TEF Canada's Production écrite (Writing) paper has two tasks in 60 minutes. Section A — the one this lesson equips you for — gives you the opening lines of a fait divers (a short news item: a fire, a theft, an accident, a rescue) and asks you to continue it. You need a minimum of 80 words, and examiners expect you to spend roughly 25 of your 60 minutes on this task before moving to Section B's letter. The register is strict: impersonal, factual, and entirely in the past. No "I think," no first person at all — you are the reporter, not a witness.
Three tenses do the work. Passé composé carries the foregrounded actions — what actually happened, in sequence:
| broke the main window (passé composé, foregrounded action) | ont brisé la vitrine principale |
| It was raining (imparfait, background) | Il pleuvait |
| An employee had forgotten to turn off a machine (plus-que-parfait, prior event) | Un employé avait oublié d'éteindre une machine |
Two structural habits mark a strong answer. First, open with the consequence, not strict chronology — start where the drama is, then fill in how it got there. Second, your first sentence should echo the given headline, the way real fait-divers openers restate their own title in different words.
Journalistic attribution phrases (selon la police, selon les témoins oculaires) let you report claims without asserting them yourself, and closing formulas (aucun blessé grave n'est à déplorer, l'enquête se poursuit) are the safe, natural way to wrap up a continuation when you're running low on words.
