English (Class 10 - First Flight)

Lencho lived with his family in the only house in the valley, on the crest of a low hill. His ripe cornfield, dotted with flowers, promised a good harvest. The crop now needed rainfall.

Where was Lencho’s house?

The ripe cornfield needed ___ before harvest.

Why did the field give Lencho hope?

Large raindrops finally fell, and Lencho compared them to coins because they promised income. Then a strong wind brought hail for an hour. The field became white, leaves vanished, and the corn crop was completely destroyed.

Put the weather events in story order.

Lencho called the large raindrops new ___ pieces.

What was the result of the hailstorm?

What did Lencho’s field need before the storm?

Choose the correct sequence.

After the hail, not a ___ remained on the trees.

Why does Lencho compare raindrops with coins?

After the crop failed, Lencho feared hunger but did not lose heart. He believed that God saw everything, even a person’s conscience. He told his family that help could still come because their only hope was God.

What kept Lencho from losing heart?

Lencho believed God could see even a person’s ___.

What did the family fear after the crop was destroyed?

On Sunday, Lencho wrote directly to God. He asked for one hundred pesos: enough to sow the field again and support his family until the next crop. He addressed the envelope simply to God and mailed it.

Put Lencho’s actions in order.

Lencho asked God for ___ pesos.

Why did Lencho need the money?

Who was Lencho’s only hope after the hailstorm?

Which sequence matches the first letter?

The money would help Lencho sow again and survive until the next ___.

What does the first letter chiefly reveal about Lencho?

A postman laughed when he saw a letter addressed to God, then showed it to the postmaster. The amiable postmaster first laughed too, but soon admired Lencho’s faith and wished he could believe as strongly.

How did the postmaster’s reaction change?

The postmaster was described as a fat, ___ fellow.

What did the postmaster admire in Lencho?

To avoid shaking Lencho’s faith, the postmaster decided to answer the letter. He contributed part of his salary, asked employees and friends for money, and collected seventy pesos. He signed the reply with one word: God.

Put the postmaster’s plan in order.

The postmaster and others collected ___ pesos.

Why did the postmaster answer the letter?

Who first noticed the unusual address?

How was the reply prepared?

The postmaster gave part of his own ___.

Which quality is best shown by the postmaster’s action?

Lencho came for the mail and received the envelope. He showed no surprise because he expected God’s answer. After counting seventy pesos, however, he became angry: he was certain God could neither make a mistake nor refuse his request.

Why was Lencho not surprised to receive money?

Lencho became angry after counting ___ pesos.

What did Lencho believe about God?

Lencho wrote again, asking God to send the remaining thirty pesos. He warned against sending it through the mail because he believed the post-office employees had stolen it. The irony is that he accused the very people who helped him.

Whom did Lencho blame for the missing money?

Lencho asked for the remaining ___ pesos.

What creates the story’s central irony?

What did Lencho do immediately after counting the money?

Which conflict appears when Lencho distrusts the employees?

Lencho called the post-office employees a bunch of ___.

Why is the ending ironic?

Important story words carry precise meanings. A crest is the top of a hill; draped means covered; locusts are crop-eating insects; a peso is a currency unit; conscience is the inner sense of right and wrong; contentment means satisfaction.

crest ↔ top of a hill

A person’s inner sense of right and wrong is the ___.

Which word names a unit of currency?

Storm words differ by form and setting: a gale is a very strong wind, a whirlwind rotates, a tornado is a violent rotating column, and cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons are powerful tropical storms. Hope can be a verb, a noun, or part of an expression.

gale ↔ very strong wind

In “Lencho hoped for rain,” hoped functions as a ___.

Which sentence uses hope as a noun?

What does contentment mean?

crest ↔ top

A violent rotating column of air is a ___.

Which sentence uses hope as a verb?

A non-defining relative clause adds extra information and is separated by commas. Who refers to people as subject, whom to people as object, whose shows possession, and which refers to things. Removing the clause leaves the main identification clear.

Which relative word normally refers to things?

The postmaster, ___ was friendly, decided to help.

Why are commas used around a non-defining relative clause?

Negative expressions can add emphasis, as in “not a leaf remained.” Metaphors compare without using like or as: the clouds become huge mountains, rain becomes coins, hailstones become silver coins or frozen pearls, and Lencho is an ox of a man.

clouds ↔ huge mountains

The phrase “not a leaf remained” emphasizes the ___ destruction.

What does “an ox of a man” suggest about Lencho?

Which relative word shows possession?

who ↔ person as subject

Clouds described as huge mountains are an example of a ___.

What is the effect of “not a leaf remained”?

The pre-reading activity explains a money order: go to the post-office counter, buy the form, fill the required boxes, pay the amount and charges, then keep the acknowledgement counterfoil as a record of the transaction.

Put the money-order steps in order.

The sender keeps the acknowledgement ___ as a record.

Why should the acknowledgement be kept?

In the listening letter, Jaya apologises to Arti for not writing since a September birthday card. Her family has moved house, and Sarah has started school at Little Feet. Drizzle makes Jaya remember their time together in Bangalore.

Why does Jaya apologise to Arti?

Sarah has started school at ___.

What memory does the drizzle bring back?

Which sequence completes a money order?

Which detail belongs to Jaya’s letter?

The listening letter mentions shared memories of ___.

What should a personal reply respond to?

Put the main events in order.

What is the central irony of the ending?

Lencho originally requested ___ pesos.

postmaster ↔ protects Lencho’s faith

Which relative pronoun refers to a person as subject?

Calling raindrops coins is a ___.

Put the money-order actions in order.

gale ↔ very strong wind

Apartheid was South Africa’s system of racial separation and white rule. Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress fought it for decades. After the first democratic elections in 1994, Mandela became the country’s first Black President.

What was apartheid?

Mandela’s party was the African National ___.

What historic change followed the 1994 election?

On 10 May 1994, leaders from more than 140 countries attended Mandela’s inauguration at the Union Buildings amphitheatre in Pretoria. A former seat of white supremacy became the site of a rainbow gathering for South Africa’s first democratic, non-racial government.

Put the inauguration details in logical order.

The ceremony took place at the Union Buildings in ___.

Why is the phrase “rainbow gathering” appropriate?

Which country maintained apartheid until the democratic transition?

Choose the historical sequence.

The inauguration occurred on 10 May ___.

What did the inauguration chiefly signify?

Mandela called apartheid an extraordinary human disaster. The new democratic order was the glorious human achievement born from it. He thanked international guests for sharing a common victory for justice, peace, and human dignity on South African soil.

What was the “extraordinary human disaster”?

The common victory was for justice, peace and human ___.

Why did Mandela thank the international guests?

Mandela pledged to uphold the Constitution and serve the Republic. He promised political emancipation and liberation from poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender discrimination, and other injustice. His repeated “never again” declared that one group must never oppress another.

political emancipation ↔ freedom from political restriction

Mandela pledged to obey and uphold the ___.

Which future did Mandela describe?

What “glorious human achievement” does Mandela praise?

disaster ↔ apartheid

“Never again” rejects the ___ of one person by another.

Which ideal extends freedom beyond voting?

Jets, helicopters, and troop carriers flew over the Union Buildings. The display showed not only military precision but loyalty to the freely elected government. Generals who once would have arrested Mandela now saluted him and pledged their loyalty.

What did the military display demonstrate beyond force?

The generals now ___ Mandela instead of arresting him.

Why was the generals’ action historically striking?

Two national anthems were sung: whites sang the freedom anthem “Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika,” while Blacks sang the old Republic anthem “Die Stem.” The shared performance symbolised reconciliation. Jets also traced the new flag’s colours across the sky.

Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika ↔ anthem once despised by many whites

The jet smoke displayed the colours of the new South African ___.

Why were two anthems sung?

What did the air show signal politically?

salute ↔ new loyalty

Before democracy, the generals might have ___ Mandela.

What common idea unites the salute, anthems and flag?

Mandela said he was the sum of African patriots who came before him. Thousands had sacrificed without receiving thanks. Apartheid caused a deep wound, yet oppression also produced leaders of extraordinary courage, wisdom, and generosity. South Africa’s greatest wealth was its people.

What did Mandela mean by being the “sum” of earlier patriots?

Mandela called his country’s people its greatest ___.

How did oppression produce “heights of character”?

For Mandela, courage is not the absence of fear but victory over it; a brave person conquers fear. Hatred is learned, so love can also be taught and comes more naturally. Even in prison, a guard’s brief goodness kept hope alive.

courage ↔ triumph over fear

A brave person is one who ___ fear.

Which feeling does Mandela consider more natural?

Why could Mandela not fully thank earlier patriots?

people ↔ South Africa’s greatest wealth

Goodness is compared to a flame that can be hidden but never ___.

Which statement best captures Mandela’s view of bravery?

Mandela says every person has twin obligations: one to family and another to people, community, and country. Under apartheid, a Black South African who served the public was punished, isolated, and separated from home, making both duties difficult to fulfil.

What are Mandela’s twin obligations?

A public-minded Black South African could be forced into a ___ existence.

Why could Mandela not fulfil both obligations under apartheid?

As a boy, Mandela felt free to play and follow custom. As a student, he wanted temporary personal freedoms. Later he recognised that basic freedom meant lawful work, self-development, marriage, and family life, and that his people’s freedom was also denied.

Arrange Mandela’s understanding of freedom.

Mandela calls student freedoms ___ because they do not last.

How did his understanding of freedom change?

Which is an obligation beyond the family?

Choose the progression of freedom.

Mandela’s boyhood freedom later seemed an ___.

What turned Mandela from a family-loving husband into a homeless activist?

When Mandela saw that everyone who looked like him lacked freedom, he joined the African National Congress. His personal hunger became a greater hunger for collective dignity and self-respect, transforming a frightened young man and law-abiding attorney into a bold activist.

Why did Mandela join the ANC?

The struggle sought lives of dignity and self-___.

How did the hunger for freedom change Mandela’s life?

Mandela calls freedom indivisible: chains on one person affect all. The oppressor is also unfree because hatred, prejudice, and narrow-mindedness imprison him. Taking another’s freedom and losing one’s own freedom both rob human beings of their humanity.

oppressed ↔ person whose freedom is taken

Freedom is ___; one person’s chains concern everyone.

Why is the oppressor not truly free?

What did collective awareness do to Mandela’s personal hunger for freedom?

chains on one ↔ chains on all

Both oppressor and oppressed are robbed of their ___.

Which conclusion follows from Mandela’s argument?

The chapter uses vivid expressions: a rainbow gathering is a diverse assembly; white supremacy is racial domination; resilience is recovery from hardship; a glimmer of humanity is a brief sign of goodness; and a twilight existence is a half-secret life.

rainbow gathering ↔ diverse peoples together

To be “not unmindful” means to be ___.

What does “pushed to our limits” mean?

English often forms nouns from verbs with suffixes such as -ion and -ment. Form becomes formation, govern becomes government, rebel becomes rebellion, constitute becomes constitution, contribute becomes contribution, assist becomes assistance, imprison becomes imprisonment, and resist becomes resistance.

form ↔ formation

The noun formed from “contribute” is ___.

Which is the noun form of “imprison”?

What does “earning my keep” mean?

constitute ↔ constitution

The noun formed from “subjugate” is ___.

Which expression describes racial superiority as a centre of power?

Proper names usually take no article, but “the” and a plural name can mean people of that type. “The Oliver Tambos of our time” means other courageous leaders like Oliver Tambo. A singular famous name can also represent a comparable person.

What does “the Oliver Tambos of our time” mean?

In this special use, “the Alexanders” means people like ___.

Why is “the” unusual before a proper name?

Mandela balances clauses to sharpen contrasts: not absence of fear but triumph over it; past white supremacy and now democracy; military force not only displayed but pledged to democracy. An opinion paragraph should state a view, support it with reasons or examples, and conclude clearly.

not absence of fear ↔ but triumph over it

The connector “but” commonly signals a ___.

What makes a strong opinion paragraph?

What special meaning does “the Madhubala of our times” convey?

although ↔ signals contrast

“Courage was not the absence of fear, ___ the triumph over it.”

Which evidence best supports a speech on true liberty?

Leslie Norris presents a tiger pacing only a few steps in a concrete cage. His soft pads are quiet, but he carries quiet rage. His strength is trapped behind bars; he ignores visitors and hears patrolling cars at night.

What emotion lies beneath the tiger’s quiet movement?

The tiger is locked in a concrete ___.

Why does the tiger ignore visitors?

In the wild, the tiger should lurk in shadow, slide through long grass near a water hole, and wait for plump deer. At the jungle’s edge he should bare fangs and claws, snarling near houses and frightening the village.

cage ↔ stalks a few steps

Near the water hole, the tiger would watch for plump ___.

What is the poem’s main contrast?

Which phrase shows suppressed anger?

concrete cell ↔ zoo

In the wild, the tiger should be ___ through long grass.

How does captivity affect the tiger’s strength?

The poem repeats “quiet” to connect the tiger’s silent paws with restrained anger. It repeats “brilliant” to link his bright eyes with distant stars. Vivid stripes, velvet pads, white fangs, bars, and stars build contrasting images of power and confinement.

What effect does repeating “quiet” create?

The repeated word connecting the tiger’s eyes and the stars is ___.

Which image most clearly suggests imprisonment?

The companion poems extend the debate. Peter Niblett’s tiger dislikes display but recognises dangers in the wild. Rilke’s panther sees endless bars and paces in cramped circles, its will paralysed. The texts invite arguments about conservation, education, captivity, and alternatives to zoos.

Niblett’s tiger ↔ weighs captivity against dangers in the wild

Rilke’s panther feels there are a thousand ___.

What should a balanced argument about zoos do?

What does repetition of “brilliant” connect?

velvet pads ↔ soft movement

The panther’s mighty will is described as ___.

Which is a fair conclusion from all three animal poems?

Put the historical development in order.

What is courage according to Mandela?

Mandela’s personal hunger became a hunger for the freedom of his ___.

twin obligations ↔ family and community

What does a “rainbow gathering” suggest?

The noun formed from “resist” is ___.

Follow the movement of “A Tiger in the Zoo.”

quiet rage ↔ suppressed anger

A young seagull remained alone on a high ledge after his brothers and sister had flown. Though their wings were shorter, he feared the vast sea below and believed his own wings would not support him.

Why did the young seagull refuse to fly?

The seagull stood on a narrow cliff shelf called a ___.

What made his fear seem unreasonable to readers?

His parents called sharply, scolded him, and threatened to leave him hungry unless he flew. For twenty-four hours he watched the family practise flying and fishing. Heat and hunger increased while they ignored his attempts to attract attention.

Put the events before the first flight in order.

The parents were ___ him when they scolded him.

Why did the parents threaten and cajole him?

What did the sea look like from the ledge?

Choose the correct preparation sequence.

To skim the waves means to move ___ above them.

What is the central challenge at this stage?

The mother tore at a fish while watching her hungry chick. She then flew toward him carrying food but stopped just beyond reach. Maddened by hunger, he dived at the fish and fell outward from the ledge.

What finally compelled the seagull to leave the ledge?

The mother stopped with the fish almost within ___ of his beak.

Why did the mother halt in mid-air?

Terror seized the falling seagull, but his wings opened and the air supported him. He began soaring, flapping, banking, and diving with his family. Exhausted, he landed on the sea, discovered he could float, and was praised and fed.

Put the first-flight events in order.

Flying with one wing higher than the other is called ___.

What did the seagull learn after landing on the sea?

What does “the sight of the food maddened him” suggest?

Select the change in the seagull.

After the flight, his family offered scraps of ___.

Why is trying important in the story?

At 1:30 a.m., a pilot flew an old Dakota from France toward England under a clear sky. Paris Control told him to turn twelve degrees west. He checked the map, compass, and last fuel tank while anticipating breakfast with his family.

Where was the pilot travelling?

Paris Control instructed him to turn twelve degrees ___.

Why was the pilot happy at first?

About 150 kilometres beyond Paris, huge storm clouds blocked the route like black mountains. The pilot lacked enough fuel to go around them. Although he knew he should return, his desire to reach home and breakfast made him enter the storm.

Arrange the pilot’s decision.

The storm clouds are compared to black ___.

What risk did the narrator take?

What practical limit prevented a detour?

Choose the sequence before the danger.

The narrator takes the risk because he wants to reach ___.

What character flaw helps create the crisis?

Inside the storm, the Dakota jumped and twisted in darkness. The compass, other instruments, and radio stopped working, so the pilot was lost. A black aeroplane without wing lights appeared, and its pilot signalled for him to follow.

Which systems failed in the storm?

The strange aircraft had no lights on its ___.

How did the unknown pilot communicate?

The narrator followed for half an hour until only five or ten minutes of fuel remained. The black plane descended, leading him out to a lit runway, then vanished. At the control centre, a woman said his Dakota was the only aircraft on radar.

Put the rescue events in order.

The control woman had seen only the narrator’s plane on ___.

Why did the woman look at him strangely?

Why was the narrator glad to walk away from the Dakota?

Choose the mystery sequence.

The helper remains unexplained because the sky was empty and radar showed ___ other aircraft.

Which answer about the helper is supported by the ending?

The word black changes meaning with context. It can name a dark colour, mean without milk in black tea, suggest hopelessness in a black future, show anger in a black look, describe wickedness in a black crime, or mean illegal trade.

black tea ↔ tea without milk

To beat someone black and blue means to beat them ___.

What does “black comedy” usually mean?

Fly also forms idioms: fly a flag means display it; fly into a rage means become suddenly angry; fly along means move quickly; fly high means succeed; and fly the coop means escape. Swoop, flutter, dart, glide, hover, soar, and flap describe airborne movement.

fly a flag ↔ display a flag

To remain in one place in the air is to ___.

Which word means rise or fly high?

What decides the meaning of a word such as black?

swoop ↔ move down suddenly

To leave or escape a place is to fly the ___.

Which phrase best suits someone achieving great success?

A short account of learning a skill should establish the challenge, describe early difficulty, show the attempt that changed things, and reflect on the result. Specific actions and feelings make the experience vivid; gentle humour can make setbacks engaging.

Arrange a first-attempt narrative.

Specific actions and feelings make a narrative more ___.

What should humour do in a personal composition?

A thunderstorm paragraph can follow chronological order: where you were, what warning signs appeared, what happened at the storm’s height, how you reacted, and how it ended. Sensory details about darkness, wind, rain, thunder, and sound build atmosphere.

Put a storm narrative in order.

Details of sound, sight, and touch are called ___ details.

Which ending best completes an experience paragraph?

Which element should appear near the start of a personal narrative?

Choose the basic narrative arc.

A storm paragraph is clearest when events follow ___ order.

What connects both writing tasks?

Carolyn Wells jokingly offers dangerous identification rules. A roaring tawny beast is the Asian lion; black stripes on yellow identify the Bengal tiger; and spots identify the leopard. The joke is that recognition comes only when each animal attacks.

Asian lion ↔ large and tawny

To discern an animal means to ___ it.

Why are the identification rules humorous?

The poem says a crushing hug identifies a bear. A hyena supposedly smiles, while a crocodile weeps. A true chameleon is small, has no ears or wings, and becomes so well camouflaged that an apparently empty tree reveals its presence.

bear ↔ very hard hug

A gentle loving touch is a ___.

What makes the chameleon stanza paradoxical?

Which animal has black stripes on yellow?

tawny beast ↔ lion

A person new to a task is a ___.

How does the poem treat wild-animal danger?

The poem keeps a strong regular rhythm and rhyme by bending ordinary language. “Dyin’” is pronounced to rhyme with “lion,” while “lept” and “lep” imitate a non-standard past form of leap. These deliberate changes serve sound and comic effect.

Why is “dyin’” used instead of “dying”?

The spellings “lept” and “lep” are examples of poetic ___.

Why can an incorrect form work better in a humorous poem?

Wells combines wordplay with absurd situations. A bear’s attack becomes a “caress,” hyena smiles contrast with crocodile tears, and “A novice might nonplus” turns the adjective nonplussed into a playful verb. Calm advice about mortal danger creates irony.

bearhug ↔ strong hug

The main humour comes from funny ideas and playful use of ___.

What is ironic about the speaker’s tone?

Which pair is made to rhyme through altered pronunciation?

lept and lep ↔ invented forms of leap

A hyena’s smile and crocodile’s tears draw on popular animal ___.

What unites the poem’s rhythm and language changes?

A boy watches his ball bounce into the harbour and stands rigid, trembling, and grief-stricken. Although another ball costs little, replacement cannot restore the memories and personal meaning attached to the lost one. The speaker chooses not to interrupt.

Why is another ball not an adequate answer?

The boy’s powerful sadness is called shaking ___.

Why does the speaker not intrude?

The line about staring all his young days into the harbour suggests that the ball is linked with childhood memories. The boy appears to face a significant loss for the first time; his desperate eyes show that he has not yet learned how to recover.

What do “all his young days” suggest?

The word “rigid” means ___.

Which words suggest this may be his first major loss?

Where does the ball go?

What is the speaker respecting by staying back?

A replacement is worthless because money cannot restore the lost ball’s ___.

What gives the loss its depth?

The boy begins to understand responsibility in a world where people own things but cannot keep them forever. Balls will be lost, and no one can buy this particular ball back. “Money is external” means money cannot replace inner attachment or experience.

What does “the world of possessions” emphasize?

“Money is external” means money cannot replace ___ value.

What responsibility does the boy first sense?

Epistemology means the study of knowledge; here, the “epistemology of loss” is an understanding learned through experience. The boy must learn how to stand up after grief, because everyone eventually loses valued people or things and must continue living.

epistemology ↔ study of knowledge

The boy is learning how to ___ up after loss.

What universal lesson does the poem offer?

Why can money not buy the same ball back in the poem’s sense?

possessions ↔ things owned

Epistemology comes from a word connected with ___.

What change marks the boy’s growth?

Put the seagull’s breakthrough in order.

Why did the Dakota pilot enter the storm?

The mysterious helper did not appear on ___.

upbraiding ↔ scolding

How does “How to Tell Wild Animals” create humour?

The boy in “The Ball Poem” learns the nature of ___.

Follow the emotional movement of “The Ball Poem.”

black stripes on yellow ↔ Bengal tiger

Anne Frank was a German-born Jewish girl whose family hid in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. She wrote her diary from age thirteen. After the group was betrayed, Anne died in Bergen-Belsen; her father Otto later published the saved diary.

Why did Anne’s family go into hiding?

Anne wrote while hiding in ___.

Who arranged for Anne’s diary to be published?

Personal records differ in purpose. A diary records daily thoughts and feelings; a journal gives a fuller day-by-day account of a journey or period; a log lists timed and dated events, often officially; memoirs recount a person’s life and experiences.

diary ↔ daily thoughts and feelings

A schedule of events with exact times is most likely a ___.

Which form best suits a famous person recalling an acting career?

What language was Anne’s diary originally written in?

Otto Frank ↔ published the saved diary

Anne received the diary on her ___ birthday.

Why did the diary become historically important?

Anne finds diary writing strange because she has never written before and doubts anyone will value a schoolgirl’s musings. Yet she needs to express what is on her mind. “Paper has more patience than people” because it listens without interrupting or judging.

Why does Anne begin writing despite her doubts?

Feeling without energy or interest is described as ___.

What does “paper has more patience than people” mean?

Anne has loving relatives and many acquaintances, but no one true friend with whom she can share private feelings. Ordinary conversation never becomes close confidence. She therefore imagines the diary as a trusted friend named Kitty, not merely a record of facts.

Why does Anne still feel lonely among many people?

To confide means to share personal matters with someone you ___.

How does Anne want her diary to differ from an ordinary record?

What chiefly prompts Anne to keep a diary?

Which contrast is central to Anne’s loneliness?

Anne names her imagined diary friend ___.

What does the diary reveal about Anne?

Anne gives Kitty a short life sketch so her stories will make sense. Her father moved to Holland in 1933; her mother followed, while Anne and Margot first stayed with their grandmother in Aachen. Margot moved in December, and Anne followed in February.

Arrange these family movements.

Anne was born on 12 June ___.

Why does Anne provide biographical details?

Anne attended Montessori school and later remembered a tearful farewell from headmistress Mrs Kuperus. Her grandmother fell ill in 1941 and died in January 1942. Anne still thought of her often, and the family lit Grandma’s candle during Anne’s birthday celebration.

What shows Anne’s affection for Mrs Kuperus?

The birthday candle for Grandma shows Anne continued to ___ her.

What does Anne’s treatment of her grandmother reveal?

Where were Anne and Margot sent before joining their parents?

Choose the family sequence.

Anne treats Kitty as an ___ by explaining family background for future stories.

Which quality appears in Anne’s family sketch?

On 20 June 1942, Anne’s class feared the teachers’ promotion meeting. Students made bets about who would move up or be kept back. Anne expected to pass but felt uncertain about mathematics and called teachers the most unpredictable creatures on earth.

Why was the class “quaking in its boots”?

Students who failed to advance would be kept ___.

Which subject worried Anne?

Maths teacher Mr Keesing was annoyed by Anne’s talking and assigned an essay titled “A Chatterbox.” Anne avoided empty rambling and argued that talking was a student trait, hard to cure because she had inherited it from her talkative mother.

Arrange Anne’s response to the punishment.

A convincing argument is one that people are likely to ___.

How does Anne justify her talking?

What does “quaking in its boots” mean?

Select the first essay’s logic.

To ramble on is to speak or write without ___.

What does the essay show about Anne?

When Anne continued talking, Mr Keesing assigned “An Incorrigible Chatterbox,” then a third essay, “Quack, Quack, Quack, Said Mistress Chatterbox.” Incorrigible means impossible to correct. Anne had nearly exhausted her ideas and needed something original.

Why did Mr Keesing assign repeated essays?

Incorrigible describes a bad quality that cannot be ___.

What challenge did the third title create?

Anne’s friend Sanne helped create a verse about ducklings killed by a father swan for quacking too much. Mr Keesing understood the joke, read it to several classes, stopped assigning extra homework, and began joking with Anne instead.

Put the resolution in order.

Ingenuity means originality and ___.

Why did Mr Keesing allow Anne to talk afterward?

Who helped Anne write the third assignment?

Choose the essay sequence.

The joke ended up being on Mr ___.

Is Mr Keesing simply strict?

Anne calls her father adorable, remembers her grandmother lovingly, shares a tearful farewell with Mrs Kuperus, and responds to Mr Keesing with wit rather than bitterness. These relationships show affection, emotional sensitivity, honesty, confidence, and a sharp eye for people.

father ↔ deep admiration

Anne’s willingness to consider her own fault shows ___.

What quality helps Anne handle Mr Keesing?

Anne initially thinks no one will care about a thirteen-year-old’s musings, but history proved otherwise. Her diary differs from a plain daily log because it combines events with reflection, humour, relationships, and a distinctive voice. It later became a public historical document.

Was Anne correct that the world would ignore her musings?

Anne’s diary records facts together with personal ___.

Why is her diary different from a formal log?

Which trait appears when Anne says she may share blame for distant friendships?

humour ↔ classroom conflict

The diary became both a personal record and a historical ___.

What makes Anne’s writing compelling?

Compound words join two or more words. They may be nouns such as headmistress, homework, notebook, and outburst; adjectives such as long-awaited and stiff-backed; or verbs such as sleep-walk and baby-sit. Their combined meaning may be direct or specialised.

heartbreaking ↔ causing great sadness

To do something to an excessive degree is to ___.

Which compound means an occasion when a machine stops working?

Phrasal verbs combine a verb with an adverb or preposition and often gain a special meaning. Plunge in means begin directly; ramble on means speak without focus; move up means advance; get along with means have a good relationship; and hand in means submit.

plunge in ↔ go directly to the topic

To make someone become quiet is to calm ___.

What does “make up for” mean?

Which compound means a product or amount produced?

kept back ↔ not promoted

Anne says she gets ___ with her teachers.

Why can phrasal verbs be difficult?

Idioms have fixed wording and meanings that cannot always be guessed literally. Quaking in one’s boots means being afraid; not losing heart means remaining hopeful; caught my eye means attracted attention; had enough means reached one’s limit; and the joke was on him means he became the target.

caught my eye ↔ attracted my attention

If you cannot bring yourself to do something, you feel unable to ___ it.

Where should “caught my eye” be searched in a dictionary?

Contractions shorten spoken forms with apostrophes: can’t means cannot, I’ve means I have, and she’s may mean she is or she has. I’d may mean I had or I would. Diaries and dialogue use contractions because they imitate natural speech.

can’t ↔ cannot

The apostrophe in a contraction marks omitted ___.

Why are contractions common in diaries?

What does “have a heart of stone” suggest?

heart goes out to someone ↔ feel sympathy

The full form of “we’ll” is we ___.

How can readers choose between “I had” and “I would” for I’d?

A diary entry records events and personal responses briefly but vividly. It may use a date, an intimate address, feelings, picture-making words, everyday expressions, contractions, subjectless sentences, and fragments. These speech-like features suit diaries but not formal writing.

date ↔ places the entry in time

Diary language may omit a subject, as in “___ up late.”

Which feature should be avoided in formal writing?

Samuel Pepys’s entry is dated 2 September 1666. Jane woke him around three with news of fire, but he slept again because it seemed distant. At seven he learned over 300 houses had burned and fire reached Fish Street near London Bridge, then walked to the Tower.

Put Pepys’s morning in order.

The fire had spread to ___ Street near London Bridge.

Who accompanied Pepys up at the Tower?

What should a strong diary entry combine?

Choose the basic entry structure.

Pepys’s diary concerns the Great Fire of ___.

Why is Pepys’s entry valuable?

In Robin Klein’s poem, an adult repeatedly addresses Amanda with commands and questions: stop biting nails, sit straight, finish homework, tidy the room, clean shoes, avoid chocolate, pay attention, and stop sulking. The voice sounds controlling and constantly corrective.

Who is probably speaking to Amanda?

The repeated use of Amanda’s name makes the commands feel more ___.

What does the adult voice focus on?

Parenthesised stanzas present Amanda’s imagination rather than her spoken reply. She becomes a mermaid alone in an emerald sea, an orphan roaming freely, and Rapunzel choosing a tranquil tower. These fantasies offer silence, solitude, and freedom from instructions.

mermaid ↔ drifts alone in an emerald sea

The word tranquil means ___.

Why are the fantasy stanzas in parentheses?

What does the adult repeatedly ask Amanda to do?

languid ↔ relaxed

Amanda imagines herself as the sole ___ of the sea.

Do the parenthesised stanzas show Amanda listening closely?

Amanda is likely a young adolescent: she receives homework reminders and comments about acne. She is not literally an orphan; the image represents freedom from supervision. Rapunzel also appeals because the tower seems peaceful when Amanda imagines choosing isolation and never lowering her hair.

What suggests Amanda is an adolescent?

Amanda calls herself an orphan to imagine life without adult ___.

Why would Amanda refuse to lower Rapunzel’s hair?

The poem contrasts nagging with Amanda’s yearning for quiet freedom. In the last stanza, the adult orders her to stop sulking and then claims others might think Amanda is nagged. The irony is that the repeated commands already demonstrate the nagging being denied.

What does Amanda chiefly yearn for?

The final stanza is ironic because the speaker denies ___ while doing it.

Must Amanda truly be sulking and moody?

What unites Amanda’s three fantasies?

mermaid ↔ peaceful sea

The poem alternates outer commands with Amanda’s inner ___.

What lesson does the poem suggest about constant correction?

Put Anne’s classroom essay sequence in order.

Why does Anne call her diary Kitty?

A written official record with times and dates is a ___.

confide ↔ share privately

Why are Amanda’s imagined stanzas parenthesised?

Amanda’s tower is described as ___ and rare.

Follow Pepys’s account.

heartbreaking ↔ deeply sad

Wanda Petronski is a Polish-American schoolgirl in an American town. Large Polish migration occurred in the early twentieth century, and Polish-Americans sometimes faced discrimination. The story asks whether people should be judged by wealth and possessions or by more enduring qualities.

What question frames the story?

Wanda’s family background is ___.

Why is the immigration background relevant?

Most children in Room Thirteen had familiar American surnames, while Petronski sounded different to them. Wanda also lived in poor Boggins Heights and wore one faded blue dress. Her classmates turned language, poverty, and appearance into reasons to isolate her.

Petronski ↔ unfamiliar surname to classmates

Discrimination means unfair treatment based on perceived ___.

Which judgment does the story question?

What made Wanda seem different to classmates?

wealth ↔ material possession

The story warns against judging people only by their ___.

Why should the reader know about Polish-American discrimination?

Wanda sat next to the last seat in the last row, in the muddy corner where rough boys sat. She was not rough; she was quiet and rarely laughed. Her shoes carried dry mud from the long walk from Boggins Heights.

Where did Wanda sit?

Noisy dragging foot movements are called ___ of feet.

Why was the corner especially muddy?

Wanda was absent on Monday and Tuesday without attracting notice. Peggy and Maddie noticed on Wednesday only because they had waited to tease her and became late. “To have fun with her” is a soft phrase for mocking someone who cannot easily answer back.

Arrange the noticing of Wanda’s absence.

The phrase “have fun with her” actually means to ___ Wanda.

What does the delayed notice reveal?

Why did Wanda not belong with the rough boys?

Choose the absence sequence.

Wanda travelled from ___ Heights.

How does Wanda’s classroom position support the theme?

Peggy surrounded Wanda with other girls and politely asked how many dresses she owned. Wanda answered one hundred, all silk, velvet, and different colours, plus sixty pairs of shoes. The girls then burst into laughter because she wore the same faded dress daily.

Who invented the dresses game?

The girls respond ___, showing they do not believe Wanda.

Why is Peggy’s courteous tone mocking?

Wanda replied stolidly, showing little outward feeling, then walked away alone with dull eyes and closed mouth. Her hundred dresses may be an imaginative defence: she transforms the beautiful clothes she lacks into a private claim that preserves dignity and creative desire.

What does stolidly mean?

Wanda says the hundred dresses are all lined up in her ___.

Why might Wanda claim to own a hundred dresses?

How many pairs of shoes does Wanda claim?

incredulously ↔ not believing

After questioning Wanda, the girls burst into peals of ___.

What does Wanda’s silence after answering suggest?

Peggy was popular, attractive, well dressed, and opposed obvious cruelty: she protected small children and cried over mistreated animals. Yet she did not see the dresses game as cruel because Wanda never cried and because Peggy treated Wanda’s claims as lies.

Why does Peggy believe the game is harmless?

People who use strength to frighten weaker people are ___.

What contradiction defines Peggy?

Peggy may not intend serious harm, but her repeated public questions isolate Wanda and invite group laughter. Ethical judgment requires considering impact, not only intention. Wanda’s refusal to cry does not prove she is unhurt, and difference does not justify ridicule.

What matters besides Peggy’s intention?

Not crying is not proof that someone feels no ___.

Which lesson follows from Peggy’s behaviour?

Which fact makes Peggy’s self-image complicated?

Why is calling Wanda’s story a lie insufficient?

The group’s laughter increases the harmful ___ of Peggy’s questions.

How should Peggy judge the game more responsibly?

Maddie was poor and wore hand-me-down clothes, including Peggy’s altered dresses. She felt embarrassed during the game and wanted it to stop, partly because she understood vulnerability and feared becoming the next target. Still, she remained silent.

Why does Maddie identify with Wanda?

A deliberately chosen person for attack is a ___.

Why does Maddie study the marbles silently?

Maddie began a note asking Peggy to stop, then imagined classmates mocking her borrowed dress. She tore the note because Peggy was her best friend and the most popular girl. Dependence on Peggy’s friendship and fear of exclusion defeated Maddie’s conscience.

Put Maddie’s decision in order.

Maddie hopes Peggy will stop of her own ___.

Why does Maddie fail to act?

How is Maddie different from Peggy?

Choose Maddie’s moral sequence.

Maddie’s clothes are hand-me-___ garments.

What does Maddie’s silence teach?

The girls’ contest required dress designs; the boys designed motorboats. Maddie expected Peggy to win because Peggy could copy pictures and faces skilfully. On the rainy announcement day, the girls hurried to school and did not wait for Wanda.

Why did Maddie expect Peggy to win?

Very light rain is called ___.

What did boys design for the contest?

The classroom was filled with dazzling, lavish dress designs on wrapping paper. Miss Mason announced that one absent girl had submitted one hundred different, beautiful drawings; any one could win. Wanda Petronski received the girls’ medal, while Jack Beggles won for boys.

Arrange the contest reveal.

Extremely beautiful and well-made means ___.

Why does Miss Mason say Room Thirteen should be proud?

Who won the boys’ contest?

Select the reveal sequence.

The word lavish means very ___.

What surprises Peggy about the result?

The pale blue and jungle-green dresses Wanda had described appear among her drawings. Her claim was not a wardrobe inventory but an imaginative world she could design. The hundred pictures reveal talent, memory, and aspiration hidden beneath poverty and silence.

What connects Wanda’s stories with the drawings?

The drawings reveal Wanda’s hidden artistic ___.

Why is the number one hundred important?

The classmates first see Wanda as poor, strange, and dishonest. The contest forces them to see an imaginative artist whose work deserves admiration. Yet Wanda is absent and cannot receive the applause. Recognition comes only after sustained exclusion has already caused harm.

How does the contest change the class’s view?

Wanda is absent when the class bursts into ___.

What makes the applause bittersweet?

Which enduring quality does Wanda possess?

blue dress ↔ one described and later drawn

The contest reverses the class’s first ___.

What central message emerges?

A defining relative clause identifies exactly which person, thing, place, or time is meant. It is essential to the noun’s meaning and normally has no separating commas. Who refers to people, which or that to things, whose to possession, where to places, and when to times.

who ↔ people

The relative word normally used for a time is ___.

Why is a defining clause essential?

To combine sentences, place the identifying clause after its noun: “This is the bus that goes to Agra.” “Find a person whose name begins with Z.” “Go to a place where no such person lives.” The relative word replaces repeated information.

Which sentence correctly uses that?

Find a person ___ name begins with Z.

Which relative word completes “the place ___ no people live”?

Which relative word identifies a person as subject?

time ↔ when

A defining relative clause is usually written without separating ___.

What does the clause do in “the boys who did not make good marks”?

The story uses third-person narration, so the narrator is not a participant. Yet parts of the narration follow Maddie’s thoughts. Phrases such as “Thank goodness” reveal her relief at not living in Boggins Heights or having Wanda’s unfamiliar name.

What narrative person does the story use?

“Thank goodness” in the passage expresses ___ point of view.

Why shift into Maddie’s viewpoint?

Viewpoint adverbs comment on the likelihood or evaluation of a statement. Obviously signals certainty; apparently or evidently point to seeming evidence; possibly marks uncertainty; hopefully expresses hope; surprisingly and incredibly show unexpectedness; luckily judges an outcome as fortunate.

obviously ↔ clearly certain

The adverb that signals a fortunate result is ___.

What do viewpoint adverbs add to narration?

Who is not a participant in third-person narration?

apparently ↔ as it seems

“___, Wanda had only one daily dress” signals strong certainty.

Why is viewpoint important in this story?

Put the main events in order.

Why does Maddie remain silent?

Wanda submits one hundred dress ___.

Peggy ↔ leads the game

Which word completes “the girl ___ won the contest”?

An adverb meaning “perhaps” is ___.

stolidly ↔ without showing feeling

What is the lesson’s strongest moral insight?

Miss Mason receives a letter from Jan Petronski saying Wanda and Jake will leave school. The family is moving to a big city to escape insults such as “Pollack” and mockery of their unfamiliar name. The class falls silent.

Why is Wanda leaving the school?

Wanda’s brother ___ will also leave.

What does the big city offer the family?

Miss Mason is unhappy rather than angry. She calls the incident sad and asks the class to reflect. Maddie feels sick because she knew the teasing was wrong yet remained silent. She judges her inaction as bad as Peggy’s behaviour.

Miss Mason ↔ asks the class to think

To put yourself in another person’s shoes is to imagine that person’s ___.

Why does Maddie blame herself strongly?

What insult appears in Mr Petronski’s letter?

Put the classroom response in order.

Miss Mason believes the hurt may have come from ___.

What does the letter prove about teasing?

Peggy and Maddie climb Boggins Heights hoping to find Wanda, apologise, praise her drawings, and ask her not to leave. The drizzly, damp, dismal afternoon reflects their mood. Wanda’s shabby but clean house reminds Maddie of her blue dress.

Why do the girls visit Boggins Heights?

The house and Wanda’s dress are both shabby but ___.

What does the gloomy weather contribute?

The house is empty. Peggy excuses the teasing by saying it may have inspired Wanda’s art. Maddie cannot sleep and decides never again to stand by while someone is mocked for appearance or name, even if speaking costs Peggy’s friendship.

Arrange Maddie’s turning point.

To make ___ means to repair harm through a good action.

Why is Maddie’s decision significant?

What does picking on someone mean?

Choose Maddie’s moral sequence.

Maddie will speak even if she loses Peggy’s ___.

What is weak about Peggy’s excuse?

Peggy and Maddie write Wanda about the contest, praise her drawings, ask about her new home and teacher, and sign with affectionate X’s. They intend to apologise but never say they are sorry. “Please Forward” is written on the envelope.

What is missing from the girls’ letter?

The X’s at the end of the letter represent ___.

Why do they write “Please Forward”?

Weeks pass without an answer. Peggy begins forgetting, while Maddie remains anxious and imagines defending Wanda. At Christmas, Wanda writes to Miss Mason, sends greetings, and lets the girls keep the drawings because her new home has a hundred new dresses.

Put the communication events in order.

Wanda’s reply is sent to Miss ___.

Who remains more anxious while waiting?

What do the girls praise?

Choose the message sequence.

Wanda says the girls may keep the hundred ___.

What separates kindness from full accountability in the girls’ letter?

Wanda gives Peggy the green dress with red trimming and Maddie the blue dress. Maddie later notices that the blue drawing contains her own face; Peggy’s picture likewise resembles Peggy. The gifts were personally designed for them.

green dress with red trimming ↔ Peggy

Maddie pins her drawing over torn ___.

What reveals that the gifts were personal?

Peggy treats the gifts as proof Wanda likes them and everything is settled. Maddie hopes so but still cries, knowing she cannot fully repair the relationship. Wanda’s generosity suggests forgiveness, yet forgiveness does not erase the need for responsibility or change.

Why does Maddie remain sad?

Wanda responds with generosity rather than ___.

What is the best interpretation of the ending?

Which drawing does Peggy receive?

Peggy ↔ quickly sees reconciliation

Maddie’s eyes are blurred by ___.

What do the portraits show about Wanda?

An apology admits harm and expresses sorrow. Making amends attempts repair through action. Reform changes future behaviour. Peggy offers explanations, while Maddie moves further by accepting blame and resolving to oppose future teasing, even when doing so is difficult.

apology ↔ admit harm and express sorrow

Maddie’s promise to act differently is personal ___.

Which response shows the deepest growth?

Character adjectives need evidence. Wanda is talented, creative, quiet, generous, and lonely. Maddie is sensitive, timid at first, remorseful, and finally determined. Peggy is popular and capable but also thoughtless, complacent, and defensive about the harm she caused.

Wanda ↔ creative and generous

A person who cares about another’s suffering is ___.

Why can Peggy not be described by only one simple label?

Why did the Petronskis move?

thoughtless ↔ fails to consider harm

Maddie changes from a silent bystander into someone ready to speak ___.

What is the strongest lesson of the two-part story?

The story uses phrasal verbs with special meanings. Line up means arrange in a row; think up means invent; take off means remove; stand by means fail to intervene; pick on means treat unfairly; and speak up means express opposition openly.

lined up ↔ arranged in a row

Miss Mason took ___ her glasses.

Which phrasal verb describes Maddie’s earlier failure?

Colour expressions are figurative. Monday blues means post-weekend sadness; go red in the face means embarrassment or anger; look green means feel sick; red carpet means special welcome; white flag means surrender; green light means permission; and red-handed means caught doing wrong.

Monday blues ↔ post-weekend sadness

Caught while committing a wrong is caught red-___.

What is a grey area?

What does think up mean?

blue-blooded ↔ of noble birth

Permission to start is the green ___.

Why must idioms be learned in context?

A formal letter needs a respectful opening and closing, complete sentences, clear purpose, and appropriate vocabulary. A rewrite of Mr Petronski’s note should preserve the reason for leaving and the pain caused while replacing slang such as “holler” and sentence fragments.

What must a formal rewrite preserve?

Formal writing normally uses complete ___.

Why replace slang in a formal letter?

A paragraph about turning a hobby into a career should discuss skills, training, practice, tools, resources, and expert advice. Retelling part of the story as Wanda requires first-person “I” narration while preserving events and expressing only feelings reasonably supported by the text.

career paragraph ↔ skills and preparation

First-person narration mainly uses the pronoun ___.

What should a Wanda retelling avoid?

What does a formal opening establish?

Arrange a formal letter.

A career grows through learning and sustained ___.

How can first-person rewriting improve understanding?

Walt Whitman imagines leaving complicated human society to live with animals. He finds them placid and self-contained. They do not complain, lie awake over sins, preach duty, obsess over possessions, kneel to status, or worry about respectability.

What is the poet turning away from?

Placid means calm and ___.

Which human habit does the poem criticise?

Whitman idealises animals as honest, equal, contented, and free from guilt or status. Humans, by contrast, complain, compete, worship social rank, and become dissatisfied. The comparison is philosophical rather than a scientific claim that animals are literally perfect.

animals ↔ contentment and equality

Animals are described as self-___, meaning satisfied within themselves.

Why does Whitman idealise animals?