The Last Lesson

Alphonse Daudet

Word meanings

1. A great bustle: a lot of noise created by many people

2. Apprentice: trainee

3. At one stroke: at once, in one go.

4. Beetles: a large-sized insect

5. Blushed: face turned red in colour due to shame

6. Bulletin-board: a notice board for putting up the latest news and communication

7. Choked: became unable to speak due to strong emotions

8. Commotion: noise and confusion

9. Cooed: the sound made by the pigeons

10. Couldn’t give up: cannot leave

11. Counted on: depended upon

12. Cranky: strange, short-tempered

13. Dreadful: frightening

14. Drilling: exercising

15. Fix in his mind: store or keep forever

16. Gazing: looking intently

17. Gesture: a signal

18. Grave: serious

19. In great dread of: fear of

20. In unison: at the same time

21. Mixed up: confused

22. Not even the littlest ones: refers to the pigeons

23. Nuisance: problem, the burden

24. Pale: used to describe a person’s face or skin if it has less colour than usual

25. Pretend: show

26. Primer: basic reader of any language

27. Rapping: striking

28. Resist: to stay away

29. Saar: a river which passes through France

30. Sawmill: a factory for cutting wood

31. Solemn: serious.

32. Sunday clothes: the best dress that a person has.

33. Tempting: attracting

34. Thumbed: torn and damaged

35. Thunderclap: used in comparison to refer to something startling or unexpected

36. To reproach: blame

37. Trumpets: a musical instrument.

38. Twined: twisted

39. Who worked right on tracing their fish hooks: scratching with their claws

40. Wretches: here, it refers to an unfortunate happening

THINK AS YOU READ

Q1. What was Franz expected to be prepared with for school that day?
Ans: That day Franz was expected to be prepared with participles because M. Hamel had
said that he would question them on participles. Franz did not know anything about
participles.

Q2. What did Franz notice that was unusual about the school that day?
Ans: Usually, when school began, there was a great bustle, which could be heard out in the
street. But it was all very still that day. Everything was as quiet as Sunday morning. There
was no opening or closing of desks. His classmates were already in their places. The
teacher’s great ruler instead of rapping on the table, was under M. Hamel’s arm.
Q3. What had been put up on the bulletin-board?
Ans: For the last two years all the bad news had come from the bulletin-board. An order had
come from Berlin to teach only German in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine. The Germans
had put up this notice on the bulletin-board.

THINK AS YOU READ

Q1. What changes did the order from Berlin cause in school that day?
Ans: M. Hamel had put on his best dress—his beautiful green coat, his frilled shirt and the
little black silk cap, all embroidered. The whole school seemed so strange and solemn. On the
back benches that were always empty, the elderly village people were sitting quietly like the
kids.

Q2. How did Franz’s feelings about M. Hamel and school change?
Ans: Franz came to know that it was the last lesson in French that M. Hamel would give
them. From the next day they will be taught only German. Then he felt sorry for not learning
his lessons properly. His books, which seemed a nuisance and a burden earlier were now old
friends. His feelings about M. Hamel also changed. He forgot all about his ruler and how
cranky he was.

UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT

Q1. The people? in this story suddenly realise how1 precious their language is to them.
What shows you this? Why does this happen?
Ans: M. Hamel told the students and villagers that henceforth only German would be taught
in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine. Those who called themselves Frenchmen would
neither be able to speak nor write it. He praised French as the most beautiful, the clearest and
most logical language in the world. He said that for the enslaved people, their language was
the key to their prison. Then the people realised how precious their language was to them.
This shows people’s love for their own culture, traditions and country. Pride in one’s
language reflects pride in the motherland.

Q2. Franz thinks, “Will they make them sing in German, even the pigeonsT’ What
could this mean?(There could he more than one answer.)
Ans: This comment of Franz shows a Frenchman’s typical reaction to the imposition of
learning German, the language of the conquerors. Being deprived of the learning of mother
tongue would mean cutting off all bonds with the motherland. Teaching the pigeons to sing in
German indicates how far the Germans would go in their attempts of linguistic chauvinism.

TALKING ABOUT THE TEXT

Q1. “When a people are en slaved, as long as th ey 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 lan¬guage
taken away from them or had a language imposed on them?
Ans: Mother tongue helps a person to express his feelings and thoughts most lucidly and
intimately. Conquerors try to subdue and control the people of the enslaved territory by
enforcing many measures such as use of force to crush dissent and imposing their own
language on them.
From time immemorial the victorious nations have imposed their own language on the
conquered people and taken away their own language from them. The Romans conquered
many parts of Europe and replaced the local languages by their own language— Latin. Later
on Spanish, Pourtuguese, Italian and French developed from Latin. The Muslim invaders
imposed Arabic and Persian in the countries of Asia overpowered by them. In many Arab
countries the local religion and language have disappeared. In India, a new language Urdu
developed from the mixture of Persian and Hindi.

Q2. 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
Ans. The linguistic minority in any state is easily marked and faces the same discrimination
as the religious, social or ethnic minorities. There is, however, a pronounced difference in the
treatment meted out and the level of acceptance displayed by the majority community in that
region/city. Some cities like Delhi, Mumbai are cosmopolitan in outlook.
The linguistic minority tries to preserve its identity through an intimate contact, interaction
and preservation of their language in social get-togethers, family functions and festivals of
their own region. Adherence to social customs and traditions in family gatherings/group
meetings of women also promote the unity between members of the linguistic minority.
In short, they create a mini-Punjab in Bangalore, mini-Chennai in Mumbai, mini-Bangalore
in Delhi and mini-Surat in Kolkata.

Q3. Is it possible to carry pride in one’s language too far? Do you know what
“lin¬guistic chauvinism” means?
Ans. ‘Linguistic chauvinism’ means an aggressive and unreasonable belief that your own
language is better than all others. This shows an excessive or prejudiced support for one’s
own language. Sometimes pride in one’s own language goes too for 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.

WORKING WITH WORDS

Q1. English is a language that contains words from many 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
Ans.Word Origin Word Origin
Tycoon Japanese Veranda Portuguese
Tulip Persian Robot Czech
Logo Greek Zero Arabic
Bandicoot Telugu Ski Norwegian
Barbecue Spanish Trek South African Dutch

Q2. Notice the underlined words in these sentences and tick the option that best explains
their meaning:
(a) “What a thunderclap these words were to me!”
The words were
(i)loud and clear.
(ii)startling and unexpected.
(iii) pleasant and welcome.
(b)“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
(i)do not lose their language.
(ii)are attached to their language.
(iii)quickly learn the conqueror’s language.
(c)Don’t go so fast, you will get to your school in plenty of time. You will get to your
school.
(i)very late.
(ii)too early.
(iii)early enough.
(d)I never saw him look so tall.
M. Hamel (i) had grown physically taller.
(ii) seemed very confident.
(iii) stood on the chair.
Ans. (a) (ii) startling and unexpected.
(b) (ii) are attached to their language.
(c)(iii) early enough.
(d)(ii) seemed very confident.

NOTICING FORM
1.Read this sentence:
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. Hamel’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.
Ans. (i)For the last two years all our bad news had come from there.
Reason: The ‘coming’ of bad news happened earlier than the bulletin in the story.
(ii)Hauser had brought an old primer.
Reaeon : The event of ‘bringing’ happened earlier than Franz noticed it.
(iii) That was what they had put up at the town-hall!
Reason’. The ‘putting up’ of bulletin happened earlier. Now it is recalled.
(iv)they had not gone to school more.
Reason’. The action of ‘not going* happened much earlier.
(v)the hopvine that he had planted himself twined about the windows to the roof.
Reason’. The ‘planting’ of hopvine happened earlier than its twining about the windows.