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Horror show at the fun fair

"Cauchemar à la fête foraine"
French C1 writing exercise

Hear everything about Agnès's aunt's catastrophic misadventure on a roller coaster at a local fun fair.

Pay attention to the hints!

Some vocabulary you may want to look up before or during this exercise: "to happen to [someone]", "the fun fair", "to insist on [doing]", "to surprise [someone]", "coming from [someone]", "to sit", "in the fron row (ride)", "a ride (fun fair)", "to break down (machine)", "right in the middle of", "a loop (roller coaster)", "to scream at the top of one's lungs", "to hang upside down", "that sounds like [something]", "a scene straight out of [something]", "to go frantic", "to remain suspended in mid-air", "to manage to [do]", "to rescue [someone]", "to faint", "to be in [someone's] place", "needless to say...", "to ride a roller coaster", "never ever ... again".

Written by qualified French expert Céline Pickard PGCE, BA
Last updated: 2025-08-07

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
You’ll practise: Le Passé Composé (Indicatif), L'Imparfait (Indicatif), Verbes avec être comme auxiliaire

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

- You are never going to believe what happened to my aunt at the fun fair yesterday. We'd gone there with her children and the rest of the family. Suddenly, she insisted on trying out the biggest roller coaster, which didn't really surprise us coming from her. Obviously, she had to choose that one! She sat in the front row and we were all watching her, when the ride broke down right in the middle of a loop! She started screaming at the top of her lungs, hanging upside down. - What a nightmare! That sounds like a scene straight out of a horror movie. - Yes! Her children were going frantic and no one knew what to do. She had to remain suspended in mid-air for a few hours before the emergency services managed to rescue her. - I would have fainted if I'd been in her place. - Needless to say, she will never ever ride a roller coaster again!

Let me take a look at that...