English Literature Made Easy for Students: July 2017

Monday 31 July 2017

Video Clipping 11 The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Sunday 30 July 2017

Video Clipping 10 The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Saturday 29 July 2017

Video 9 ( A Sample Video Clipping) The Diary of a Young Girl by Ann Frank

Video 8 (A Sample Clipping) The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Friday 28 July 2017

Questions & Answers on 'The Diary of a Young Girl' by Anne Frank

Questions & Answers on 'The Diary of a Young Girl' by Anne Frank

Q6. Who was Mr. Keesing? Why was Anne was punished by him? How did she convinced Mr. Keesing of her ‘point of view’?

Ans. Mr. Keesing was Anne’s Math teacher. He was always crossed at her because she talked too much. After several warnings, he assigned her extra homework i.e. to write an essay on the subject "A Chatterbox." It was very difficult for her to write on such a topic. Her friend Sanne was good at poetry, so she offered her to write whole topic in poetry.

Then Anne jumped with joy. She understood that Mr. Keesing was trying to play a practical joke on her with that ridiculous topic and she was to make it sure that the joke was on him. So she finished the poem. “…It was about a mother duck and a father swan with three baby ducklings that were bitten to death by the father because they quacked too much. Luckily, Keesing took the joke the right way. He read the poem to the class, adding his own comments, and to several other classes as well. ..”

Since then she had been allowed to talk and had not been assigned any extra homework. On the contrary, Keesing was always making jokes these days.

Q7. Who was Hello Silberberg and how did Anne come to know

about him ? Tell something more about their friendship.

Ans. The boy Hello and Anne came to know about each other during the past week. He told her about his life. He comes from Gelsenkirchen and is living with his grandparents. His parents are in Belgium. Hello used to have a girlfriend named Ursula. Anne knew her too. She was perfectly sweet and quite boring. The boy also tells Anne that his grandmother did not like that he should meet Anne, who also advised him not to meet her in that case.

But he says, "All's fair in love and war." They continue meeting each other. One night, when both of them came late at night, her father was very angry and told her be present at home not so late. Anne did not love Hello, rather she loved Peter and wanted to marry her.

Q8. What was a ‘call up notice’? What happened if it was not respected?

Ans. ‘A call-up notice’ was a government order to report to the military or the police. Usually, the Jews were called to the Jewish Church and then they were to be sent to the concentration camps. If anyone resisted (opposed), he would be forcibly takes from his home. ‘Concentration Camps’ were established by the Nazis to persecute (maltreat) the Jews. Those places were guided prison camps for civilians, prisoners and minorities, etc.

Q9. Why did the Frank family expedite (speed up) their going to a hiding place?

Ans. One day, the Frank family received a ‘call up notice’. Anne’s father was not home. So her mother at once went to meet Mr.van Daan, her father’s business partner, to discuss the matter. Initially they thought that the notice was meant for M. Frank. But later on, they came to know that it was for Margot, the eldest daughter of the Frank family. Margot was sixteen at that time. They wanted the girls of her age to shift them to their own places. It affected the Frank family very much. Visions of lonely cells and concentration camps emerged (appeared) in her mind. Anne & Margot waited for their mother in the living room. She had gone to ask Mr. van Daan if they could move to their hiding place the next day.

So the ‘call up notice’ that came for Margot expedited (sped up) their decision to go to a secret place for hiding .

Q10. Describe how Anne and Margot packed their important luggage before leaving their house for the hiding place. How did they take their luggage while going to the secret Annex?

Ans.Then Margot and Anne started packing their important things in satchels. Anne packed up her diary first and then ‘curlers’ handkerchiefs, schoolbooks, a comb and some old letters. The thought of going into hiding was dominating (overpowering) her mind. She didn’t care to pack clothes and memories were more important to her.

While leaving their house, they wrapped (covered) themselves in more clothes. They would not dare to leave their house with suitcase full of clothes.

Anne was wearing two undershirts, three pairs of underpants, a dress and over that a shirt, a jacket, a raincoat, two pairs of stockings, heavy shoes, a cap, a scarf and lots more.

She was suffocating in a way. Margot also stuffed her school bag with books. They closed the door at seven thirty. Anne said good bye to her cat, Moortje.

They were Anne, her father and mother. Each of them was having a satchel (a kind of bag) and a shopping bag and those were filled to the brim with different items.

Tuesday 25 July 2017

Journey to the End of the Earth by Tishani Doshi: Line -to- line Explana...

Monday 24 July 2017

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (Prescribed by C.B.S.E. for Class X )

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

(Prescribed by C.B.S.E. for Class X )

Q1. What presents did Anne receive on Friday, June 12, on her thirteenth birthday? How did she feel surprised?

Ans. On Friday, June 12, Anne was awake at six o'clock, since it was her birthday. But she was not allowed to get up at that hour, so she had to control her curiosity (deep interest) until quarter to seven. When she was unable to control herself any longer, she went to the dining room, where Moortje (the cat) welcomed her by rubbing against her legs.

After some time, she entered her parents’ room and then to the living room. She saw beautiful presents there. She had a bouquet of roses, some peonies (flowering plants) and a potted plant. From her parents, she got a blue blouse, a game, a bottle of grape juice, a puzzle, a jar of cold cream, 2.50 guilders (a gold or silver coin formerly used in the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria) and a gift certificate for two books.

She got another book as well, Camera Obscura (but Margot already has it, so She exchanged mine for something else), a platter of homemade cookies (which she made myself, of course, lots of candy and a strawberry tart (pie/pastry) from Mother.

Q2. Explain the line: "Paper has more patience than people." In context what does Anne Frank utter this line in her novel ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’.

Ans. Anne was a very sensitive girl with deep insight into human nature from her early age. She felt alone in spite of all she had. She had a plenty of thoughts and feelings to express, but she did not like to share them with her parents, sister and even with her friends. One day when she was feeling a little depressed (sad), she gave a deep thought to the saying ‘Paper has more patience than people’. She was sitting at home with her chin in her hands, feeling bored and listless (without energy and enthusiasm), wondering about staying or going out. She kept on thinking and found that she did not have any friend and, so, she decided to keep a diary. After that, she started pouring out her thoughts and feelings on to the pages of her diary. She knew this that the paper did not get bored and irritated at all. But human beings have no patience and they cannot listen to you more than a limited span of time.

Q3. Do you think Anne was alone in the world? Explain as to why she started writing a diary? Why did she give a human trait to the diary?

Ans. Anne was not alone as she had loving parents and a sixteen year old sister and thirty class mates at school. She had a crowd of admires, whose eyes wee not off her face and always tried to have a glimpse of her in the classroom. She had a family, loving aunts and a good home. Outwardly, she seemed to have everything, but not a true friend, except her diary. She was not able to share her personal thoughts with her friends and she blamed herself for that.

That wass why she started writing a diary. She decided to name it Kitty, her friend. In this way, she gave a human trait to it so that she might feel that she was sharing her thoughts and emotions with a human being.

Q4. What did Anne write about her and family when she began to write in her diary, Kitty?

Ans. She started telling about her parents. She wrote that her father was thirty-six and her mother twenty-five, when they got married.

Her sister, Margot was born in 1926 and she was born on June 12, 1929. She lived in Frankfurt until she was four. The Jews were being treated very badly in Germany at that time. Since they were Jewish, her father migrated to Holland in 1933.

He became the Managing Director of the Dutch Opekta Company, which manufactured products used in making jam. Her mother, Edith Hollander Frank, went with him to Holland in September, while Margot and she were sent to Aachen to stay with their grandmother. Margot went to Holland in December and Anne went there in February. She studied at the Montessori nursery school and stayed there until she was six.

In sixth grade, her teacher was Mrs. Kuperus, the principal. Both of them were in tears at the time of her farewell as she took admission in Jewish Lyceum. She wrote that their relatives were suffering in Germany as Hitler’s anti Jews-laws were implemented in Germany. Her two uncles (her mother’s brothers) fled (left) Germany and found safe refuge in North America. Her elderly grandmother came to live with them. She was seventy-three years old at the time.

After 1940, their good days were almost over. First there was war, then the capitulation (surrender) and after that the arrival of the Germans.

Q5. How was the freedom of the Jews curtailed by passing anti-Jews decree by German Government? Describe in detail.

Ans. The Jews’ freedom in Germany and in the occupied countries was severely (strictly) restricted by a series of anti-Jewish decrees (legal orders): Jews were required to wear a yellow star and they were required to use only bicycles as a means of transportation. The Jews were also forbidden to use street-cars and to ride in cars, even their own. They were required to do their shopping between 3 and 5 p.m.

Jews were allowed only to go in Jewish-owned barbershops and beauty parlors. They were forbidden to be out on the streets between 8 p.m. and 6 p.m.

They were forbidden to attend theaters, movies or any other forms of entertainment They were not allowed to use swimming pools, tennis courts, hockey fields or any other athletic fields, to go rowing, to take part in any athletic activity in public, to sit in their gardens or those of their friends after 8 p.m..

They were forbidden to visit Christians in their homes and allowed only to attend Jewish schools, etc. In this way, the Jews were given inhuman treatment in Germany and gradually it spread in the German-occupied countries like Holland also.