CLASS 10 · FIRST FLIGHT · CHAPTER 4

From the Diary of Anne Frank

Original concise and expanded answers for the diary activities, comprehension checks, language practice, and writing tasks in From the Diary of Anne Frank.

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From the Diary of Anne Frank

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Question Before You Read Activity 1

Match journal, diary, log, and memoir with their usual meanings.

Steps only

Use the purpose and style of each record.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

Journal: daily thoughts; diary: personal daily record; log: dated event record; memoir: account of one’s life.

Question Before You Read Activity 2

Which type of personal record best fits each example: a casual note about waking late, a timed schedule of appointments, a travel account, and a story of how an actor began a career?

Steps only

Look at whether each entry is personal, timed, about travel, or a remembered life event.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

(i) Diary;
(ii) log;
(iii) journal;
(iv) memoir.

Question Oral Comprehension Check 1

Why does Anne find writing in a diary a strange experience?

Steps only

Mention her lack of experience and her doubts about having a reader.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

She has never kept a diary and doubts anyone will care about a young girl’s thoughts, though she wants to express them.

Question Oral Comprehension Check 2

Why does Anne want to keep a diary?

Steps only

Separate having acquaintances from having someone to confide in.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

She feels she lacks a true friend with whom she can share private thoughts, so she makes her diary a trusted companion called Kitty.

Question Oral Comprehension Check 3

Why does Anne feel that she can confide more in her diary than in people?

Steps only

Explain the contrast between paper and people.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

A diary listens without judging, while Anne cannot share her deeper feelings with her friends.

Question Oral Comprehension Check 4.1

Why does Anne give Kitty a brief sketch of her life?

Steps only

Think about what a reader needs before following a story.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

She gives background so Kitty, her imagined reader, can understand the events she will describe.

Question Oral Comprehension Check 4.2

What shows that Anne loved her grandmother?

Steps only

Use Anne’s direct words and the birthday detail.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

Anne says she still thinks of and loves her grandmother, and a candle is lit in her memory.

Question Oral Comprehension Check 5.1

Why was Mr Keesing annoyed with Anne, and what did he ask her to do?

Steps only

Identify the behaviour and the teacher’s response.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

She talked too much in his class, so he assigned essays about being a chatterbox.

Question Oral Comprehension Check 5.2

How did Anne justify being a chatterbox in her essay?

Steps only

Recall the comparison she uses and how she explains the habit.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

She joked that talking was a natural trait, like a duck’s quacking, and said she would try to control it.

Question Oral Comprehension Check 5.3

Was Mr Keesing a strict teacher? Explain your view.

Steps only

Consider both his rules and his later reaction.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

He is firm about classroom behaviour, but his amused response to Anne’s poem shows that he is also fair and good-humoured.

Question Oral Comprehension Check 5.4

What made Mr Keesing allow Anne to talk in class?

Steps only

Explain what the poem did and how the teacher reacted.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

Anne’s funny poem about noisy ducklings amused Mr Keesing, so he stopped assigning extra work.

Question Thinking about the Text 1

Was Anne right to think that people would not be interested in the thoughts of a thirteen-year-old girl?

Steps only

Compare Anne’s doubt with the diary’s later importance.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

No. Her honest thoughts became valuable to readers as a personal record of a young person’s life during a major historical crisis.

Question Thinking about the Text 2

How is Anne’s diary different from the sample diary or journal entries, and what language was it first written in?

Steps only

Compare the entries’ purposes and styles, then identify the original language.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

Anne’s diary is reflective and personal, written to Kitty; unlike the brief sample records, it explores her thoughts. It was originally in Dutch.

Question Thinking about the Text 3

Why does Anne give Kitty a brief sketch of her family? Does she treat Kitty as an insider or an outsider?

Steps only

Notice the information she supplies and the way she addresses Kitty.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

She provides background for Kitty and treats her as a trusted insider and friend.

Question Thinking about the Text 4

How does Anne feel about her father, grandmother, Mrs Kuperus, and Mr Keesing? What do these feelings show about her?

Steps only

Take each person in turn and use Anne’s memories or actions.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

She loves her father and grandmother, feels attached to Mrs Kuperus, and jokes with Mr Keesing. This shows warmth, sensitivity, and wit.

Question Thinking about the Text 5

What did Anne write in her first essay for Mr Keesing?

Steps only

Name the essay and state the main argument.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

She wrote “A Chatterbox,” arguing humorously that talking was a natural trait she would try to control.

Question Thinking about the Text 6

Anne says teachers are unpredictable. Is Mr Keesing unpredictable? How?

Steps only

Compare his reaction before and after the poem.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

Yes. He first punishes her for talking, but later enjoys her poem and stops giving extra assignments.

Question Thinking about the Text 7

What do Anne’s statements about confiding, Kitty, her move to Holland, her classmates, and her essay argument show about her?

Steps only

Read each statement for a different personality clue.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

They show that Anne is self-aware, imaginative, humorous, outspoken, and clever with words.

Question Thinking about Language I

Match and use these compound words: heartbreaking, homesick, blockhead, law-abiding, overdo, daydream, breakdown, and output.

Steps only

Match each word to its meaning, then use it in a sentence.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

Heartbreaking: very sad; homesick: missing home; blockhead: foolish person; law-abiding: obeying the law; overdo: do too much; daydream: pleasant drifting thought; breakdown: failure; output: what is produced.

Question Thinking about Language II.1

Explain plunge in, keep back, ramble on, and get along with as used in the lesson.

Steps only

Use the sentence context rather than translating each word separately.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

Plunge in: begin directly; keep back: not promote; ramble on: speak at length without focus; get along with: have a good relationship.

Question Thinking about Language II.2

Match plunge in, kept back, move up, ramble on, get along with, calm down, stay in, make up for, and hand in with their meanings.

Steps only

Match the meaning of the whole verb phrase, not the separate words.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

Plunge in: start directly; kept back: not promoted; move up: advance; ramble on: talk without focus; get along with: be friendly; calm down: become less upset; stay in: remain indoors; make up for: compensate; hand in: submit.

Question Thinking about Language III.1

Explain “quaking in its boots,” “lose heart,” “for ages,” and “the joke was on him.”

Steps only

Replace each expression with a simple phrase that fits its context.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

Very nervous; become discouraged; for a long time; the joker became the target of the joke.

Question Thinking about Language III.2

Use “caught my eye,” “he’d had enough,” “laugh ourselves silly,” and “can’t bring myself to” in your own sentences.

Steps only

Use each expression naturally in a new sentence.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

A poster caught my eye. The teacher had had enough. We laughed ourselves silly. I can’t bring myself to discard the gift.

Question Thinking about Language IV

Where would you look in a dictionary to find “caught my eye,” and why?

Steps only

Find the meaningful word and change an irregular verb to its base form.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

Look under catch, the base form of caught; the idiom means to attract attention.

Question Thinking about Language V.1–2

Give examples of contracted forms from the diary in their full forms, and explain how “I’d” can have two meanings.

Steps only

Expand the apostrophe form and check which words make sense in the sentence.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

Examples: I’ve = I have; don’t = do not; can’t = cannot; we’re = we are. “I’d” can mean “I had” or “I would,” depending on context.

Question Speaking

Change suitable full forms in the play extract into contractions so the dialogue sounds natural.

Steps only

Replace common spoken forms such as is, are, have, and would + not.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

Examples: He’s sick; you wouldn’t; we’re going to; here’s; you’ve broken; you’ve done enough.

Question Writing

Write a brief diary entry about one memorable day.

Steps only

Choose one day, tell what happened in order, and add how you felt.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

Write a short first-person entry with a date or greeting, events, feelings, and a personal reflection.

Question Listening

Complete the summary of Samuel Pepys’s account of the Great Fire of London.

Steps only

Listen for the date, names, times, number of houses, place, and companion.

Use the key detail to answer.

Answer

September 2; Samuel Pepys; Jane; about 3 a.m.; he thought the fire was far away; about 7 a.m.; over 300 houses; Fish Street; the Tower, with Sir J. Robinson’s little son.