a look at that...