ORAL COMPREHENSION
CHECK PAGE
4
1. What makes writing in a diary a
strange experience for Anne Frank?
Answer:
The
feeling of nobody being interested in the feelings of a thirteen-year-old girl
later on coupled with the fact that she had never written before makes writing
in a diary a strange experience for Anne Frank.
2. Why does Anne want to keep a diary?
Answer:
Anne
wants to keep a diary because she has no true friend. She is not able to
confide in the people she is well acquainted with and she feels a diary can be
a good friend to her.
3. Why did Anne think she could confide
more in her diary than in people?
Answer:
Anne thought she could confide more in her diary than in people because she
could never get close with her relatives or those whom she considered friends.
She goes on to say that the fault could be hers in failing to make close
connections. She also believes in the adage ‘Paper has more patience than
people.’
4. Why does Anne provide a brief sketch
of her life?
Answer:
Anne feels that nobody would understand what she writes in her diary or rather
‘tells’ her diary. Thus, she goes on to provide a brief sketch of her life.
5. What tells you that Anne loved her
grandmother?
Answer:
Her stating that no one knows how much she thinks of her grandmother and loves
her even after her passing away tells us that she loved her grandmother. Also,
the year her grandmother fell ill and had to have an operation, Anne decided to
not celebrate her birthday.
ORAL COMPREHENSION
CHECK PAGE
7
1. Why was Mr Kessing annoyed with Anne?
What did he ask her to do?
Answer:
Mr Keesing was annoyed with Anne because Anne used to talk a lot. He asked her
to write an essay on the subject ‘A Chatterbox’.
2. How did Anne justify her being a
chatterbox in the essay?
Answer:
Anne justified her being a chatterbox by arguing that talking was a student’s
trait and that she would do her best to keep it under control. She also
mentioned that she would never be able to cure herself of the habit as her
mother talked a lot too, and little could be done about inherited traits.
3. Do you think Mr Keesing was a strict
teacher?
Answer:
I don't think Mr Keesing was a strict teacher. Even though Anne kept talking
despite being told by Mr Keesing not to, all he did was give Anne essays to
write. He was a fogey teacher, not a strict one.
4. What made Mr Keesing allow Anne to
talk in class?
Answer:
Mr Keesing had given three essays to Anne on the subject of ‘chatterbox’ and
each time Anne came up with something ingenious. He was impressed with her wit,
and thus, allowed Anne to talk in class. He also perhaps understood that she
was an incorrigible chatterbox.
THINKING
ABOUT THE TEXT PAGE
7
1. Was Anne right when she said that the
world would not be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old girl?
Answer:
I
don't think Anne was right when she said the world would not be interested in
the musings of a thirteen-year-old girl because her record titled 'The Diary of
a Young Girl' published by her father after her death went to become one of the
most widely read books. Moreover, Anne also happens to be one of the most
discussed holocaust victims.
2. There are some examples of diary or
journal entries in the ‘Before You Read’ section. Compare these with what Anne
writes in her diary. What language was the diary originally written in? In what
way is Anne’s diary different?
Answer:
The
aspect that makes Anne’s diary stand apart, and hence, different from the
journal entries in the ‘Before You Read’ section is that she wrote as if she
was having a conversation with a close friend. While the journal entries talk
about a schedule or what is supposed to do or what transpired that day, Anne’s
diary gave an insight about the kind of person she was. Her diary is not only
anecdotal but also highly conversational in tone.
3. Why does Anne need to give a brief
sketch about her family? Does she treat ‘Kitty’ as an insider or an outsider?
Answer:
Anne needs to give a brief sketch about her family because she feels that the
reader might not understand her words to Kitty, her diary. She treats Kitty as
an insider. She considered Kitty to be her dearest friend.
4. How does Anne feel about her father,
her grandmother, Mrs Kuperus and Mr Keesing? What do these tell you about her?
Answer:
Anne
feels that her father is the most adorable in the world. As far as her thoughts
regarding her grandmother are concerned, she says she continues loving her
Grandma even after her passing away. Mrs Kuperus is also a person that was
close to Anne's heart. At the end of her sixth grade, both Anne and Mrs
Kuperus, who was Anne's teacher and also the headmistress of the school, were
in tears. Mr Keesing, the Maths teacher, is someone that Anne feels is fogey.
The feelings that she has towards the people in her life tells that she valued
relationships and that she was a highly emotional person.
5. Anne says teachers are most
unpredictable. Is Mr Keesing unpredictable? How?
Answer:
Anne
is correct in saying that teachers are the most unpredictable people in the
world. Mr Keesing is not completely unpredictable, but he does come across as a
person who is willing to change his opinions. While initially, he asks Anne to
write essays on the subject of chatterbox multiple times, he later allows Anne
to talk. He starts joking around after realising that Anne is indeed an
incorrigible chatterbox.
6. What does Anne write in her first
essay?
Answer:
In
progress.
7. What do these statements tell you
about Anne Frank as a person?
(i) We don’t seem to be able to get any
closer, and that’s the problem. Maybe it’s my fault that we don’t confide in
each other.
Answer:
Anne finds it difficult to trust others.
(ii) I don’t want to jot down the facts
in this diary the way most people would, but I want the diary to be my friend.
Answer:
That Anne is in desperate need of a friend who would listen to her patiently.
(iii) Margot went to Holland in December,
and I followed in February when I was plunked down on the table as a birthday
present for Margot.
Answer:
She was very close to Margot and both enjoyed each other’s company.
(iv) If you ask me, there are so many
dummies that about a quarter of the class should be kept back, but teachers are
the most unpredictable creatures on earth.
Answer:
That she feels many students passed not because of their hard work but because
of the teachers’ being lenient.
(v) Anyone could ramble on and leave big
spaces between the words, but the trick was to come up with convincing
arguments to prove the necessity of talking.
Answer:
If there was one thing that she could not stop doing, it was talking.
THINKING
ABOUT LANGUAGE PAGE
8
I. Look at the following words.
Headmistress Long-awaited Homework
Notebook Stiff-backed Outbursts
These words are compound words. They are
made up of two or more words.
Compound words can be:
• nouns:
headmistress, homework, notebook, outbursts
• adjectives:
long-awaited, stiff-backed
• verbs:
sleep-walk, baby-sit
Match the compound words under ‘A’ with
their meanings under ‘B’. Use each in a sentence.
|
A |
B |
|
1. Heartbreaking |
- obeying and respecting the law |
|
2. Homesick |
- think about pleasant things, forgetting about the present |
|
3. Blockhead |
-
something produced by a person, machine, or organisation |
|
4. Law-abiding |
- producing great sadness |
|
5. Overdo |
- an occasion when vehicles/machines stop working |
|
6. Daydream |
- an informal word which means a very stupid person |
|
7. Breakdown |
- missing home and family very much |
|
8. Output |
- do something to an excessive degree |
|
A |
B |
|
1. Heartbreaking |
- producing great sadness |
|
2. Homesick |
- missing home and family very much |
|
3. Blockhead |
- an informal word which means a very stupid person |
|
4. Law-abiding |
- obeying and respecting the law |
|
5. Overdo |
- do something to an excessive degree |
|
6. Daydream |
- think about pleasant things, forgetting about the present |
|
7. Breakdown |
- an occasion when vehicles/machines stop working |
|
8. Output |
- something produced by a person, machine, or organisation |
II. Phrasal Verbs
1. To be done by the student
2. Now find the sentences in the lesson
that have the phrasal verbs given below. Match them with their meanings. (You
have already found out the meanings of some of them.) Are their meanings the
same as that of their parts? (Note that two parts of a phrasal verb may occur
separated in the text.)
(i) plunge in – speak or write without focus
(ii) kept back – stay indoors
(iii) move up – make (them) remain quiet
(iv) ramble on – have a good relationship with
(v) get along with – give an assignment (homework) to a person in
authority
(vi) calm down – compensate
(vii) stay in – go straight to the topic
(viii) make up for – go to the next grade
(ix) hand in – not promoted
Answer:
(i) plunge in – go straight to the topic
(ii) kept back –
not promoted
(iii) move up – go to the next grade
(iv) ramble on – speak or write without focus
(v) get along with – have a
good relationship with
(vi) calm down – make (them) remain quiet
(vii) stay in – stay indoors
(viii) make up for – compensate
(ix) hand in – give an assignment
(homework) to a person in authority (the teacher)
No, except for ‘stay
in’ the meanings of the phrasal verbs given are not the same as their parts.
III. Idioms
1. Here are a few sentences from the text
which have idiomatic expressions. Can you say what each means? (You might want
to consult a dictionary first.)
(i) Our entire class is quaking in its boots. ________________________________
(ii) Until then, we keep telling each other not to lose heart.___________________
(iii) Mr Keesing was annoyed with me for ages because I talked so much. Mr
Keesing was annoyed with me for ages because I talked so much. ___________
(iv) Mr Keesing was trying to play a joke on me with
this ridiculous subject, but I’d make sure the
joke was on him.____________________________________
Answers:
(i) shivering with nervousness
(ii) not to become discouraged
(iii) for a long time
(iv) to make him look foolish
2. Here are a few more idiomatic
expressions that occur in the text. Try to use them in sentences of your own.
(i) caught my
eye (iii)
laugh ourselves silly
(ii) he’d had
enough (iv) can’t
bring myself to
Answer:
(i) caught my eye - A beautiful pair of silver
earrings in the pawnshop caught my eye.
(ii) he’d had enough - By the time we met him, he’d
had enough of his wife’s shouting.
(iii) laugh ourselves silly - We laughed ourselves
silly at the joke you cracked.
(iv) can’t bring myself to - Please don’t mistake
me, but I can’t bring myself to have coffee after six in the evening.
IV. You have read the expression ‘not to
lose heart’ in this text. Now find out the meanings of the following
expressions using the word ‘heart’.Use each of them in a sentence of your own.
1. break
somebody’s heart
2. close/dear
to heart
3. from the
(bottom of your) heart
4. have a heart
5. have a heart
of stone
6. your heart
goes out to somebody
Answer:
1.
break somebody’s heart - to cause sadness to somebody
He broke my heart by saying he would be happy if I
died.
2.
close/dear to heart - very important
This pen is very close to my heart, so I can’t bring
myself to give this to anybody even for a second.
3.
from the (bottom of your) heart - genuinely
He said he wished her good health from the bottom of
his heart.
4.
have a heart - kind and compassionate
Your friend is unwell, but you don't seem to have
the heart to take him to hospital.
5.
have a heart of stone - be hardhearted
I have stopped talking to her because I feel she has
a heart of stone.
6.
your heart goes out to somebody - to feel sympathy
My heart goes out to your father. I’m sure he must
be devastated by the loss of his only sister.
V. Contracted Forms
1. Make a list of the contracted forms in
the text. Rewrite them as full forms of two words.
For example:
I've = I have
2. We have seen that some contracted
forms can stand for two different full forms:
I’d = I had or I would
Find in the text the contracted forms
that stand for two different full forms, and say what these are.
Answers:
1. (i) I’m = I am
(ii) It’s = It is
(iii) We’ll = We will
(iv) Who’ll = Who will
(v) That’s = That is
(vi) Can’t = Cannot/Can
not
(vii) Won’t = Will not
(viii) Wouldn’t = Would
not
(ix) Don’t = Do not
(x) Doesn’t = Does not
(xi) There’s = There is
(xii) Didn’t = Did not
(xiii) You’re = You are
(xiv) Who’s = Who is
(xv) Haven’t = Have not
(xvi) He’d = He had
(ii) He’d − He had or
he would
Poem: Amanda ! by
Robin Klein
THINKING
ABOUT THE POEM PAGE
15
1. How old do you think Amanda is? How do
you know this?
Answer:
I think Amanda has just entered her teenage years. This is evident from the
lines ‘Did you finish your homework Amanda?’ and ‘Remember your acne, Amanda’.
2. Who do you think is speaking to her?
Answer:
I think it’s her mother that’s speaking to her.
3. Why are Stanzas 2, 4 and 6 given in
parenthesis?
Answer:
Stanzas 2, 4 and 6 are given in parenthesis precisely because these are
Amanda’s thoughts.
4. Who is the speaker in Stanzas 2, 4 and
6? Do you think this speaker is listening to the speaker in Stanzas 1, 3, 5,
and 7?
Answer:
The speaker in Stanzas 2, 4 and 6 is Amanda. Yes, the speaker in these stanzas
is listening to the speaker in Stanzas 1, 3, 5 and 7.
5. What could Amanda do if she were a
mermaid?
Answer:
If
Amanda were a mermaid, she would drift in a languid sea of emerald blissfully.
6. Is Amanda an orphan? Why does she say
so?
Answer:
Amanda is not an orphan. She says so because she imagines herself to be one.
She is tired of the nagging by her mother.
7. Do you know the story of Rapunzel? Why
does she want to be Rapunzel?
Answer:
Yes, I know the story of Rapunzel. Amanda wants to be Rapunzel because she
lived away from her real parents. Amanda is tired of the nagging by her parents
and desires to live a life in tranquillity caring for nothing but her hair.
8. What does the girl yearn for? What
does this poem tell you about Amanda?
Answer:
The
first years for solitude, freedom, and tranquillity. And as far as Amanda is
concerned, the poem tells the reader that just like every other teenager, she
wants a life where she is not constantly nagged and judged upon. A life without
the constant scolding of parents is what Amanda wants.
9. Read the last stanza. Do you think
Amanda is sulking and is moody?
Answer: It looks like Amanda is sulking and moody as her mother says so in the last stanza. She is sulking because she is unable to get the freedom that she desires.
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