NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 4 – From the Diary of Anne Frank
here are the best NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 4– From the Diary of Anne Frank
Activity
Question 1:Do you keep a diary? Given below under ‘A’ are some terms we use to describe a written record of personal experience. Can you match them with their descriptions under ‘B’? (You may look up the terms in a dictionary if you wish.)
| A | B |
| (i) Journal | – A book with a separate space or page for each day, in which you write down your thoughts and feelings or what has happened on that day |
| (ii) Diary | – A full record of a journey, a period of time, or an event, written every day |
| (iii) Log | – A record of a person’s own life and experiences (usually, a famous person) |
| (iv) Memoir(s) | – A written record of events with times and dates, usually official |
Answer:
| A | B |
| (i) Journal | – A full record of a journey, a period of time, or an event, written every day |
| (ii) Diary | – A book with a separate space or page for each day, in which you write down your thoughts and feelings or what has happened on that day |
| (iii) Log | – A written record of events with times and dates, usually official |
| (iv) Memoir(s) | – A record of a person’s own life and experiences (usually, a famous person) |
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 4 – From the Diary of Anne Frank
Question 2:Here are some entries from personal records. Use the definitions above to decide which of the entries might be from a diary, a journal, a log or a memoir.
(i) I woke up very late today and promptly got a scolding from Mum! I can’t help it — how can I miss the FIFA World Cup matches?
(ii) 10:30 a.m. Went to the office of the Director
01:00 p.m. Had lunch with Chairman
05:45 p.m. Received Rahul at the airport
09:30 p.m. Dinner at home
(iii) The ride to Ooty was uneventful. We rested for a while every 50 km or so, and used the time to capture the magnificent landscape with my HandyCam. From Ooty we went on to Bangalore.
What a contrast! The noise and pollution of this once-beautiful city really broke my heart.
(iv) This is how Raj Kapoor found me — all wet and ragged outside R.K.Studios. He was then looking for just someone like this for a small role in Mera Naam Joker, and he cast me on the spot. The rest, as they say, is history!
Answer:
(i) Diary
(ii) Log
(iii) Journal
(iv) Memoir
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 4 – From the Diary of Anne Frank
Oral Comprehension Check
Question 1: What makes writing in a diary a strange experience for Anne Frank?
Answer: Since she had never written in a diary before—having gotten one as a present on her thirteenth birthday—Anne Frank found journaling to be an unusual experience. Because she could write everything in her journal, she regarded it as her best friend. Still, she had the impression that nobody would be intrigued by the thoughts of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl. She could thus write anything she wanted to in her journal and let all of her anxieties out.
Question 2: Why does Anne want to keep a diary?
Answer: Having no friends used to make Anne feel depressed and alone all the time. She wished to release all of her tensions and anxieties. She made the decision to consider her journal like a genuine friend and confide in it with all of her secrets as a result.
Question 3: Why did Anne think she could confide more in her diary than in people?
Answer: Paper, Anne felt strongly, was more patient than others when it came to listening to her mental condition. She found that writing down all of her wishes and ideas in a diary was simpler. Because it was private and not intended for public reading, she believed that her personal journal was the ideal place to confess her secrets.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 4 – From the Diary of Anne Frank
Oral Comprehension Check
Question 1: Why does Anne provide a brief sketch of her life?
Answer: Anne wanted to discuss her family, her school, and herself, so she gave a quick overview of her life. By reading her journal, the reader would be able to establish a link with her and all the events taking place in her immediate surroundings at that time.
Question 2: What tells you that Anne loved her grandmother?
Answer: While her parents were moving to Holland, Anne resided in Aachen with her grandma. She wrote in her journal about her grandma, with whom she was quite close. But she said, “No one knows how often I think of her and still love her,” after her grandmother passed away in January 1942. With her statement, she wished to express how much she loved her grandmother. She lighted a candle with the others on her thirteenth birthday as a way to show her grandma how much she was loved and appreciated.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 4 – From the Diary of Anne Frank
Oral Comprehension Check
Question 1: Why was Mr Keesing annoyed with Anne? What did he ask her to do?
Answer: Anne was a very chatty girl, which irritated Mr. Keesing. Often, as a kind of punishment, he would give her extra school assignments to write essays on subjects close to her heart in order to silence her.
Question 2: How did Anne justify her being a chatterbox in her essay?
Answer: In her article, Anne explained away her tendency toward chatterbox status by emphasizing that she had acquired the trait from her mother, who was equally as chatty as or perhaps more so. Furthermore, she said that nothing could be done about such hereditary characteristics.
Question 3: Do you think Mr Keesing was a strict teacher?
Answer: During his lesson, Mr. Keesing wanted his students to be silent and disciplined, although he wasn’t an extremely tough instructor. In actuality, a teacher’s wellbeing is something that never leaves his mind. If the kids are constantly chatting in class, the teacher will become irritated. Anne was talking a lot, which irritated Mr. Keesing. He would thus punish her by giving her more schoolwork to complete and by telling her to write essays about how chatty she was. It’s also important to remember that if he had been severe, he would not have laughed at Anne’s clever arguments.
Question 4: What made Mr Keesing allow Anne to talk in class?
Answer: Mr. Keesing saw the lighter side of Anne in her last essay, “Quack, Quack, Quack, Said Mistress Chatterbox,” which was written in the style of a poem. Her ability to deliver her points in a rhythmic fashion astonished him. After it helped to close the distance between them, Anne and Mr. Keesing never gave each other further assignments.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 4 – From the Diary of Anne Frank
Thinking about the Text
Question 1: Was Anne right when she said that the world would not be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old girl?
Answer: It is a natural human propensity for adults to take children for granted. When Anne was thirteen years old, she believed that most adults didn’t value a child’s viewpoint on the world because they believed that kids were too young to discuss adult issues. But since Anne Frank’s diary was widely read and translated into other languages, she rose to prominence as one of the most well-known and talked-about Holocaust victims.
Question 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?
Answer: Originally written in Dutch, Anne’s journal was written. It stood out from the other entries in a few key ways. Her diary was called “Kitty” by her. Her writing style was casual and conveyed the carefree attitude of a youngster. Her journal was her dearest friend, and she put all of her secrets and feelings in it. Her diary was unique from other diaries since she included many intimate experiences and recollections.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 4 – From the Diary of Anne Frank
Question 3: Why does Anne need to give a brief sketch of her family? Does she treat ‘Kitty’ as an insider or an outsider?
Answer:
Since it was difficult for people to understand that a youngster like Anne could write about loneliness and everything going on around her in a mature way, Anne included a little introduction of her family in the “diary.” In her diary, she wrote about her loving older sister, her grandfather, her father, and her mother. She also addressed the journal to “Kitty.”
Her parents gave her Kitty as a gift when she turned thirteen, and she saw it as her best friend and an insider as she could write to it about everything and everything.
Question 4: How does Anne feel about her father, her grandmother, Mrs Kuperus and Mr Keesing? What do these tell you about her?
Answer: Anne had happy recollections of her father, who was very cute, her grandmother, Mrs. Kuperus, and her math teacher, Mr. Keesing. All of these people had a profound influence on Anne’s life and left enduring memories. Anne was deeply close to each of these people and had a strong knowledge of people, based on the way she wrote about them in her journal. With each of them, she had formed a fantastic interpersonal contact and an enduring link.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 4 – From the Diary of Anne Frank
Question 5: What does Anne write in her first essay?
Answer: Anne’s talkativeness had gotten the better of Mr. Keesing, who made her write an essay on the subject of “A Chatterbox.” She discussed the negative implications of being chatty in the essay and made the case that her mother, who was also talkative, had given her the trait. She defended this by claiming that hereditary qualities were beyond human control. Because of this, it was hard to break a habit so quickly, and it also contributed to a student’s characteristics. As he read this, Mr. Keesing laughed heartily at Anne’s counterargument.
Question 6: Anne says teachers are most unpredictable. Is Mr Keesing unpredictable? How?
Answer: Anne used Mr. Keesing as the ideal illustration of an unexpected instructor since she believed he was unaffected by her actions and often chastised her for being too noisy. After reading her pieces, he had a good chuckle and decided not to punish her further—instead letting Anne speak in class instead of punishing her at first by giving her more assignments.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 4 – From the Diary of Anne Frank
Question 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. Maybe it’s my fault that we don’t confide in 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.
Answer:
(i) It is clear from these sentences that Anne lacked close companions to whom she could disclose her secrets. She so blamed her guarded personality on herself.
(ii) In contrast to most individuals who only scribble down facts, Anne seemed to view her journal, “Kitty,” as her best friend and scribbled all of her feelings and secrets on it.
(iii) This suggests that Anne is a hilarious person. She was smart and used a humorous tone when writing the line. She uses humor when she says the phrase “plunked down.”
(iv) By reading this sentence, Anne is implying that she was smart enough to move on to the next class even if she believed that a quarter of the students were idiots. She referred to the teachers as the most capricious beings on the planet as it was never definite who would succeed or fail and advance to the next grade.
(v) Anne appears to have been discussing writing based on her sentence. As a consequence of her talkativeness, Mr. Keesing gave her additional assignment to write essays. She wanted to put her all into it even if it was more effort for her. She didn’t want the essay to seem voluminous by leaving a lot of gap between words. She intended to compose strong justifications for talking’s fundamental value. She approached writing differently from other writers in this way.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 4 – From the Diary of Anne Frank
Thinking about Language
Question 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 |
Answer:
| A | B |
| 1. Heartbreaking | – producing great sadness |
| 2. Homesick | – missing home and family very much |
| 3. Blockhead | – an informal word which means a very stupid person |
| 4. Law-abiding | – obeying and respecting the law |
| 5. Overdo | – do something to an excessive degree |
| 6. Daydream | – think about pleasant things, forgetting about the present |
| 7. Breakdown | – an occasion when vehicles/machines stop working |
| 8. Output | – something produced by a person, machine or organisation |
Find the words used in the sentences below:
- Her friend’s departure was heartbreaking news to her.
- Staying in the hostel away from her parents, Riya felt homesick.
- Rihan is such a blockhead that he is the object of everyone’s ridicule.
- One of the objectives of education is to nurture law-abiding citizens.
- If you are trying to please someone, never overdo it; most people wouldn’t like it.
- The little girl sat daydreaming in class, unaware that the teacher was noticing her.
- There was a traffic block as a car had a breakdown in the middle of the road.
- The government took several steps to increase agricultural output.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 4 – From the Diary of Anne Frank
Question 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
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 |
Answer:
| (i) plunge in | – go straight to the topic |
| (ii) kept back | – not promoted |
| (iii) move up | – go to the next grade |
| (iv) ramble on | – speak or write without focus |
| (v) get along with | – have a good relationship with |
| (vi) calm down | – make (them) remain quiet |
| (vii) stay in | – stay indoors |
| (viii) make up for | – compensate |
| (ix) hand in | – give an assignment (homework) to a person in authority (the teacher) |
- plunge in: “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.”
- kept back: “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.”
- move up: “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.”
- ramble on: “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.
- get along with: “I get along pretty well with all my teachers.”
- calm down: “Even G.’s pleading glances and my angry outbursts can’t calm them down.”
- stay in: “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.”
- make up for: “This birthday celebration in 1942 was intended to make up for the other, and Grandma’s candle was lit along with the rest.”
- hand in: “I handed it in, and Mr. Keesing had nothing to complain about for two whole lessons.”
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 4 – From the Diary of Anne Frank
Question 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. _____________________________________________________________
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
Answer:
1. (i) Our entire class is quaking in its boots. – shaking with fear and nervousness
(ii) Until then, we keep telling each other not to lose heart. – not to lose hope or expectation
(iii) Mr Keesing was annoyed with me for ages because I talked so much. – for a long time
(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. – he was outwitted by her
2. (i) caught my eye: A yellow school bus with balloons all over it caught my eye.
(ii) he’d had enough: Harry suffered a lot due to his illness. He’s had enough of mental trauma.
(iii) laugh ourselves silly: My best friend and I had a hearty laugh watching the comedy show and laughed ourselves silly.
(iv) can’t bring myself to: I was unable to bring myself to have less carbs in my diet.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 4 – From the Diary of Anne Frank
Question 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
Answer:
1. break somebody’s heart: to hurt or upset someone deeply
It is never a good idea to break someone’s heart.
2. close/dear to heart: someone close to you
My best friend is very close to my heart.
3. from the (bottom of your) heart: feel for someone genuinely
I love my parents from the bottom of my heart.
4. have a heart: to evoke feeling and help someone in pain
The beggar on the roadside asked the shopkeeper to have a heart and give him some food to eat.
5. have a heart of stone: a person with no feelings or sentiments
The man beat up the beggar on the road as he has a heart of stone.
6. your heart goes out to somebody: to sympathise with someone
My heart goes out to the little boy who lost his parents in the air crash.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 4 – From the Diary of Anne Frank
Question 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
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.
Answer:
- (i) I’ve – I have
(ii) Can’t – Cannot
(iii) I’m – I am
(iv) Won’t – Would not
(v) Don’t – Do not
(vi) Doesn’t – Does not
(vii) Didn’t – Did not
(viii) Who’ll – Who will
(ix) You’re – You are
(x) There’s – There is
(xi) I’d – I would
(xii) We’ll – We will
(xiii) He’d – He had
(xiv) That’s – That is
(xv) Who’s – Who is
(xvi) Haven’t – Have not
(xvii) It’s – It is
(xviii) Wouldn’t – Would not
2. (i) I’d – I had or I would
(ii) It’s – It is or It has
(iii) Who’s – Who is or Who has
(iv) That’s – That is or That has