NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 4 - From the Diary of Anne Frank

Page No. 51

Oral Comprehension Check

Q1: What makes writing in a diary a strange experience for Anne Frank?

Ans: 

• Anne Frank found it unusual to write in a diary because she had never done it before. 
• She got the diary as a present on her thirteenth birthday and saw it as her closest friend, where she could share all her thoughts and feelings.
• Although she thought that no one would care about what a thirteen-year-old girl had to say, this made her feel comfortable writing openly in the diary to ease her mind.
  

Q2: Why does Anne want to keep a diary?

Ans: 

• Anne was an introvert and had no close friends to share her feelings with. 
• Hence, she wanted to keep a diary to share her feelings. 
• She felt that paper has more patience than people. She named her Kitty. 

Q3: Why did Anne think she could confide more in her diary than in people?

Ans: 

• Anne believed that paper was more patient than people when it came to understanding her thoughts. 
• She found it easier to write down everything she was thinking and feeling in her diary. 
• For her, the diary became the perfect place to share her secrets, as it was her closest companion and wasn't meant for anyone else to read.

Oral Comprehension Check

Q1: Why does Anne provide a brief sketch of her life?

Ans: 

• Anne gave a short overview of her life because she wanted to introduce her family, school, and herself. 
• By reading her diary, she hoped the reader would feel a connection with her and the events happening around her at that time.

Q2: What tells you that Anne loved her grandmother?

Ans: 

• Anne lived with her grandmother in Aachen while her parents moved to Holland. 
• She was very close to her grandmother and often wrote about her in her diary. 
• When her grandmother passed away in January 1942, Anne expressed her deep love by saying, "No one knows how often I think of her and still love her." This showed how much her grandmother meant to her. 
• On her thirteenth birthday, she lit an extra candle alongside the others to honor and remember her beloved grandmother.

Page No. 54

Oral Comprehension Check

 Q1: Why was Mr Keesing annoyed with Anne? What did he ask her to do?

Ans: 

• Mr. Keesing was annoyed with Anne because she talked very much in class. 
• He assigned her extra homework, asking her to write an essay on the subject, ‘A Chatterbox’.

Q2: How did Anne justify her being a chatterbox in her essay?

Ans: 

• Anne defended her talkativeness in her essay by explaining that she got it from her mother, who was just as talkative, if not more. 
• She also mentioned that inherited traits like this can't really be changed.

Q3: Do you think Mr Keesing was a strict teacher?

Ans: 

• Mr. Keesing was a strict teacher. However, he was not rigidly strict. He expected discipline and silence in his class while he was teaching, which is acceptable. 
• He punished Anne by asking her to write an essay on ‘A Chatterbox’. When Anne wrote a convincing essay on it, he received it with a good laugh. 
• However, when Anne continued her talking, he punished her again by asking her to write another essay; this time the topic was ‘An Incorrigible Chatterbox’.
• Even after this when she kept talking, he asked her to write on the topic ‘Quack Quack Quack, said Mistress Chatterbox”. He was trying to play a joke on her. 
• However, she came up with a brilliant poem, and he read this poem in class, acknowledging its content.
• Therefore, regarding these events, Mr. Keesing cannot be entirely labeled as a strict teacher. He was fun-loving too.

Q4: What made Mr Keesing allow Anne to talk in class?

Ans: 

• Anne's final essay, titled ‘Quack, Quack, Quack, Said Mistress Chatterbox,’ was written as a poem and revealed her playful side to Mr. Keesing. 
• He was impressed by how she expressed her points in a rhythmic way. 
• This helped improve their relationship, and after that, he never gave her extra homework again.

Thinking about the Text

Ans: 

• It's common for adults not to take kids seriously. 
• As a thirteen-year-old, Anne believed that most people wouldn't value a child's view of the world, thinking children were too young to understand such things. 
• However, Anne Frank's diary became widely popular, translated into many languages, and she became one of the most well-known and talked-about victims of the Holocaust.

Q2: 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 dairy different?

Ans: 

• Anne's diary, originally written in Dutch, stood out from others in several ways. 
• She named her diary ‘Kitty’ and wrote in a casual, informal style that reflected her carefree teenage spirit. 
• She treated her diary as her best friend, sharing her feelings and secrets with it. 
• The personal events and memories she recorded made her diary unique compared to others.

Q3: Why does Anne need to give a brief sketch of her family? Does she treat ‘Kitty’ as an insider or an outsider?

Ans: 

• Anne Frank claims that paper has more patience than people. She usually sits depressed and all alone.
• She claims to have no real friends. This lends the reader the perception that there isn’t anybody to take care of Anne Frank. 
• To clear the clouds of doubt, Anne Frank gives the sketch of her adorable father, compassionate mother, kind grandmother, and loving sister.
• She treated Kitty as an insider because she called it her best friend and was ready to confide in it.

Q4: How does Anne feel about her father, her grandmother, Mrs Kuperus and Mr Keesing? What do these tell you about her?

Ans: 

• Anne felt that her father was the most adorable father she had ever seen.
• Anne remembered her grandmother even after her death. She wrote in her diary that no one knew how often she thought of her grandmother and still loved her.
• In the sixth form at the Montessori nursery school, her teacher was Mrs Kuperus, who was also the headmistress. At the end of the year, they were both in tears as they said a heartbreaking farewell.
• Mr Keesing was her Maths teacher. He was annoyed with her because she talked too much. However, Anne was able to justify her talkative nature every time she was punished by Mr. Keesing. 
• On each occasion, he was impressed by how she presented her arguments.
• All these incidents show how lovable and smart Anne was. Everybody was attached to her, and even Mr. Keesing could not help but laugh at her essays and acknowledge her smart mind.

Q5: What does Anne write in her first essay?

Ans: 

• In her first essay, titled ‘A Chatterbox’, Anne wanted to come up with convincing arguments to prove the necessity of talking. She began thinking about the subject. 
• She wrote three pages and was satisfied. She argued that talking was a student’s trait and that she would do her best to keep it under control. 
• She further wrote that she would never be able to cure herself of the habit since her mother talked as much as she did. 
• There was not much that one could do about inherited traits. Mr Keesing too had a good laugh reading her arguments.

Q6: Anne says teachers are most unpredictable. Is Mr Keesing unpredictable? How?

Ans: 

• Anne felt that a quarter of her class was dumb, and should be kept back and not promoted to the next class. However, she also felt that teachers were the most unpredictable creatures on earth. 
• Mr Keesing could be termed as unpredictable. The way Anne always talked while the class was going on, any teacher would lose his temper.
• However, after several warnings, all Mr Keesing did was to assign her extra homework. 
• She had to write an essay on 'A Chatterbox'. In this way, he tried to play a joke on her. Each time that he asked her to write such essays, she wrote very well. 
• She kept countering his jokes. One could not have predicted that he would take all the jokes in the right spirit. 
• Finally, when she wrote an entire essay in verse he accepted her talkative nature and actually allowed her to talk in class. He did not even assign her any more extra homework. 
• That is why it can be said that Mr Keesing was unpredictable.

Q7: 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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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 taking.

Ans:

(i) These lines show that Anne had no true friends whom she could confide in. She even put the blame on herself that the fault might be hers.
(ii) This line shows that Anne really considered her diary as a friend whom she could trust and narrate all her stories. She did not want just a diary in which she could write down the facts as others did. She considered it as her friend and named her Kitty.
(iii) This statement shows that Anne was a fun-loving person. She was witty and knew how to present things in a funny way. She narrated this incident with a lot of fun. The use of ‘plunked down’ shows her sense of humor.
(iv) This statement shows that she had an opinion on everything. She thought that a quarter of her class was full of dummies, signifying that she herself was intelligent enough to make it to the next class. She thought of teachers as the most unpredictable creatures on earth because nobody could say which students they would fail and which students would be passed on to the next class.
(v) This statement shows that Anne knew a lot about writing. She was given the task of writing an essay as a punishment. She took it on with full vigor. She did not want to write it like others who merely left big spaces between the words to make the essay look voluminous. She knew that the trick was to come up with a convincing argument to prove the necessity of talking. She was different in her approach from everybody else.

Page No. 55

Thinking about Language 

Ans:

II. 2. Now find the sentences in the lesson that have the phrasal verbs given below. Match them with their meanings.

Ans: (i) Plunge in − go straight to the topic
Sentence: Since no one would understand a word of my stories to Kitty if I were to plunge right in, I’d better provide a brief sketch of my life, much as I dislike doing so.

(ii) kept back − not promoted
Sentence: The reason, of course, is the forthcoming meeting in which the teachers decide who’ll move up to the next form and who’ll be kept back.

(iii) move up − go to the next grade
Sentence: The reason, of course, is the forthcoming meeting in which the teachers decide who’ll move up to the next form and who’ll be kept back.

(iv) ramble on − speak or write without focus
Sentence: 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.

(v) get along with − having a good relationship with
Sentence: I get along pretty well with all my teachers.

(vi) calm down − make (them) remain quite
Sentence: Even G.’s pleading advances and my angry outbursts can’t calm them down.

(vii) stay in − stay indoors
Sentence: I thought of this saying on one of those days when I was feeling a little depressed and was sitting at home with my chin in my hands, bored and listless, wondering whether to stay in or go out.

(viii) make up for − compensate
Sentence: This birthday celebration in 1942 was intended to make up for the other.

(ix) hand in − give an assignment (homework) to a person in authority (the teacher)
Sentence: I handed it in, and Mr Keesing had nothing to complain about for two whole lessons.

Page No. 56

2. Here are a few more idiomatic expressions that occur in the text. Try to use them in sentences of your own.Ans: (i) caught my eye: A small red car passing by caught my eye.
(ii) he’d had enough: Tom had a hard time raising enough money to build the orphanage he'd promised to build.
(iii) laugh ourselves silly: One girl said something funny, and we laughed ourselves silly.
(iv) can’t bring me to: I can’t bring myself to eat anything but chocolates.

Page No: 58 
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 the 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
Ans: 1. break somebody’s heart − to upset somebody deeply
Sentence: It has, unfortunately, become very easy these days to break somebody’s heart.

2. close/dear to heart − something or someone who is near and close to you
Sentence: The drawing given to me by my little daughter is very close to my heart.

3. from the (bottom of your) heart − genuinely meaning or feeling something
Sentence: He loved his son from the bottom of his heart.

4. have the heart − to evoke the feeling to help someone in distress
Sentence: The poor beggar asked the rich man to have a heart and give him something to eat.

5. have a heart of stone − to not feel anything or any sentiment
Sentence: The cruel landlady has a heart of stone as she beats up her children.

6. your heart goes out to somebody − to sympathize with someone else and understand his feelings
and distress.
Sentence: My heart goes out to the little girl who lost both her parents in a car accident.

Page No. 58 

Q2: 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.
Ans: 1(i) I’ve − I have
(ii) Doesn’t − does not
(iii) Won’t − would not
(iv) I’m − I am
(v) Don’t − do not
(vi) Can’t − cannot
(vii) it’s − it is
(viii) That’s − that is
(ix) I’d − I would
(x) Didn’t − did not
(xi) Who’ll − who will
(xii) You’re − You are
(xiii) We’ll − We will
(xiv) There’s − there is
(xv) He’d − he had
(xvi) Who’s − who is
(xvii) Haven’t − have not

2(i) I’d − I had or I would
(ii) He’d − He had or he would