04. From the Diary of Anne Frank

 SUMMARY

This lesson is an excerpt from ―"Diary of a Young Girl" or ―"The Diary of Anne Frank".It is an autobiography that was first published in 1947. In this, Anne expresses her thoughts in a diary which was gifted to her on her thirteenth birthday. She names the diary ―"kitty" which she considers as her only true friend. She mentions about her childhood, her family and a lot other things that she told no one else.

Anne Frank was born on 12th June 1929 in Frankfurt Germany. She was four years old when her father went to Holland to find a better place for them to live. She was very intelligent and always wanted to become a writer. She was a very good reader as well; she continued reading books, translated chapters, wrote down the vocabulary and worked hard on her skills. Like any child, she loved her parents but later grew a dislike towards her mother as she compared her to Margot. She was always jealous of her. She believed that time would come when the problems would be over. She felt lonely. Though she was amidst thirty people, she could hardly call anyone as her true friend. Anne died of typhus in the concentration camp at Berger- Belsen in late February or early March of 1945.

Oral Comprehension Check    

Q1. What makes writing in a diary a strange experience for Anne Frank?
Ans – It is a strange experience for Anne to makes writing in a diary because she had never written in a diary before and she thinks that later on no one else not even she herself will be interested in reading a thirteen-year old school girl diary.

Q2. Why does Anne want to keep a diary? 
Ans – Anne wants to keep a diary because she does not have any intimate friend whom she could confide in.

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

Ans – Anne was never so close to people to pour her heart to them. She could do so only in her diary because she considered her diary to be her true friend and called it 'Kitty'. 

Oral Comprehension Check 

Q1. Why does Anne provide a brief sketch of her life?
Ans – Anne thought that no one would understand a word of her stories if she pluge them without any background so she provide a brief sketch of her diary.

Q2. What tells you that Anne loved her grandmother?
Ans – The way Anne lighted a candle on her birthday for her grandmother tell us that how much Anne loved her grandmother.

Oral Comprehension Check 

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

Ans – Mr. Keesing, the old fogey who teaches maths in Anne's class was annoyed with her for ages because she talked so much. After several warnings, he assigned Anne an extra homework that is write an essay on the subject, ‘A Chatterbox’.

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

Ans – In her essay Anne argued that talking was a student's trait and that she would do her best to keep it under control, but that she would never be able to cure herself of the habit since her mother talked as much as she did. And then she wrote there’s not much one can do about inherited traits.

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

Ans – I don't think Mr. Keesing was a strict teacher. He started giving punishment to Anne only when his repeated warnings had no effect on her and she did not stop talking.

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

Ans – Mr Keesing had given Anne to write a composition on the topic 'Quack, Quack, quack said mistress chatterbox as third punishment. By giving this ridiculous topic Mr. Keesing wanted to play a joke on Anne. She wrote the whole composition in a beautiful poem. It was about a mother duck and father swan with three baby ducklings who were bitten to death by the father because they quacked too much. Mr. Keesing understood the joke played back by Anne and took it sportingly. After this Anne was allowed to talk in the class. Perhaps, he never wanted to be the cruel father swan.

Thinking About the Text

Q1. Was Anne right when she said that the world would not be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old girl?

Ans – I don't think Anne was right in her speculation that people would not be interested in her musings. On the contrary  her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books. It has been translated into many languages, many films, television and theatrical production and even an opera is based on the diary

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 diary different?

Ans – Anne's diary was written in Dutch language. Anne's diary was different from others in many ways. She had named it 'Kitty'. She took it as her only true friend. Anne treated it as an another person who listened to her daily. It has the characteristics of both a diary and a journal. It not only gives the chronological records of events, as a diary, but alse describe Anne's feeling, thoughts and ideas etc.

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

Ans – Anne thought that no one would understand a word of her stories if she pluge them without any background so she provided a brief sketch of her diary.

Q4. How does Anne feel about her father, her grandmother, Mrs Kuperus and Mr Keesing? What do these tell you about her?
Ans – Anne loved her father and considered him the most adorable father She also loved her grandmother and often remembered her even after her death. Mrs. Kuperus was her sixth grade teacher and Headmistress. The fact that both Anne and Kuperus had a tearful and heartbreaking farewell shows that they both loved and were attached to each other. Mr. Keesing, her Maths teacher. She annoyed him by talking constantly in his period. After repeated warning when he punished her by asking her to write essay on ridiculous topics, she gave convincing arguments in support of her talking and wrote beautiful essays which he appreciated specially the last one which was symbolic and written in verse.

Q5. What does Anne write in her first essay?
Ans – The topic of her first essay was 'A Chatterbox'. The subject was difficult. Anyone else could have rambled on and left big spaces between the words.

But Anne gave convincing arguments in support of her talking. She wrote that talking is a student's trait. And she inherited the trait from her mother. She would try to control it but would not be able to cure it because one could not do much about the inherited traits.

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

Ans – Anne gives the above remark when the teachers were about to meet to decide who should go to the next form. According to her about a quarter class, that are dummies, are not fit to be promoted to the next form but then teachers are the most unpredictable creatures. They might or might not promote them.
Same can be said for Mr. Keesing. Any teacher would lose temper the way Anne always talked while the class was going on. After several warnings, Mr. Keesing gave Anne extra homework. She had to write an essay on 'A Chatterbox'. In this way he tried to play a joke on her. And Mr. Keesing had a good laugh when Anne gave her arguments in the essay.

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.

Ans –Anne Frank does not confide with everyone. She thinks she can confide only in her intimate friend and she had not any that far.

(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.

Ans–She knows her mind and has her own way of doing things. She is original and not traditional.

(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.

Ans – She has a sense of humour and narrates events in a humorous manner. 

(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.

Ans – She is observant and analytical and forms her own opinion.

Thinking about Language

I. Look at the following words.

    headmistress     Long-awaited     homework

    notebook        stiff-backed        outbursts

These words are compound words. They are made up of two or more words.
Compound words can be:

• nouns: headmistress, homework, notebook, outbursts
• adjectives: long-awaited, stiff-backed
• verbs: sleep-walk, baby-sit

Match the compound words under ‘A’ with their meanings under ‘B’. Use each in a sentence.

              A                              B

1. Heartbreaking     –  obeying and respecting the law
2. Homesick             –   think about pleasant things, forgetting about the present
3. Blockhead           –    something produced by a person, machine or organisation
4. Law-abiding         –    producing great sadness
5. Overdo                   –  an occasion when vehicles/machines stop working
6. Daydream             –   an informal word which means a very stupid person
7. Breakdown           –   missing home and family very much
8. Output                   –   do something to an excessive degree

Ans –

A                   B

1. — producing great sadness
S — The parting sense of father and son was heartbreaking.

2. — missing home and family very much
S —  For the first few month in the USA I felt homesick and wanted to come back India.

3. — an informal word which means a very stupid person
S —  Kunal is such a blockhead.

4. — obeying and respecting the law
S —  The protectors of law are not law-abiding.

5. — do something to an excessive degree
S — He does things to an excessive level.

6. — think about pleasant things, forgetting about the present
S — A few students  were daydreaming in the class.

7. — an occasion when vehicles/machines stop working
S —  The work got delay due to the breakdown of a machine.

8. — something produced by a person, machine or organisation
S —  The school is taking several steps to get better output in the field of education.

II. Phrasal Verbs

A phrasal verb is a verb followed by a preposition or an adverb. Its meaning is often different from the meanings of its parts. Compare the meanings of the verbs get on and run away in (a) and (b) below. You can easily guess their meanings in (a) but in (b) they have special meanings.

(a) • She got on at Agra when the bus stopped for breakfast.

      • Dev Anand ran away from home when he was a teenager.

(b) • She’s eager to get on in life. (succeed)

      • The visitors ran away with the match. (won easily)

Some phrasal verbs have three parts: a verb followed by an adverb and a preposition.

(c) Our car ran out of petrol just outside the city limits.

(d) The government wants to reach out to the people with this new campaign.

1. The text you’ve just read has a number of phrasal verbs commonly used in English. Look up the following in a dictionary for their meanings (under the entry for the italicised word).

(i) plunge (right) in                  (iii) ramble on

(ii) kept back                             (iv) get along with

Ans –

(i). Go straight to the topic

(ii). Not promoted

(iii). Speak or write without focus

(iv). Have a good relationship with

2. Now find the sentences in the lesson that have the phrasal verbs given below. Match them with their meanings. (You have already found out the meanings of some of them.) Are their meanings the same as that of their parts? (Note that two parts of a phrasal verb may occur separated in the text.)

(i) plunge in               – speak or write without focus

(ii) kept back             – stay indoors

(iii) move up             – make (them) remain quiet

(iv) ramble on          – have a good relationship with

(v) get along with    – give an assignment (homework) to

                                      a person in authority (the teacher)

(vi) calm down        – compensate

(vii) stay in               – go straight to the topic

(viii) make up for   – go to the next grade

(ix) hand in              – not promoted

Ans –

(i) Meaning :- 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) Meaning :- 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) Meaning :-  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) Meaning :- 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) Meaning :- Have a good relationship with
Sentence :- I get along pretty well with all my teachers.

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

(vii) Meaning :- 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) Meaning :- Compensate
Sentence :- This birthday celebration in 1942 was intended to make up for the other.

(ix) Meaning :- 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.

III. Idioms

Idioms are groups of words with a fixed order, and a particular meaning, different from the meanings of each of their words put together. (Phrasal verbs can also be idioms; they are said to be ‘idiomatic’ when their meaning is unpredictable.) For example, do you know what it means to ‘meet one’s match’ in English? It means to meet someone who is as good as oneself, or even better, in some skill or quality. Do you know what it means to ‘let the cat out of the bag’? Can you guess?

1. Here are a few sentences from the text which have idiomatic expressions. Can you say what each means? (You might want to consult a dictionary first.)

(i)  Our entire class is quaking in its boots.____________________________________________

(ii) Until then, we keep telling each other not to lose heart.__________________________

(iii) Mr Keesing was annoyed with me for ages because I talked so much.__________________________

(iv) Mr Keesing was trying to play a joke on me with this ridiculous subject, but I’d make sure the joke was on him.____________________________________________________

Ans —

(i) Shaking with fear and nervousness

(ii) Disappointed 

(iii) Since a long time

(iv) He was outwitted by her.

2. Here are a few more idiomatic expressions that occur in the text. Try to use them in sentences of your own.

(i) caught my eye                     (iii) laugh ourselves silly

(ii) he’d had enough               (iv) can’t bring myself to

Ans –

(i) A beautiful red Lamborghini passing by caught my eye.

(ii) Rakul had a challenging time raising enough money to build the orphanage he had promised to build.

(iii) One student of class 10th said something funny, and we laughed ourselves silly.

(iv) I cant't bring myself to terms with him in this project.

IV. Do you know how to use a dictionary to find out the meanings of idiomatic expressions? Take, for example, the expression caught my eye in the story. Where — under which word — would you look for it in the dictionary?

Look for it under the first word. But if the first word is a ‘grammatical’ word like a, the, for, etc., then take the next word. That is, look for the first ‘meaningful’ word in the expression. In our example, it is the word caught.

But you won’t find caught in the dictionary, because it is the past tense of catch. You’ll find caught listed under catch. So you must look under catch for the expression caught my eye. Which other expressions with catch are listed in your dictionary?

Note that a dictionary entry usually first gives the meanings of the word itself, and then gives a list of idiomatic expressions using that word. For example, study this partial entry for the noun ‘eye’ from the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 2005.

Eye

• Noun

• Part of Body 1 [C] either of the two organs on the face that you see with: The suspect        has dark hair and green eyes.

• Ability to See 3 [sing.] the ability to see: A surgeon needs a good eye and a steady hand.

• Way of Seeing 4 [C, usually sing.] a particular way of seeing sth: He looked at the              design with the eye of an engineer.

• Of Needle 5 [C] the hole in the end of a needle that you put the thread through.

IDM be all eyes to be watching sb/sth carefully and with a lot of interest before/in front of sb’s (very) eyes in sb’s presence; in front of sb: He had seen his life’s work destroyed before his very eyes. Be up to your eyes in sth to have a lot of sth to deal with: We’re up to our eyes in work.

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 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. Meaning :- Upset somebody deeply
Sentence :- It has, unfortunately, become extremely easy these days to break somebody’s heart.

2. Meaning :- something or someone who is near and close to you
Sentence :- Arijit Sing's songs are close to my heart.

3. Meaning :- Deep from heart
Sentence :- He loves his family from the bottom of his heart.

4. Meaning :- Have mercy
Sentence :- Have a heart to help the poor.

5. Meaning :- A person with no feelings and sentiments.
Sentence :- The teacher beat up the student in the morning assembly.

6. Meaning :- To sympathise with someone
Sentence :- My heart goes out to the little boy who has lost his parents.

V. Contracted Forms

When we speak, we use ‘contracted forms’ or short forms such as these:

can’t (for can not or cannot)

I’d (for I would or I had)

she’s (for she is)

Notice that contracted forms are also written with an apostrophe to show a shortening of the spelling of not, would, or is as in the above example.

Writing a diary is like speaking to oneself. Plays (and often, novels) also have speech in written form. So we usually come across contracted forms in diaries, plays and novels.

1. Make a list of the contracted forms in the text. Rewrite them as full forms of two words.

For example:

     I’ve = I have

Ans –

I've — I have

Doesn't — Does not

I'm — I am

Can't — Can not

That's — That is

Didn't — Did not

Haven't — Have not

It's — It is

I'd — I would / I had

2. 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 –

That's — That is / That has

It's — It is / It has

I'd — I would / I had

Who's — Who is / Who has

Writing

Now you know what a diary is and how to keep one. Can you keep a diary for a week recording the events that occur? You may share your diary with your class, if you wish to. Use the following hints to write your diary.

• Though your diary is very private, write as if you are writing for someone else.
• Present your thoughts in a convincing manner.
• Use words that convey your feelings, and words that ‘paint pictures’ for the reader. Be    brief.

‘Diary language’ has some typical features such as subjectless sentences (Got up late in the morning), sentence fragments without subjects or verbs (…too bad, boring, not good), contracted forms (they’re, I’ve, can’t, didn’t, etc.), and everyday expressions which people use in speech. Remember not to use such language in more formal kinds of writing.

Ans – This is an activity so I think you should do it by yourself.

Listening

Your teacher will read out an extract from The Diary of Samuel Pepys (given on the next page) about the great fire of London. As you listen complete this summary of the happenings.

Summary

This entry in the diary has been made on____________by. The person who told Pepys about the fire was called____________. She called at ____________ in the morning. Pepys went back to sleep because____________. Pepys rose again at ____________ in the morning. By then about ____________ houses had been burned down. The fire had spread to ____________ by London Bridge. Pepys then walked to the ____________ along with Sir J. Robinson’s ____________.

Ans –

This entry in the diary has been made on 2nd September by Samuel Pepys. The person who told Pepys about the fire was called Jane. She called at three in the morning. Pepys went back to sleep because_____. Pepys rose again at seven in the morning. By then about three hundred houses had been burned down. The fire had spread to Fish Street by London Bridge. Pepys then walked to the tower along with Sir J. Robinson’s little son.