Answers to NCERT Questions

ORAL COMPREHENSION CHECK

1. What makes writing in a diary a strange experience for Anne Frank?

Ans: First, Anne Frank had not written anything like this before and secondly, she thought that nobody is going to read or would be interested in her diary.

2. Why does Anne want to keep a diary?

Ans: Anne wants to keep a diary because she didn’t have any friend.

3. Why did Anne think she could confide more in her diary than in people?

Ans: Though Anne would love to confide in her close friends, but she didn’t have one. The friends that she had liked to have fun and enjoy the good times. They were not the kind whom she could confide in. She also believed that paper has more patience than people, so she decided to write and confide in a diary.

4. Why does Anne provide a brief sketch of her life?

Ans: Anne provides a brief sketch of her life since no one would understand her musings if she were to jump right in.

5. What tells you that Anne loved her grandmother?

Ans: Anne’s statement, that no one could understand her intensity of love for her grandma indicates that she loved her grandmother. In addition, her touching gesture of lighting a candle for grandmother during Anne’s birthday is also a poignant reminder of her love for grandma.

6. 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 the class.

He assigned her extra homework, by asking her to write an essay on the subject, ‘A Chatterbox’.

7. How did Anne justify her being a chatterbox in her essay?

Ans: She gave two arguments to justify her ‘Chatterbox’. First, that chatting is a student’s trait and second that inherited traits are not curable.

8. Do you think Mr Keesing was a strict teacher?

Ans:Yes, I believe that Mr Keesing was a strict teacher. However, he was not rigid. He expected discipline and silence in his class while he was teaching. 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 good humour. However, when Anne continued with her talking, he again punished her 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 the class, acknowledging its content. Therefore, in regard of these events, Mr Keesing cannot be entirely labelled as a strict teacher. He was fun-loving too.

9. What made Mr Keesing allow Anne to talk in class?

Ans:Anne was able to justify her talkative nature every time she was punished by Mr Keesing. On three occasions, as punishment, he gave her topics to write essays on. However, on each occasion, he was impressed by the manner in which she presented her arguments. Finally, Mr Keesing accepted the fact that Anne would always be that way. Hence, she was allowed to talk in class.

THINKING ABOUT THE TEXT

1. Was Anne right when she said that the world would not be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old girl?

Ans: No, Anne was not right when she said that the world would not be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old girl.

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?

Ans: Anne’s diary was originally written in Dutch. Her diary is different from other diaries in many respects. She had named her diary ‘Kitty’. She thought of it as her only true friend whom she could confide in. She treated it as another person who was listening to her daily accounts. She wrote all her stories in it. She started by writing ‘Dear Kitty’ and ended the account by writing, ‘Yours Anne’. Her diary was a lot more personal than other diaries.

3. Why does Anne need to give a brief sketch about her family? Does she treat ‘Kitty’ as an insider or an outsider?

Ans: Anne Frank claims that paper has more patience than people. She is usually depressed and all alone. She claims of having no real friends. This lends the reader the perception that there isn’t anybody to take care of Anne Frank. To clear all doubts, Anne Frank gives a pen-sketch of her adorable father, compassionate mother, kind grandmother, and loving sister.

Anne Frank treated Kitty as an insider because she called it her best friend and was ready to confide in it.

4. 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 man she has 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 heart-breaking farewell.

Mr Keesing was her mathematics 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 the manner in which 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.

5. 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 wrote three pages before she was satisfied. She argued that talking was a student’s characteristic 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 had a good laugh while reading her arguments.

6. 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 level. However, she also felt that the 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 he asked her to write such essays, she wrote well. She kept countering her 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.

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. May be it’s my fault that we don’t confide to 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 talking.

Ans:

i. These lines show that Anne had no true friend 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 to. She did not want just a diary in which she could write down the facts like 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 humour.

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 the 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 vigour. She did not want to write it like others who merrily 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.

Additional Questions

Extract Based Questions

Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow: (4 Marks each)

1. All I think about when I’m with friends is having a good time. I can’t bring myself to talk about anything but ordinary everyday things. 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. In any case, that’s just how things are, and unfortunately they’re not liable to change. This is why I’ve started the diary.

a) What are Anne’s views on friends?

b) What is her fault?

c) Explain—‘unfortunately they’re not liable to change’.

d) What is the problem which the speaker has with her friends?

Ans:

a) Anne could only think of having a good time with friends, nothing more.

b) Her fault was that they did not confide in each other, and hence, weren’t very close.

c) It means that regrettably, the situation was not likely to change, as she couldn’t confide in friends.

d) She feels that her friends do not confide in her, and nor does she reveal her secrets to them.

2. ‘Paper has more patience than people.’ 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. I finally stayed where I was, brooding: Yes, paper does have more patience and since I’m not planning to let anyone else read this stiff-backed notebook grandly referred to as a ‘diary’, unless I should ever find a real friend, it probably won’t make a bit of difference.

a) Why did Anne think that ‘paper has more patience than people’?

b) Why did Anne feel depressed?

c) When would Anne allow one to read her diary?

d) Why did Anne think she could confide more in her diary than in people?

Ans:

a) She thought so because paper is much better than people in sharing thoughts, keeping secrets and it never shows disinterest.

b) Anne felt depressed because she did not have a true friend.

c) She would allow one to read her diary when she would find a real friend.

d) She was never so close to people as to pour her heart out to them. She could do so only in her diary because she considered the diary to be her true friend.

3. However, during the third lesson he’d finally had enough. “Anne Frank, as punishment for talking in class, write an essay entitled— ‘Quack, Quack, Quack, said Mistress Chatterbox’.”

The class roared. I had to laugh too, though I’d nearly exhausted my ingenuity on the topic of chatterboxes. It was time to come up with something else, something original. My friend, Sanne, who’s good at poetry, offered to help me write the essay from the beginning to end in verse and I jumped for joy. Mr Keesing was trying to play a joke on me with this ridiculous subjects, but I’d make sure the joke was on him.

a) Who is ‘he’? What did ‘he’ had enough?

b) How was this essay different from the one written earlier?

c) Why was Anne punished?

d) Why did the whole class roar with laughter?

Ans:

a) He is Mr Keesing, Anne’s maths teacher. He was tired of Anne’s talking habit.

b) This essay was written in verse.

c) Anne was punished because she had been continuously talking for three periods.

d) This was because the topic of the essay given to Anne as punishment was absurd and funny.

4. Our entire class is quaking in its boots. The reason, of course, is the forthcoming meeting in which the teachers decide who’ll be kept back. Half the class is making bets.

a) What does ‘quacking in its boots’ imply?

b) Why was the entire class quacking in its boots?

c) What were they betting for?

d) What opinion did Anne have about her classmates?

Ans:

a) ‘Quacking in its boots’ implies shaking with fear and nervousness.

b) There was going to be a meeting of all the teachers to decide whom to promote to the next form and whom to detain in the same class.

c) They were betting for — who would be promoted to the next class.

d) She thought that girls were better in studies than the boys and most of them were dummies.

5. I wrote the three pages Mr Keesing had assigned me and was satisfied. I argued that talking is a student’s trait and that I would try to keep it under control, but I would never be able to cure myself of the habit since my mother talked as much as I did if not more, and that there’s not much you can do about inherited traits.

a) Which fact shows that the narrator was intelligent?

b) Which trait of students did she mention in her essay?

c) Why did she say that she could never be able to cure herself of the habit of talking?

d) How did Anne justify her being a chatterbox in her essay?

Ans:

a) Anne came out with convincing arguments in support of her habit of talking.

b) Anne mentioned the trait of talking in her essay.

c) This was because she inherited it from her mother and it was difficult to cure inherited habits.

d) She argued that talking was a student’s trait. Moreover, she had inherited it from her mother.

Short Answer Questions (30-40 words: 2 Marks each)

1. Why did Anne prefer confiding in her diary? Or

Why does Anne want to keep a diary? Why does she feel she can trust a diary more than the people?

Ans: Anne did not have a true friend in whom she could confide, hence, she started writing a diary. She believed that paper had more patience than people and her secrets would be safe in a diary. She could trust diary more than people.

2. How does Anne feel about her father, grandmother, Mrs Kuperus and Mr Keesing?

Ans: Anne loved her father very much. She also loved her grandmother and often thought of her with reverence after her death. She was deeply attached to her teacher, Mrs Kuperus and was in tears when she left her. Anne did not have a good impression of Mr Keesing, her maths teacher and often called him an ‘old fogey’.

3. ‘Paper has more patience than people.’ Do you agree/disagree? Give reason.

Ans: I do agree with the statement that paper has more patience than people. People sometimes get bored, tired or have no mood or time to listen to you. They can get irritated, grudge or complaint about forcing them to listen to you, but a paper never carries a grudge. It definitely has more patience than people.

4. How did Anne want her diary to be different?

Ans: Anne did not want to jot down the facts in her diary, the way most people do. She wanted the diary to be her friend, so she called it ‘Kitty’. She wrote about her feelings and experiences in it. It was a mature work, reflecting deep insight.

5. Explain, ‘teachers are the most unpredictable creatures’.

Ans: Anne and her classmates thought that teachers were the most unpredictable creatures as nobody would know what is going on in their minds and what their next step would be.

6. Why did Anne think that she was alone? Give reasons.

Ans: Anne had lost her parents and an elder sister. She had also lost her aunts and a good home. Though she had a member of friends also, but there was no true friend in whom she could confide. So she thought that she was alone.

7. How do you know that Anne was close to her grandmother?

Ans: Anne lived with her grandmother for some months when her parents went to Holland. She loved her deeply. When her grandmother died, Anne felt sad. She often thought about her and lit a candle for her. So we know that she was close to her grandmother.

8. Where did Anne stay before going to Holland?

Ans: Anne’s parents migrated to Holland. They did not take Anne with them. So Anne stayed with her grandmother for some months.

9. Why was Anne in tears, when she left the Montessori School?

Ans: When Anne was in the sixth form in the Montessori School, her teacher was Mrs Kuperus, the headmistress. Anne loved her teacher deeply. She also showed affection to Anne. So when Anne left the Montessori School, she was in tears.

10. Why was the entire class quaking in their boots?

Ans: As the time for declaring the annual results were coming closer, teachers would decide whom to pass and whom to retain in the same class in a meeting soon. That is why, the whole class was quaking in their boots.

11. Why did Mr Keesing punish her?

Ans: Anne Frank was in the habit of talking in the class. Mr Keesing was her maths teacher. He was annoyed with Anne as she talked too much in the class. He gave her several warnings, but it had no effect. One day, he punished her by giving her extra homework.

12. What was the punishment?

Ans: He asked her to write an essay on the subject ‘A Chatterbox’. Anne wrote the essay, giving very amusing and convincing arguments in it. But Anne talked again in the class. So he gave the task of writing another essay. This time, the subject was ‘An Incorrigible Chatterbox’. After that, Anne did not get any punishment. But during the third lesson, Mr Keesing saw Anne talking again. He asked her to write another essay.

The subject of that essay was “Quack, Quack, Quack, said Mistress Chatterbox.”

13. How did Anne finally stop Mr Keesing from punishing her?

Ans:Mr Keesing was trying to play a joke on Anne. But she wrote the essay in an amusing way. Mr Keesing liked the verse and he did not punish Anne after that.

Long Answer Questions (100-150 words: 8 Marks each)

1. “Paper has more patience than people.” Elucidate.

Ans: Anne Frank felt lonely in the world. She had loving parents, an elder sister and a number of friends. But she was not intimate with anyone. She could talk to them about common everyday matters. But she could not express her inner feelings to them. She wanted a patient listener with a sympathetic heart. But she found that people had no patience to listen to her. She could not relieve the feelings of her heart to anyone. Anne wanted to lighten the burden of ideas from her heart. So she decided to maintain a diary. A diary is not a human being. It has a lot more patience than man. One can express one’s thoughts freely. The diary does not get bored. It is a true friend. It never rejects the offer of friendship. That is why, Anne Frank says that paper has more patience than people.

2. Give a brief description about Anne’s life.

Ans: Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl. She lived with her parents in Germany. But Hitler’s Nazi party was against the Jews. The Nazis were killing the Jews or forcing them to work in the concentration camps. The Frank family fled from Germany in 1933 and took shelter in Netherlands. But in 1940, Germany attacked Netherlands and captured it. Now, the Nazis started arresting the Jews and sending them to concentration camps. The Frank family went into hiding. They lived secretly in the upper floors of their business premises. They hid there for twenty-five months. Their nonJewish friends gave them food.

Anne had started writing her diary before going into hiding. In August 1944, the Germans came to know of their hiding. They were arrested and sent to Germany. Anne, her sister, Margot and her mother soon died in the concentration camp. Her father survived and published a part of Anne’s diary. In this diary, Anne gives a moving and tragic account of the difficulties faced by her family and the other Jews.

The part of the diary reproduced in this chapter is about the days when Anne was a school girl, and she and her family had not yet moved to the secret quarters.

3. How do you assess Anne’s character? You can choose appropriate words from the following and write a paragraph.

responsible; caring and loving; humorous; talkative; sensible; patient; mature for her age; lonely; accurate in her judgement; childish; intelligent

Ans: Anne was a girl of thirteen years. She was very intelligent. She had a sharp brain. She was different from the other girls of her age. She could think clearly and deeply. She had deep thoughts and ideas that she wanted to share with someone. But she found that her friends were not able to understand her completely. Their mental level was not equal to that of Anne. They could talk to Anne about ordinary everyday matters only. She had loving parents, an elder sister and loving aunts too. But she could not share her deep thoughts with anyone. So she decided to make her diary her friend. She wrote down her inner thoughts and feelings in the diary. Anne had an argumentative mind. She argued in her first essay that parental characteristics are inherited by children. She had a good sense of humour. Her maths teacher, Mr Keesing tried to play a joke on her. But she wrote the verse in such a way that the joke was turned on him.

4. What does Anne say about her parents, elder sister and her stay in the Montessori School?

Ans: Anne calls her father very adorable. When her parents married, her father was thirty-six and her mother was twenty-five. Margot was Anne’s elder sister. She was born in Frankfurt in 1926. Three years later, Anne was born. She lived in Frankfurt until she was four. Her father migrated to Holland in 1933. Her mother, Edith Hollander Frank, went with him. Anne and her sister, Margot were sent to Aachen to stay with their grandmother. Margot went to Holland in December and Anne went three months later. Anne started studying at the Montessori School. She stayed there until she was six at which time she was in the first form. When she was in the sixth form, her teacher was Mrs Kuperus, who was also the headmistress. Both loved each other. When she left the school, both Anne and her teacher were in tears.

5. Anne had loving parents and a number of friends. Even then, she thought that she was alone. Why?

Ans:Anne Frank was a thirteen-year-old girl. She had loving parents and an elder sister. She had loving aunts and lived in a good home. She had about thirty friends also. Even then, she felt that she was alone in the world. She had no close friends. She had no true friend with whom she could share her feelings. She could not confide in anyone.

She had a number of thoughts that she wanted to express but none she was close to. She could have a good time with her friends. She could talk to them about ordinary everyday matters of life. But there was no one with whom she could share the deepest thoughts of her heart. Thus, she felt lonely in the world. She wanted a true friend, so she decided to make the diary her friend.

6. Mr Keesing punished Anne by giving her an essay to write. Did he lack empathy and compassion? Was it not in his attitude to respect differences among the students? What values would you like to imbibe in him and why?

Ans:Mr Keesing was annoyed with Anne as she was a very talkative girl. He warned her several times, but when she didn’t change, he punished her by giving her an essay to write. I think he lacked empathy and compassion. As a teacher, he should be more patient and considerate, and should have understood Anne’s condition. He lacked the quality of a good teacher. A good teacher understands that all students are not the same, and there are different ways to teach different students. But Anne was able to change his attitude through her essays. She taught him that talking was a student’s quality and that it was the teacher’s responsibility to change it.