Flamingo(The last lesson) extract/passage

 

NCERT Solutions For Class 12 English

Flamingo

The Last Lesson(Alphonse Daudet)

Extract/ Passage

Question 1)

But now it was all so still! I had counted on the commotion to get to my desk without being seen; but, of course, that day everything had to be as quiet as Sunday morning. Through the window I saw my classmates, already in their places, and M. Hamel walking up and down with his terrible iron ruler under his arm.

 Based on the above passage answer the following questions.

 1. ‘Counted on’ means___________

a. To count numbers
b. To depend on
c. To borrow
d. To think

2. Find a synonym of disturbance.

3. Why did the narrator want to reach his desk without being seen?

a. He was afraid of his classmates.
b. He was afraid of being caught by the teacher.
c. He was afraid of the enemy soldiers.
d. He was afraid of villagers

4. Why was everything quiet on a Sunday morning?

5. State true or False

The statement “M. Hamel walking up and down” means that he was walking on the wall of the classroom

 Answers

1 a

2 commotions

3 b

4 It was quiet on a Sunday morning because it was a holiday in the school.

5 False

 Question 2)

 Ah, that’s the great trouble with Alsace; she puts off learning till tomorrow. Now those fellows out there will have the right to say to you, ‘How is it; you pretend to be Frenchmen, and yet you can neither speak nor write your own language?’ But you are not the worst, poor little Franz. We’ve all a great deal to reproach ourselves with.”

 Based on the above passage answer the following questions.

 1. what is Alsace?

a. A girl
b. A district
c. not mentioned
d. Both a and b

2. Who are ‘those fellows’?

 3. Why does he call Franz poor?

4. Find a synonym of scold.

5. ‘A Great deal’ means

a. A big issue
b. A big business deal
c. both a and b
d. None of these

 

Answers

1 b

2 The enemy German soldiers.

3 Franz is called poor because he has not learned his mother tongue.

 4 Reproaches

5 a

 

Question 3)

Then, from one thing to another, M. Hamel went on to talk of the French language, saying that it was the most beautiful language in the world — the clearest, the most logical; that we must guard it among us and never forget it, because when a people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language it is as if they had the key to their prison. Then he opened a grammar and read us our lesson. I was amazed to see how well I understood it. All he said seemed so easy, so easy! I think, too, that I had never listened so carefully, and that he had never explained everything with so much patience.

 Based on the above passage answer the following questions.

 1.     How can we guard a language?

2.     2.How is our language the key to the prison of enslavement?

3.     3. Why on that day Franz understood the lesson?
a. It was easy
b. He listened carefully
c. Teacher had taught with patience
d. b and c

4.      4. Find a synonym of surprised.

Answers 

1 we can guard a language by learning it and by using it in our daily lives.

2 One's mother tongue or language helps one stay connected to the mother land and unites all countrymen because it is a unique thing that is shared by the people of one country.

3 d

4 Amazed