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The Last Lesson

Question
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What was the impact of the last lesson in grammar over Franz? How did he feel?

Solution

While teaching grammar, M. Hamel taught it so dedicatedly and patiently that everything came in the mind of Franz. What- ever he said, it seemed very easy and interesting. Franz understood it so well. He had never listened to his teacher with so much rapt attention. It seemed as if the poor man wanted to give his students all he knew in one stroke.

Some More Questions From The Last Lesson Chapter

Franz thinks : “Will they make them sing in German, even the pigeons ?” What could this mean ? (There could be more than one answer).

‘When a people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language it is as if they had the key to their prison.” Can you think of examples in history where a conquered people had their language taken away from them or had a language imposed on them?

What happens to a linguistic minority in a state ? How do you think they can keep their language alive?

For example:

Punjabis in Bangalore

Tamilians in Mumbai

Kannadigas in Delhi

Gujaratis in Kolkata

Is it possible to carry pride in one’s language too far? Do you know what linguistic chauvinism means?

English is a language that contains words from muny other languages. This inclusiveness is one of the reasons it is now a ‘world language.’

For Example:

petite – French

kindergarten – German

capital – Latin

democracy – Greek

bazaar - Hindi

Find out the origins of the following words.
tycoon      barbecue     zero
tulip         veranda      ski
logo          robot         trek
bandicoot


Notice the underlined words in these sentences and tick the option that best explains their meaning:

“What a thunder clap these words were to me !”

The words were:

“When a people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language it is as if they had the key to their prison.”

It is as if they have the key to the prison as long as they

Don’t go so fast, you will get to your school in plenty of time. “You will get to your school.”

I never say him look so tall. M. Hamel

M. Hamel had said that he would question us on Participles. In the sentence above, the verb form “had said” in the first part is used to indicate an “earlier past.” The whole story is narrated in the Past. M. Ilamel’s “saying” happened earlier than the events in this story. This form of the verb is called the Past Perfect.

Pick out five sentences from the story with this form of the verb and say why this form has been used.