CBSE Class 10 English From the Diary of Anne Frank Worksheet Set B

From the Diary of Anne Frank —Anne Frank

Reference to Context

I finished my poem, and it was beautiful! It was about a mother duck and a father swan with three baby ducklings who were bitten to death by the father because they quacked too much. Luckily, Mr. 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.

Question. Who is ‘I’ in the above extract?
(a) Anne
(b) Kitty
(c) diary
(d) Mr. Keesing
Answer: (a)

Question. Choose the option that lists the set of statements that are NOT TRUE according to the given extract.
1. I could not finish my poem.
2. it was beautiful.
3. mother duck was bitten.
4. father swan bit the ducklings.
5. they did not quack.
6. they quacked too much.
7. Mr. Keesing could not read the poem.
(a) 1, 3, 7
(b) 2, 3, 6
(c) 4, 5, 6
(d) 3, 4, 5
Answer: (a)

Question. Pick the option that correctly classifies fact/s(F) and myths(M) of the students below.
1. Mr. Keesing reads the poem to the class.
2. Mother duck attacked the ducklings.
3. Mr. Keesing kept the written poem in his cupboard.
4. Father swan bit the ducklings.
(a) F-1 and 3 M- 2 and 4
(b) F-1 and 2 M- 3 and 4
(c) F-1 and 4 M- 2 and 3
(d) F-3 and 4 M-1 and 2
Answer: (c)

Question. The antonym of ‘ugly’ as given in the extract is_________.
(a) pretty
(b) fascinating
(c) beautiful
(d) cute
Answer: (c)

Question. What did Mr. Keesing add to the poem while reading it?
(a) another poem
(b) a story
(c) a picture
(d) his comments
Answer: (d)

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. Why did her teacher always get annoyed with her?
(a) because she was a dumb child.
(b) because she was naughty.
(c) because she talked too much in the class
(d) because she laughed too much in the class
Answer: (c)

Question. What does Anne write in her first essay?
(a) that talking is a student’s trait.
(b) that a student shouldn’t talk
(c) that a student shouldn’t study
(d) none of these
Answer: (a)

Question. What do you mean by the phrase ‘the class roared’?
(a) the students of the class shouted
(b) the students of the class laughed
(c) the students of the class screamed
(d) none of these
Answer: (b)

Question. Ingenuity means:
(a) dumbness
(b) creativity
(c) stupidity
(d) none of these
Answer: (b)

Question. Mr. Keesing thought Anne to be a _____________.
(a) dumb girl
(b) clever girl
(c) lazy girl
(d) chatterbox
Answer: (d)

Let me put it more clearly since no one will believe that a thirteen-year-old girl is completely alone in the world. And I’m not. I have loving parents and a sixteen-year old sister, and there are about thirty people I can call friends. I have a family, loving aunts and a good home. No, on the surface I seem to have everything, except my one true friend. 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.

Question. Anne Frank was an extremely sensitive and observant young lady. Yet, in this passage, she expresses some fears about herself. What are those fears?
Answer: Anne Frank was surrounded by loving people, parents, sister, friends and aunts yet she felt alone and unable to confide in anyone. This is the fear that she is talking about in this passage.

Question. How did her journal help her cope with this fear?
Answer: Her diary helped Anne immensely as it became a way for her to cope and express herself freely.

That evening, after I’d finished the rest of my homework, the note about the essay caught my eye. I began thinking about the subject while chewing the tip of my fountain pen. 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. I thought and thought, and suddenly I had an idea. 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 do my best to keep it under control, but that 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.

Question. What should characterise an essay, according to Anne Frank?
Answer: Anne Frank feels that essays should be full of convincing arguments and make a strong point instead of just filling in words with loads of space between them.

Question. Do you think Anne is a studious child?
Answer: Yes. She was very specific about what she wanted to write in the essay. She also was diligently completing the work given to her and trying to make it funnier.

I’m not so worried about my girlfriends and myself. We’ll make it. The only subject I’m not sure about is maths. Anyway, all we can do is wait. Until then, we keep telling each other not to lose heart.

Question. What is she not worried about?
Answer: Anne is not worried about her friends failing in the class. She knows they would be able to sail through the examinations and the results.

Question. The entire class was quaking in their boots. Why did Anne write this earlier in the passage?
Answer: The entire class was frightened because their results were soon going to be announced.

Question. What idea do you get about Anne’s maturity from this passage?
Answer: Anne was a mature girl. She knew her friends would have done well and she did not waste her time worrying about the results. She and her friends also consoled each other a lot.

He read the poem to the class, adding his own comments, and to several other classes as well. Since then I’ve been allowed to talk and haven’t been assigned any extra homework. On the contrary, Mr Keesing’s always making jokes these days.

Question. Which poem did Mr Keesing read to the class? Why was Anne being assigned extra homework?
Answer: Mr. Keesing read Anne’s poem to class where she had written about a duck, a swan and their ducklings. Anne was being assigned extra work because she had the habit of talking a lot in the class.

Question. How did Anne turn the events around to her advantage?
Answer: Anne had the gift of the gab and thus was able to write funny essays and poems that tickled the humorous side of her teacher.

Short Answers Type Questions (30-40 words)

Question. Why does Anne name her diary?
Answer: Anne named her diary to enhance the image of her friend in her imagination. Anne doesn’t want to jot down the facts in her diary the way most people would do but she wants the diary to be her friend and so, she calls this friend ‘Kitty’.

Question. Why was Anne’s class quaking in its boots?
Answer: Anne’s entire class was quaking in its boots because of the forthcoming meeting in which the teachers would decide who’ll move up to the next form and who’ll be kept back.

Question. What was the poem that Anne wrote for the third essay? Did this essay appease her teacher?
Answer: For the third essay, Anne wrote a poem. It was about a mother duck and a father swan with three baby ducklings who were bitten to death by the father because they quacked too much. The poem was so funny that the teacher forgave her and henceforth she was not punished for talking in class.

Question. Give a brief sketch of Anne’s life.
Answer: Anne was born on 12th June, 1929. She lived with her parents in Frankfurt until she was four-year-old. Her father emigrated to Holland in 1933. Her mother Edith Hollander Frank went with him to Holland. She and her sister Margot were sent to Aachen. There they stayed with their grandmother. Margot and she went to Holland in December of the next year. Anne followed her in February. She was treated as a birthday present for Margot. She started right away at the Montessori nursery school. She stayed there until she was six.

Question. How did Anne finally stop Mr. Keesing from punishing her?
Answer: Anne did not stop talking in the class. Mr. Keesing again gave her another essay as a punishment. It was titled as ‘Quack, Quack, Quack, Said Mistress Chatterbox.’ She had finished her skill in writing an essay on this subject. So Anne wrote the essay in verse. Mr. Keesing was trying to play a joke on her but she made it on him. Anne wrote a poem. It was about a mother duck and a father swan with three baby ducklings. The father bit the ducklings to death because they quacked too much. Indirectly, Anne made Mr. Keesing the father of the ducklings. It was an insult. But he took it lightly. Thereafter, he never punished her.

Question. What idea do you form of Mr. Keesing as a teacher? What values are reflected from his character? What is that you like most about him?
Answer: Mr. Keesing, the maths teacher, was very strict. He got annoyed with Anne as she talked too much. He warned Anne several times and after that he assigned her extra homework. When she completed it, she was assigned one more essay by Mr. Keesing. He found all the essays correct and laugh at her arguments. This shows his liking for Anne. At last, he tried to play a joke on Anne by giving her a ridiculous topic—Quack, Quack, Quack, Said Mistress Chatterbox. The poem written by Anne, completely transformed Mr. Keesing. Now, he had started having fun with students and even allowed them to talk. Mr. Keesing was a good teacher. He was a very disciplined and considerate. He wanted his students to be serious in his classes. However, he was a short-tempered teacher who punished Anne without understanding her stand. When Anne cracked a joke on him, he took it in positive way. This trait of his character is very impressive.

Question. How do you say that Anne was a lonely but mature and intelligent girl?
Answer: Anne was a lonely girl who wanted to have a sincere friend. She wrote a diary to not feel lonely anymore. But she knew that no one would be interested in reading her thoughts. She, however, believed that paper had more patience than people. She also knew that her diary would keep her secrets for life. Anne, however, kept denying that she was lonely. She wrote that she had loving parents and nice relatives. She had friends. But she did not have a true and sincere friend. So she made her diary her sincere friend. The diary shows that she was a sensible and mature girl. This is clear in her poem.

Long Answers Type Questions (100-150 words)

Question. What do you think about Anne’s talent for writing essays which she wrote convincingly, when punished by the teacher? [CBSE Delhi, Set 1, 2020]
Answer: Anne was a young and talented girl. She was inquisitive and thirsty for knowledge. She had a flair for writing and tried to put her best foot forward. When unable to receive appreciation from her teacher for the first two essays that she had composed, she took her friend, Sanne’s help to script the third one. She suggested Anne to write her essay in the form of a verse. Anne did the same. She wrote her third essay in a verse-form which her teacher, Mr. Keesing, appreciated a lot. This shows that she was a determined and strong spirited girl.

I wrote three pages Mr Keesing had assigned me and was satisfied. I argued that talking is a student’s trait and I would try to keep it under control but I would never be able to cure myself of the habit. (From the diary of Anne Frank)

Question. Read the extracts given below and comment on the difference in the nature of both the female characters in the story.
Answer: In the first extract, Anne showed her intelligence by putting forth convincing arguments about her talking habit. She did not drift away from accepting what she had done but she put up some really good mature counter argument which showed that her habit of talking was inherited and she could not cure it. She said that inherited habits cannot be done away with so she could not stop talking.

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. I thought and thought, and suddenly I had an idea. I wrote the three pages Mr. Keesing had assigned me and was satisfied. (From the diary of Anne Frank)

Question. Read the extracts given below and comment on the similarity in the nature of expression and creativity of both the young girls mentioned in the extracts.
Answer: Creativity is the tool to bring one’s desires and imaginations come to life. Anne Frank was a Jewish girl in hiding during the horrible times of Nazi Holocaust. She had little to no resources, and her prized possessions were her paper and pen. She was an avid thinker and unafraid to express her thoughts through her words, hence her statement, “Paper has more patience than people.” She would turn boring activities of writing extra homework into interesting and thought provoking essays with tongue in cheek. Writing was her tool to let out her ideas and allusions of her perception of the world.

Question. Does Anne consider her family lucky or unfortunate to be living in the annex?
Answer: Anne’s feelings about the annex constantly change. Most of the time, Anne realizes that she and her family are very fortunate to have the annex as a place to hide. She values the kindness and generosity of her father’s non-Jewish colleagues who are risking their lives to provide them with food and supplies. However, Anne often complains about the miserable physical and emotional conditions of the annex, and the confinement bothers her. She misses being able to see nature and the sky and laments that she cannot explore the world. Compared to her formerly comfortable, middle-class life, Anne must live with eight people under severe conditions—she eats rotten potatoes day after day, has no privacy, deals with clashing personalities, and lives in constant fear that the family will be discovered. Most of all, she feels lonely since she has no companions besides Peter in the annex in whom she can confide.
When Anne compares her deprived life to the freedom of non-Jewish Dutch children—a freedom she experienced so recently and took for granted—she feels indignant. However, when she thinks about her Jewish friends and family members who have probably been arrested and sent to concentration camps, such as her friend Hanneli, she feels extremely thankful to still be alive. Anne feels that the Jews as a group are not fortunate and have not been chosen for good things but bad. However, she expresses her conflict over whether she feels fortunate or unlucky about her personal situation. She wonders whether it would have been better to die a quick death than live a confined, tedious, and fearful existence.

Archive Questions

Question. Why did Anne maintain a diary?
Answer: Anne maintained a diary because she did not have a true friend with whom she could share her inner thoughts and feelings. She believed that "paper has more patience than people."