Flamingo The Last Lesson

CBSE TEST PAPER-01

Class - 12 English Core (The Last Lesson)

General Instructions:

All questions are compulsory
Question No.1 to 7 carries 3 marks each.
Question No. 8 to 10 caries 6 marks each.

What was Franz expected to be prepared with for the school that day?
Why had the crowd gathered in front of the bulletin board? OR What had been put up at the bulletin board?
What did Franz notice that was unusual about the school that day?
“What a thunderclap these words were to me?” Which words were like a thunderclap to little Franz? Explain.
What changes did the order from Berlin caused in the school that day?
How did Franz’s feelings about M. Hamel and the school change suddenly?
How did Mr. M Hamel describe the French language?
What does M. Hamel tell about the significance and safeguarding of French Language? How did he conclude his last lesson?
What is linguistic Chauvinism? Is it possible to carry pride in one’s language too far?
Write a brief character sketch of M. Hamel?

CBSE TEST PAPER-01
Class - 12 English Core (The Last Lesson)
Answers

Franz was expected to be prepared with participles that day for school, as the teacher M. Hamel had said that he would question them on participles. Franz did not know the first word about participles and so he was extremely afraid to go to school and even thought of spending his day outdoors.
Franz had a negative view about the bulletin-board as for the last two years only bad news had come from it. That day was no exception as Germans had put up an order passed from Berlin on the bulletin-board to teach only German in the school of Alsace and Lorraine. The crowd had been gathered there to read that notice.
On entering the school, Franz noticed that there was unusual silence. There was no noise of opening and closing of desks. The village elders had occupied the last benches that were always empty. M Hamel was in his very fine Sunday clothes. Everybody looked sad.
The news about the order from Berlin regarding the teaching of German language in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine were like thunderclap for little Franz. It was totally unexpected and it made him speechless. He was also regretting the fact that he did not learn the French language till now and now he’ll not be allowed to learn his mothertongue anymore.
The order from Berlin caused many changes in the school that day. The entire school seemed strange and solemn. The old villagers were sitting on the back benches of the classroom quietly to thank M. Hamel for his forty years of faithful service and for showing their respect for the country. M Hamel also had put on his best dress on that day though it was not an inspection or prize day. The order from Berlin also brought a sense of repentance for those who in spite of having time didn’t learn the French properly.
Earlier Franz didn’t like M. Hamel much because of his ruler and cranky nature and he would feel fear from him but now all those feelings were entirely changed for M Hamel.
The message conveyed by M Hamel about the order from Berlin was a thunderclap for little Franz. He immediately felt sorry for not being sincere in the school and for not learning the French language and other lessons properly. His books, which seemed a nuisance and a burden earlier, were now Franz’s old friends.
M. Hamel described French language as world’s most beautiful, clearest and logical language. He also told that the love with one’s own language can be proven as the key to the prison for the people who live in enslaved country.
M Hamel said that French was the most beautiful, clear and logical language in the world. They must guard it among them & never forget it because when the people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language it is as if they had the key to their prison.
Then M. Hamel opened a grammar and read the students their lesson. All he said seemed so easy. He had never explained everything with so much patience: After the grammar, they had a lesson in writing. M Hamel had new copies for the students, written in a beautiful round hand: France, Alsace, France, Alsace. He had the courage to hear every lesson to the very last. It seemed almost as if he wanted to give us all he knew before going away and put it all into their heads at one stroke. He wanted to say something, but he could not go on. Then he turned on the blackboard, took a piece of chalk and wrote “Vive La France!” Lastly he said: “School is dismissed—you may go.”
An aggressive and unreasonable belief that your own language is better than all others can be called as Linguistic chauvinism. It means an excessive or prejudiced support for one’s own language. Sometimes pride in one’s own language goes too far and the linguistic enthusiasts can be easily identified by their extreme zeal for the preservation and spread of their language. In their enthusiasm, love and support for their own language, they tend to forget that other languages too have their own merits, long history of art, culture and literature behind them. Instead of bringing unity and winning over others as friends, having excessive pride in one’s own language creates ill-will and disintegration. The stiff resistance to the acceptance of Hindi as national language by the southern states of India is a direct outcome of the fear of being dominated by Hindi enthusiasts. The result is that “one India” remains only a slogan.
M. Hamel was taken as a strict teacher. Students were afraid of his iron ruler. He was very sincere and dedicated teacher who served for forty long years in his service as a teacher to the village in Alsace City. When he got the notice to vacant his place to make the space for new German teacher. He was totally broken. He remained sad during his final class. This changed his behavior; he behaved rather very politely and patiently. When Franz was not able to say his lesson correctly instead of scolding him he just made him understand about the relevancy of learning the mother tongue. He preached everyone presented in the class about that important things should never been postponed. Time flies very fast.

Flamingo The Last Lesson - Test Papers