UNIT 4

FROM THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK

The World Wars fought in the past stand testimony to the fact that fighting wars brings severe human suffering. The sufferers, including women and children are left behind with trauma and indelible impressions on their minds. You have read in the class X English textbook the account of one such war in the diary of Anne Frank who captured the miseries of war in her diary. Discuss how you may relate to Anne Frank’s feelings of alienation and isolation.

READING COMPREHENSION

TEXT I

The following excerpt is from the diary of Lena Mukhina, a teenage girl who had undergone the atrocities of Germans when they fortified the city of Leningrad. The siege of Leningrad is an important landmark in the history of Russia. The siege of Leningrad lasted from September 1941 to 1944. The city was cut off from the rest of Russia. The Germans continuously bombarded the city which resulted in death, destruction, and starvation of the people. However, the resolute Russians were warned in the beginning that the enemy was at the gate and it was a question of life and death. They fought bravely and failed the Germans in their evil designs.

LOOK UP AND UNDERSTAND

aftermath

apathy

appalling

inclement

severely

siege

Read the excerpt and answer the questions that follow.

Foreword from The Diary of Lena Mukhina

No one could possibly have known that the city would remain in the grip of siege for 872 days and nights. But Leningrad’s citizens had begun to feel the breath of war as early as September. Daily air raids and artillery bombardment of residential neighbourhoods drove the city’s inhabitants into bomb shelters, several times a day, and for hours at a time. People’s initial curiosity in the aftermath of the first bomb attacks soon gave way to fear and then, in conditions of appalling hunger and cold, to apathy. Leningraders welcomed inclement weather for the reduced visibility it brought. They came to dread sunny days and moonlit nights, when the Germans would be sure to bomb their city. Cloud cover, however, offered no protection from artillery fire: in just over six months from the start of the siege there were only thirty-two days when shells did not explode on the city’s streets.

Hunger soon set in. Between September and November 1941 the bread rations that had been announced in July were reduced five times, reaching their lowest point on 20 November — 125 ‘blockade grams’ for children, dependents and white-collar workers and 250g for manual workers, technicians and engineers. Rations of meat, butter, sugar and other food items were severely reduced. The summer months and the beginning of autumn, when it was still possible to buy food without ration cards in ordinary shops and canteens were no more than a distant memory.

READING COMPREHENSION

TEXT II

There are many ways of recording the events, news, and personal experiences. Diary writing, logbook, daybook, journal, etc. are a few to name. The journal writing is about writing the everyday record of an event or writing about an event, activity or experience, etc.

The following is an excerpt from the beginning of A journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe.

It was about the beginning of September, 1664, that I, among the rest of my neighbours, heard in ordinary discourse that the plague was returned again in Holland; for it had been very violent there, and particularly at Amsterdam and Rotterdam, in the year 1663, whither, they say, it was brought, some said from Italy, others from the Levant, among some goods which were brought home by their Turkey fleet; others said it was brought from Candia; others from Cyprus. It mattered not from whence it came; but all agreed it was come into Holland again.

LOOK UP AND UNDERSTAND

discourse

inspection

plague

tokens

vent

But it seems that the Government had a true account of it, and several councils were held about ways to prevent its coming over; but all was kept very private. Hence, it was that this rumour died off again, and people began to forget it as a thing we were very little concerned in, and that we hoped was not true; till the latter end of November or the beginning of December 1664 when two men, said to be Frenchmen, died of the plague in Long Acre, or rather at the upper end of Drury Lane. The family they were in endeavoured to conceal it as much as possible, but as it had gotten some vent in the discourse of the neighbourhood, the Secretaries of State got knowledge of it; and concerning themselves to inquire about it, in order to be certain of the truth, two physicians and a surgeon were ordered to go to the house and make inspection. This they did; and finding evident tokens of the sickness upon both the bodies that were dead, they gave their opinions publicly that they died of the plague. Whereupon, it was given in to the parish clerk, and he also returned them to the Hall; and it was printed in the weekly bill of mortality in the usual manner, thus — Plague 2. Parishes infected 1.

Example: whence — when ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________

FUN FACTS

IDIOM

A baker’s dozen: thirteen

Egg on one’s face: be embarrassed, feel foolish

1. I can’t tell you the plan because I don’t know about it .

   (him her it them)

2. One should learn to defend _____________ against bullies.

   (herself itself himself oneself)

3. The girls ____________ were helping you were probably Rahul’s friends.

   (which who that they)

4. These dresses belong to you. I am sure they are _________.

   (yours your yours’ theirs)

5. The fire caused serious ___________ to the group of houses.

   (damage damages injuries injury)

6. The board was ________________ plans for the tournament.

   (concerned to                                      concern about

    concerned at                                       concerned with)

GRAMMER

1. Refer to the lesson ‘From the diary of Anne Frank’ in your Class X textbook. There are some idiomatic expressions in the text. For example:

1. Our entire class is quaking in its boots.

   Quake in (one’s) boot: to tremble with fear or nervousness

2. Until then we keep telling each other not to lose heart.Not to lose one’s heart: not to lose hope or not to feel demoralised

Now, look at the idiomatic expressions given below. Use a dictionary to find out the meanings. Make sentences using the expressions.

all’s fair in love and war                         icing on the cake call the shots                                          chalk and cheese raining cats and dogs                             breaking the ice

2. Fill in the blanks using the contracted forms of the verbs. One has been done for you.

     This is a beautiful flower. Is not it?         Isn’t it?

1. You should not eat so much.      You ________ eat so much.
2. They have written the story.       ________ written the story.
3. Let us go watch a movie.          _______ go watch a movie.
4. He did not play tennis.              He __________ play tennis.
5. I could not find my friend in the crowd.

   I _________ find my friend in the crowd.

6. Here is your bag.                      __________ your bag.
7. I would guide him.                    __________ guide him.
8. They are not rich.                     They ____________ rich.

3. Fill in the blanks with the phrasal verbs given below. Change the tense of the verbs wherever required. 

 (breakdown, find out, look for, go out, check out)

Suhasini wanted to __________________ with her mother to the book shop. Her mother came back home very late. She said that her car __________________ on the way back. She had to __________________ a mechanic. She _________________ several apps for roadside assistance but then _________________ that her internet was not working.

FUN FACTS

TONGUE TWISTERS

I saw Susie sitting in a shoeshine shop

“If I was asked under what sky the human mind ___________

has most fully developed some for its choicest gifts, ___________

has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems ___________

of life, and has find solutions of some of them which ___________

well deserve the attention even of them who have___________

studied Plato and Kant, I should pointed to India. ___________

And if I were to ask me from what literature ___________

we who has been nurtured almost exclusively ___________

on the thoughts of Greeks and Romans, and of the Semitic race, the Jewish, may draw the corrective which is most want in order to make our inner life more perfect, ___________

more comprehensive, more universal, in fact most truly human a life... ___________

again I should point to India.”

Max Müller

LISTENING

_____________________________________ _____________________________________ _____________________________________ _____________________________________ _____________________________________ _____________________________________

SPEAKING

1. Ask your teacher to recite the poem. Listen to the poem attentively and identify the qualities mentioned.
2. Discuss these qualities with your partner.
3. Think of a person who has some of these qualities and talk about them to your partner. You can highlight the incidents and actions of the person that reflect these qualities.