CBSE CLASS 12 QUESTION BANK 'THE LAST LESSON' MCQs with answers

 Multiple Choice Questions based on an extract

Q 1 A. Poor man! It was in honour of this last lesson that he had put on his fine

Sunday clothes, and now I understood why the old men of the village were

sitting there in the back of the room. It was because they were sorry, too,

that they had not gone to school more. It was their way of thanking our

master for his forty years of faithful service and of showing their respect for

the country that was theirs no more.

i Why does the narrator refer to M. Hamel as ‘Poor man!’?

a) He empathizes with M. Hamel as he had to leave the village.

b) He believes that M. Hamel’s “fine Sunday clothes” clearly reflected that

he was not rich.

c) He feels sorry for M. Hamel as it was his last French lesson.

d) He thinks that M. Hamel’s patriotism and sense of duty resulted in his

poverty.

ii Which of the following idioms might describe the villagers’ act of attending

the last lesson most accurately?

a) ‘Too good to miss’

b) ‘Too little, too late’

c) ‘Too many cooks spoil the broth’

d) ‘Too cool for school’

iii Choose the option that might raise a question about M. Hamel’s “faithful

service”.

a) When Franz came late, M. Hamel told him that he was about to begin

class without him.

b) Franz mentioned how cranky M. Hamel was and his “great ruler

rapping on the table”.

c) M. Hamel often sent students to water his flowers, and gave a holiday

when he wanted to go fishing.

d) M. Hamel permitted villagers put their children “to work on a farm or at

the mills” for some extra money.

iv Choose the option that most appropriately fills in the blanks, for the

following description of the given extract.

The villagers and their children sat in class, forging with their old master

a (i) _____ togetherness. At that moment, the classroom stood (ii)

_____. It was France itself, and the last French lesson a desperate

hope to (iii) ______ to the remnants of what they had known and taken

for granted. Their own (iv) _______.

a) (i) graceful; (ii) still; (iii) hang on; (iv) country

b) (i) bygone; (ii) up; (iii) keep on; (iv) education

c) (i) beautiful; (ii) mesmerised; (iii) carry on; (iv) unity

d) (i) forgotten; (ii) transformed; (iii) hold on; (iv) identity

B. M. Hamel went on to talk of the French language, saying that it was the

most beautiful language in the world — the clearest, the most logical; that

we must guard it among us and never forget it, because 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. Then he opened a grammar book and read us our

lesson. I was amazed to see how well I understood it. All he said seemed

so easy, so easy!

i Which of the following can be attributed to M. Hamel’s declaration about the

French language?

a) subject expertise

b) nostalgic pride

c) factual accuracy

d) patriotic magnification

ii Read the quotes given below.

Choose the option that might best describe M. Hamel’s viewpoint.

(i) Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

(ii) Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going. – Rita Mae Brown

(iii) A poor man is like a foreigner in his own country. – Ali Ibn Abi Talib 

(iv) The greatest propaganda in the world is our mother tongue, that is what we learn as children, and which we learn unconsciously. That shapes our perceptions for life. – Marshal McLuhan

a) Option (i)

b) Option (ii)

c) Option (iii)

d) Option (iv)

iii “I was amazed to see how well I understood it.”

Select the option that does NOT explain why Franz found the grammar

lesson “easy”.

a) Franz was paying careful attention in class this time.

b) M. Hamel was being extremely patient and calm in his teaching.

c) Franz was inspired and had found a new meaning and purpose to

learning.

d) Franz had realized that French was the clearest and most logical

language.

iv Franz was able to understand the grammar lesson easily because he was

a) receptive.

b) appreciative.

c) introspective.

d) competitive.

Q 2. Stand-alone MCQs

i Franz saw a huge crowd assembled in front of the bulletin board, but did not

stop. How would you evaluate his reaction?

a) Franz was too little to care about the news of lost battles.

b) Nobody in Franz’s family was in the army, so it did not matter.

c) Bad news had become very normal, so he went about his task.

d) It was too crowded for Franz to find out what news was up on the board.

ii There was usually great bustle and noise when school began, but it was all

very quiet.

ii Which of the following describes Franz’ emotions most accurately?

a) shock and awe

b) disappointment and anxiety

c) confusion and distress

d) curiosity and uncertainty

iii “I never saw him look so tall”. Which of the following best captures M. Hamel

on the last day of school?

a) cranky, miserable, dedicated, resigned

b) patient, dignified, emotional, courageous

c) calm, nostalgic, disappointed, patriotic

d) proud, reproachful, persistent, heroic

iv Look at the table below. Column A provides instances from the story ‘The

Last Lesson’. Column B provides titles of some famous English language

poems. 

Choose the option that correctly match items of Column A with

Column B.

Column A                                                                                         Column B

1. M. Hamel distributed new copies                                                                                                                                                                        (i)‘Remorse is  awake’Emily Dickinson                                                                                                                                                                                                   

  that looked like little French flags,

and ended the class with an

emphatic “Vive La France!”.

                                                                                                                                               

2. Hauser sat at the end of the class,                             ii) ‘A House called                                                                                                                      Tomorrow’(Alberto Rios)

thumbing his primer, desperately

trying to learn with the children, even

as he cried.

3. M. Hamel shared how Alsace

always put off learning, and how its                     (iii) ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ (John

                                                                                                             Donne)

people always thought they had

plenty of time.

4. 

Class ended when the church clock struck twelve.        (iv) ‘Do Not Go gentle into that

                                                                                                         Good night’ (Dylan                                                                                                                                   Thomas)

And then the

Angelus. Simultaneously, Prussian

trumpets sounded under the school

windows.

Answers

a) 1 – (i); 2 – (ii); 3 – (iii); 4 – (iv)

b) 1 – (ii); 2 – (iii); 3 – (iv); 4 – (i)

c) 1 – (iii); 2 – (iv); 3 – (i); 4 – (ii)

d) 1 – (iv); 2 – (i); 3 – (ii); 4 – (iii)