From the Diary of Anne Frank
INTRODUCTION—
This is a story of a young girl named Anne Frank. The story is based on her diary. Anne is a Jewish girl who has to go into hiding during World War to avoid the Nazis. She shares her experiences in the story when she is depressed. The chapter is an excerpt from the ‘Diary of a Young Girl’ by Anne Frank.
SUMMARY—
A thirteen year old school girl, Anne Frank was under some depression and despair. She thought of the saying, “Paper has more patience than people.” Then she started writing a diary but she was in need of a real friend and who could be more than a diary.
The writer explains that no one believed that the girl was alone in the world because she was actually not alone. She had her loving parents, a sister and thirty other people. She had a decent family except her one true friend. With friends one can have a good time. We can talk of ordinary things everyday but we won’t get closer. Even we cannot confide in one another. Since the written facts cannot be changed,Anne started writing the diary. That was her everlasting friend. She called that friend ‘Kitty’.
Anne wrote that her father was the most adorable person. At the age of thirty six, he got married to Anne’s mother, Edith. In 1926, her sister Margot was born. Then she was born on 12th June, 1929. They lived in Germany. In 1933, her father emigrated to Holland. She along with Margot, went to Aachen to stay with their grandmother. By December, both the sisters went to Holland. There, she started studying at the Montessori Nursery School. When she was in sixth class, Mrs. Kuperus was her headmistress. At the end of the year, there was a farewell function. The separation from head mistress was full of tears. Anne loved her grandmother very much. She fell ill in the summer of 1941. She had an operation but she died in January, 1942. Her death was all the more troublesome. At Anne’s birthday celebrations, a separate candle was lit for the grandmother. In her diary, Anne wrote that all the four members were doing well. She was much dedicated to her diary. This event was written by Anne on 20th June, 1942 on Saturday. In her diary, Anne made a mention of her school-experience. The complete class was nervous about their going to the next form. Some of the students had made bets and staked all their savings. Regarding her, they were declaring ‘Pass’ but Anne was not sure of maths. All had been telling one another not to lose heart. There were nine teachers. Mr. Keesing taught Maths. He remained annoyed with Anne because of her talkative nature. So, he had given her some extra work to write an essay on ‘A Chatter Box‘. After the homework, Anne started thinking on the essay. An idea flashed in her mind. She wrote “Talking is a student’s trait and I would do my best to control it. But I won’t be able to cure this habit since my mother is also talkative. So moving from the inherited trait cannot be done.” On reading her arguments, Mr. Keesing had a good laugh.
Then the teacher gave her another essay. ‘An Incorrigible Chatter Box‘. It was a sort of punishment for Anne for talking in class. At this topic, the whole class roared. Anne too laughed. Though Anne tried for this essay but her friend Sanne became ready to help her. In a way the teacher was playing a joke on her but in other words it was a joke on him. So Anne wrote this essay like a poem. Anne read the poem in the class. It stated, “There was a mother duck and a father Swan with three ducklings. The ducklings were beaten to death by the father since they quacked too much“. It was Anne’s good luck that the teacher took it in the right way. He read the poem, gave his own comments. After that Anne was allowed to talk and no extra work was given. Since then, Mr. Keesing too started making jokes.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow :
1.To enhance the image of this long – awaited friend in my imagination, I don’t want to jot down the facts in this diary the way most people would do, but I want the diary to be my friend, and I’m going to call this friend ‘Kitty’.
Question. Who is ‘I’ here ?
a. Anne Frank
b. Kitty
c. Margot
d. Edith
Answer.a. Anne Frank
Question. Who is Kitty?
a. Anne’s Sebter
b. Anne’s Friend
c. Anne’s Mother
d. Anne’s Diary
Answer.d. Anne’s Diary
Question. Anne regarded her diary as her __________.
a. mother
b. sister
c. neighbour
d. friend
Answer.d. friend
Question. Which word in the passage means the same as ‘record’ ?
a. to note-down
b. to jot down
c. to write
d. to make an account
Answer.b. to jot down
2.I get along pretty well with all my teachers. There are nine of them, seven men and two women. Mr. Keesing, the old fogey who teaches maths, was annoyed with me for ages, because I talked so much. After several warnings, he assigned me extra homework, an essay on the subject, ‘A Chatterbox’. A chatterbox-what can you write about that ? I’d worry about that later, I decided. I jotted down the title in my notebook, tucked it in my bag and tried to keep quite.
Question. With whom does Anne gets along pretty well?
a. friends
b. teachers
c. parents
d. relatives
Answer.b. teachers
Question. Who was Mr. Keesing ?
a. her father
b. her uncle
c. maths teacher
d. history teacher
Answer.c. maths teacher
Question. Trace a word in the passage which means ‘old fashioned’.
a. annoyed
b. warnings
c. fogey
d. assigned
Answer.c. fogey
Question. What was the topic of the ‘essay’?
a. A chatterbox
b. A tool box
c. A gift box
d. A magic box
Answer. a. A chatterbox
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 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 subject, but I’d make sure the joke was on him.
Question. Who is ‘he’ in the passage?
a. her classmate
b. Mr. Keesing
c. her father
d. her history teacher
Answer. b. Mr. Keesing
Question. During which lesson he had finally had enough?
a. first lesson
b. second lesson
c. fourth lesson
d. third lesson
Answer.d. Third lesson
Question. Which word in the passage means the same as ‘to laugh.
a. joke
b. ridiculous
c. roared
d. entitled
Answer.a. joke
Question. Mr. Keesing was trying to play a _________ on Anne.
a. fun
b. song
c. joke
d. trick
Answer.c. joke
Short Answer Type Questions :
Question. The classmates of Anne Frank were shaking with fear and nervousness. Why ?
Answer. The classmates of Anne Frank were shaking with fear and nervousness because it was time to move to the next class. The students did not know who would be kept back and who would be promoted.
Question. Who taught Anne Frank maths ? Why did the maths teacher always get annoyed with her ?
Answer. Mr. Keesing, the old fogey taught her Maths. He was annoyed with Anne for ages because in his class Anne talked too much. He had warned her several times, but Anne didn’t bother.
Question. What does Anne write in her first essay ?
Answer. Anne wrote that talking is a student’s trait. She would not keep talking under control because her mother talked a lot. She had inherited that trait from her mother. And she would do her best to keep it under control.
Question. How did Sanne help Anne Frank in writing the third essay ?
Answer. Sanne was one of Anne Frank’s friends. She suggested Anne to write the essay in verse form. She also advised her to put up the example of a swan and ducklings in it. The poem was very beautiful.
Long Answer Type Questions :
Question. Why did Anne Frank think that she could confide more in her diary than in the people ?
Answer.Anne got a diary as a gift on her thirteenth birthday. First, she didn’t like the idea of writing diary at all. But then she felt like writing because she had to get all kinds of things off her chest. She felt lonely, bored and depressed, though she had loving parents, a sister and thirty others. She was a shy and introvert type of a girl. She did not have a true friend. Even though she had a happy family but somehow, she could not confide in them. She wanted someone with whom she could share her secrets. She found a real friend in her diary ‘Kitty’. Moreover, she realized the truth lying in the fact that paper has more patience than people. She did not plan to let anyone else read her diary, unless she ever found a real friend. So she could confide in more ideas in her diary than in people because people are not always interested in listening to what you are telling them. But diary conceals all your secrets.
Question.How did Anne respond to the punishment by Mr. Keesing ? What light does it throw on her nature ?
Answer.Mr. Keesing Anne’s, Maths teacher, was always annoyed with Anne because of her talkative nature. So, he had given her some extra work to write an essay on “A Chatter Box”. She wrote in her essay, “Talking is a student’s trait and I would do my best to control it. But I won’t be able to cure this habit since my mother is also talkative. So moving from the inherited trait cannot be done“. On reading her arguments, Mr. Keesing had a good laugh. When the teacher gave her another essay on ‘An Incorrigible Chatter Box’. It was a punishment for Anne for talking in the class. Anne gave a message through the poem to the teacher. The teacher got so impressed by her little poem that he decided not to punish her. She made him realize his mistake. It also reflects her fearlessness, critical thinking, humility and unbiased approach as well as her creativity and humorous approach to deal with her strict teacher.
