English Assignment class 12

1. HOME ASSIGNMENT 3
ENGHLISH PROJECT
POWERPOINT PROJECT

2. FLAMINGO PROSE
1- The Last Lesson
2- Lost Spring
POETRY
1- My Mother at Sixty - Six
VISTAS
1- The Third Level

4. Alphonse Daudet (13 May 1840 – 16 December 1897) was a French novelist. He was the
father of Leon Daudet and Lucien Daudet. Alphonse Daudet was born in Nîmes, France.
His family, on both sides, belonged to the bourgeoisie. The father, Vincent Daudet, was
a silk manufacturer — a man dogged through life by misfortune and failure.
In 1866, Daudet's Lettres de mon moulin (Letters from My Windmill), written in Clamart,
near Paris, and alluding to a windmill in Fontvieille, Provence, won the attention of many
readers. The first of his longer books, Le Petit Chose (1868), did not, however, produce
popular sensation. It is, in the main, the story of his own earlier years told with much
grace and pathos. The year 1872 brought the famous Aventures prodigieuses de Tartarin
de Tarascon, and the three-act play L'Arlesienne. But Fromont jeune et Risler
aine (1874) at once took the world by storm. It struck a note, not new certainly in
English literature, but comparatively new in French. His creativeness resulted in
characters that were real and also typical.
Jack, a novel about an illegitimate child, a martyr to his mother's selfishness, which
followed in 1876, served only to deepen the same impression. Henceforward his career
was that of a successful man of letters, mainly spent writing novels: Le
Nabab (1877), Les Rois en exil (1879), Numa
Roumestan (1881), Sapho (1884), L'Immortel (1888), and writing for the stage:
reminiscing in Trente ans de Paris (1887) and Souvenirs d'un homme de lettres (1888).

5. SUMMARY
The narration of this story is by a French boy, Franz. Franz is a lazy boy. However, in spite of
his laziness, Franz likes to play and is of a sensitive nature. Furthermore, Franz hates his
teacher M. Hamel in his school and has no interest in studying French.
An order has come from Berlin after taking over the districts of Alsace and Lorraine in
France that the German language rather than the French should be taught in the schools
there. Furthermore, it is the school French teacher M. Hamel’s last day. This teacher has
been working there for forty years. Moreover, the teacher has feelings of patriotism. He is
also full of nostalgia and grief. The village men also attend his ‘last lesson’ so as to honour
and respect him. The village is regretting and is sad that they didn’t learn their mother
tongue in their childhood.
Franz receives a big shock when he learns that this is his last lesson in French. He is
shocked because he does not know French. Furthermore, on learning about the last lesson,
a sudden interest arises in him for learning French. Moreover, he pays careful attention and
learns everything taught on this last day.
Instantly, he develops liking for the teacher M. Hamel. His feelings of hatred for him
suddenly came to an end. Moreover, Franz develops respect for the hard work and sincerity
of his teacher. Franz is sad and ashamed for being unable to recite his lesson.
Hamel explains that they all are at fault for lacking eagerness to learn. Furthermore, he
also includes himself in this fault. He blames himself for lack of sincerity in teaching them.

6. There is a reflection of his patriotism in his praise for the French language. He says
that the French language is the most logical and beautiful language in the world. It
seems that M. Hamel got emotional on this occasion. Furthermore, he asks the class
to guard their language. He says that being close to one’s language is a way to
escape the clutches of slavery. This language will assist them in attaining freedom
from the Germans. The people realize the significance of their mother tongue.
Moreover, they feel the reason for their defeat is illiteracy.
Franz feels that it is impossible to remove one’s language from a person. This is
because it is something that is natural to a person. This means that no matter how
hard the opposition may try, they will fail to remove one’s language.
CONCLUSION
The Last Lesson summary reflects on the importance of one’s language for
any race and why it is crucial to safeguard it.

8. Anees Jung (born 1944) is an Indian author, journalist and columnist for newspapers in
India and abroad, whose most known work, Unveiling India (1987) was a chronicle of
the lives of women in India, noted especially for the depiction of Muslim women behind
the purdah.
Born in Rourkela, Anees Jung hails from an aristocratic family in Hyderabad – her father,
Nawab Hosh Yar Jung, was a renowned scholar and poet, and served as
the musahib (adviser) to the last Nizam (prince) of Hyderabad State. Her mother and
brother are also Urdu poets. After schooling and college at Osmania University in
Hyderabad, she went to the United States for higher studies at University of
Michigan Ann Arbor, where she did her master's degree in sociology and American
studies.
She started her career in writing with the Youth Times, a Times of India publication,
where she worked as a journalist and editor (1976 to 1979). She has subsequently
worked for The Christian Science Monitor and International Herald Tribune. Anees Jung
lives in Delhi.

9. SUMMARY
The first part tells the author’s impressions regarding the life of poor rag pickers. The
rag pickers have come from Dhaka. Furthermore, the settlement of the rag pickers is in
the area of Seemapuri. Destruction has come in their fields and homes due to the
storms. They had come to the big city in the hope of finding living there. However, the
reality was, in fact, painful for them and they had to face many hardships. They are
certainly poor and lack various resources.
The writer watches Saheb every morning as he scrounges for “gold” in the
neighbourhood. The means of survival for these rag pickers is the
garbage. Furthermore, for the children, it is a wondrous thing. The children are able to
find a coin or two from it. These people have ambitions and desires. The problem is that
they do not know the way to make them possible. There are quite a few things that they
are unable to reach. Later Saheb joins a tea stall where there is a possibility for him to
earn 800 Rupees and all the meals. However, this job has deprived him of his freedom.
As such their condition is pretty hopeless and full of misery.
The second part explores the life of Mukesh. Mukesh is a boy who belongs to the family
of Bangle-makers. Firozabad is famous for its amazing glass-blowing industry. There is
an engagement of nearly 20,000 children in this particular business. Furthermore, no
one over there understands or respects the law that forbids child labour. Moreover, the
living condition, as well as the working environment, are both horrendous.

10. These children live in dreary cells. Also, they work close to hot furnaces. This is certainly
very dangerous as it makes these children blind when they enter adulthood. Furthermore,
these children have to deal with the pressure of debt. Moreover, they are unable to think
of a solution to solve this problem. There is no way for these children to come out of this
trap.
The policemen, bureaucrats, middlemen, and politicians will all hinder their way of
progress. The women in the household consider it to be their destiny or fate. As a result
of such thinking, they just follow the established tradition. There is something different
about Mukesh. He is not like the rest of the folk there. This is because Mukesh has big
dreams. He has a desire to become a motor mechanic in future. The garage is far away
from where he lives but he has the determination to walk.
CONCLUSION
Lost Spring summary gives us an analysis of the impoverished condition faced by many
children that condemn them to a life of pain, oppression, and lack of education.

12. Kamala Das, Malayalam pen name Madhavikutty, Muslim name Kamala Surayya, (born
March 31, 1934, Thrissur, Malabar Coast [now in Kerala], British India—died May 31,
2009, Pune, India), Indian author who wrote openly and frankly about female sexual
desire and the experience of being an Indian woman. Das was part of a generation of
Indian writers whose work centred on personal rather than colonial experiences, and
her short stories, poetry, memoirs, and essays brought her respect and notoriety in
equal measures. Das wrote both in English (mostly poetry) and, under the pen name
Madhavikutty, in the Malayalam language of southern India.
Das was born into a high-status family. Her mother, Nalapat Balamani Amma, was a
well-known poet, and her father, V.M. Nair, was an automobile company executive and a
journalist. She grew up in what is now Kerala and in Calcutta (now Kolkata), where her
father worked. She began writing poetry when she was a child. When she was 15 years
old, she married Madhava Das, a banking executive many years her senior, and they
moved to Bombay (now Mumbai). Das had three sons and did her writing at night.

13. SUMMARY
Ageing is an inescapable phase of every human’s life. A person enters their
childhood, experiences adolescence when they are energetic and have so many
dreams. Finally, every person approaches their old age and then they die.
Relationships between people become much stronger in every phase of life. No one
can’t bear the separation from their loved ones just because of ageing.
Firstly, when the author going to the Cochin airport with her mother she looks at her
carefully and presents before us her image. As she looks at her mother’s soft and
whitish face, she gets stuck with the fear of losing her mother. Her mother with a
sleepy face and open mouth is comparable to a corpse. Here, the author shows love
and affection in a relationship between a mother and a daughter.
The poet is hurt and sad and shifts her attention outside the car for driving out the
undesirable feelings. She changes her bad mood. The scene from the window of the
car is of rising life and energy. The fast sprinting green and huge trees alongside the
cheerfully playing kids represent life, youth, and vitality. The poet here is
remembering about her own childhood. In her childhood, her mother was young and
beautiful. Whereas now her mother is surrounded by the fear of losing her life and
that made her insecure and sad.

14. She reaches the airport to take her flight. It shows departure and parting which makes
her sad. As she said goodbye to her mother, the image of the old mother in the dusk of
years strikes her. Here again, a simile is comparable with her mother with a late-night
moon of the winters. The light of the moon is an obstacle by the fog and haze as she
appears older now.
The poet is now feeling the pain of getting separated because of leaving her mother.
Her childhood fear of losing her loving mother now became so terrifying. Now her
mother could die of old age anytime unexpectedly. She is so sad that she starts crying
slowly without control but keeping a brave heart she hides her tears and starts smiling.
Thus, she offers her farewell to her old mother and keeps her hope of seeing her mother
alive again. She says “see you soon, Amma”. She hides her tears and sorrow as she
does not want to make a painful and emotional environment. Moreover, she doesn’t want
her mother to cry and shows her that she is enjoying her life. She expects her mother to
be happy and enjoy her life just like her.

15. CONCLUSION
To conclude, my mother at sixty six summary revolves around the beautiful
relationship between the poet and her mother. The summary shows the
theme of the advancing age of the mother of the author and the fear of
separation. This apparently short poem touches upon the theme of a
beautiful bond between the mother and the daughter. It shows how beautiful
a relationship a mother and a daughter can have.

17. Walter Braden "Jack" Finney (born John Finney; October 2, 1911 – November 14,
1995) was an American author. His best-known works are and thrillers,
including The Body Snatchers and Time and Again. The former was science
fiction the basis for the 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers and its
remakes.
Finney was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and given the name John Finney.
After his father died when Finney was three years old, he was renamed Walter
Braden Finney in honor of his father, but continued to be known as "Jack". He
attended Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, graduating in 1934. He married
Marguerite Guest, and they had two children, Kenneth and Marguerite. After
living in New York City and working for an advertising agency there, he moved
with his family to California in the early 1950s. He lived in Mill Valley, California,
and died of pneumonia and emphysema in Greenbrae, California, at the age of
84.

18. SUMMARY
In New York, the Grand Central Station has two levels. Nonetheless, Charley a 31-
year-old city resident talks that there exists a third level. Also, he claims that he
has been there. To talk about this problem he visits a psychiatrist friend. He calls
it a “walking-dream wish fulfilment” and explains Charley’s psychology by saying
that “the modern world is full of fear, insecurity, war, and worry…..” and
everybody wants to escape to some “temporary refuge from reality.” As for him,
hobbies like stamp collection is an indicator of this escape.
At times the Grand Central Station seems like a maze to Charley. While taking the
subway earlier he had lost his way a couple of times. One time he entered the
lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel. While the other time he appeared at an office
building that was three blocks away. However, this time he loses his way and
something unique occurs. Charley visits the third level!
In the silent hallway, Charley keeps walking, turning left, and sloping downward,
until he touches an architecturally old station, which is totally different from the
two familiar levels. Moreover, this old small room with fewer ticket counters and
train gates, a wooden information booth, wavering open flame gas lights and
brass spittoons.

19. All this remind him of the architecture of the 1800s. Further, he sees people in
outdated outfits. When he noticed the date in the newspaper ‘The World’ he sees 11
June 1894. When he tries to buy two tickets, he realizes that he needs old currency.
He always wanted to travel to Galesburg with his wife, Louisa. Back in his head, it is
“a wonderful town still, with big old frame houses, huge lawns, and tremendous
trees….” The place has pleasant and long summer dusks and where people have
ample of time. Hence, the next day during lunch, he exchanges three hundred dollars
for old currency amounting to some two hundred only. In addition, the amount doesn’t
bother him as he believes that everything there will be cheaper. However, he could
never again find the corridor that leads him to the third level.
When her wife came to know about this she asks him to stop looking. Unexpectedly,
his friend Sam Weiner also disappear and his wife keeps on looking for him for in the
weekends. Moreover, Sam was the one whom Charley shares his idea about
Galesburg.
Charley inherited the hobby of stamp collection from his grandfather. And someday
while looking at the stamp collection, Charley finds a letter that was earlier not there.
Also, it has the postmark on a faded six-cent stamp with a picture of President
Garfield. Further, the envelop read as 18 July 1894 to Charley’s grandfather in
Galesburg and it addresses Charley.

20. In the letter, Sam tells Charley that he has reached Galesburg and he invites
Charley and Louisa there. After going to stamp and coin shop he gets to know
that Sam exchange eight hundred dollars for old currency bills to establish his
business in Galesburg. Besides, Sam was none other than Charley’s psychiatrist.
CONCLUSION
Through the third level, the writer wants to escape from the modern world
to peaceful and quite old times.

21. THANK YOU