Class12 English CBSE Question No.9 Flamingo: Prose Comprehension Tips

Class12 English CBSE Question No.9 Flamingo: Comprehension.  Q. 9. One prose extract out of two from the book Flamingo, to assess comprehension,
interpretation, analysis, inference and evaluation. (6×1=6Marks)

🔍 Class12 English CBSE Question No.9  Flamingo: Prose comprehension with @principalsirmsyadav 📚✨

Class12 English CBSE Question No.9 Flamingo: Prose comprehension Tips

1. Preview the Passage: Before diving into the questions, take a moment to skim through the passage. Look for headings, subheadings, or any formatting that can provide insights into the structure of the text.
2. Understand the Context: Gain a broad understanding of the context in which the passage is set. Consider the time period, location, and the characters involved. This can help in contextualizing the events and themes.
3. Identify Key Themes and Motifs: Pay attention to recurring themes and motifs in the prose extract. Understanding these central ideas can guide your interpretation and analysis of the passage.
4. Analyze Character Perspectives: Consider the viewpoints and perspectives of the characters in the extract. This can provide valuable insights into their motivations, emotions, and the overall tone of the passage.
5. Focus on Literary Devices: Be attentive to literary devices such as metaphors, similes, symbolism, and imagery. These elements often contribute to the author’s style and add layers of meaning to the text.
6. Note Language Choices: Examine the author’s use of language. Take note of specific words or phrases that carry significance. Consider how the author’s language contributes to the overall tone and mood.
7. Consider Historical and Cultural Context: If applicable, be aware of the historical and cultural context of the prose extract. This understanding can provide deeper insights into the events and characters portrayed.
8. Summarize Paragraph by Paragraph: After each paragraph, pause to summarize the main idea. This can help reinforce your comprehension and ensure that you are following the narrative or argument effectively.
9. Relate to Central Themes: Relate the events or ideas presented in the prose extract to the central themes of the overall text. Understanding the broader context can enhance your interpretation.
10. Practice Regularly: Familiarize yourself with different types of prose extracts by practicing regularly. This can improve your ability to identify key elements, make inferences, and answer questions accurately.

1️⃣ Sensory Details: Identify and understand two crucial sensory details in “The Last Lesson.”

2️⃣ Protagonist’s Anxiety: Explore why the protagonist feels anxious entering the classroom.

3️⃣ Interpreting Phrases: Decode the meaning behind the phrase “as quiet as Sunday morning.” 4️⃣ Inferential Skills: Use evidence from the extract to infer the protagonist’s history of being late. 5️⃣ Understanding Characters: Analyze the term ‘terrible iron ruler’ and what it reveals about M. Hamel.

6️⃣ Central Idea: Choose the headline that best captures the essence of the extract.

📖 Bonus Practice Extract:

1️⃣ Dialogue Impact: Discover the writer’s purpose in letting the boys speak for themselves in “Lost Spring.”

2️⃣ Fact or Opinion: Classify the line “It is not lack of money but a tradition to stay barefoot.”

3️⃣ Inference Skills: Draw inferences from the description of the barefoot boys and their disappearance.

4️⃣ Writer’s Association: Identify the line indicating a longer association between the writer and the boys.

5️⃣ Commentary Prediction: Predict the writer’s likely comment based on the boy’s reaction to mismatched shoes.

6️⃣ Word Completion: Complete the sentence with one word based on the boy’s simple response.

Class12 English CBSE Question No.9 Flamingo: Prose comprehension

9. Read the given extracts and answer the questions for ANY ONE of the two, given. 6
A Usually, when school began, there was a great bustle, which could be heard out in the street, the
opening and closing of desks, lessons repeated in unison, very loud, with our hands over our ears to
understand better, and the teacher’s great ruler rapping on the table. But now it was all so still! I had
counted on the commotion to get to my desk without being seen; but, of course, that day everything
had to be as quiet as Sunday morning. Through the window I saw my classmates, already in their
places, and M. Hamel walking up and down with his terrible iron ruler under his arm. I had to open
the door and go in before everybody. You can imagine how I blushed and how frightened I was.
(The Last Lesson)
i List any two sensory details present in this extract. 1

1. Opening and closing of desks
2. The teacher’s great ruler rapping on the table

ii Why does the protagonist feel anxious about entering the classroom on this particular day?
A. The classmates have started the lesson
B. The teacher is in a bad mood
C. The classroom is too quiet
D. The protagonist is running late1

A. The classmates have started the lesson
iii Complete the sentence appropriately.
The phrase “as quiet as Sunday morning” suggests that ____________.1

The phrase “as quiet as Sunday morning” suggests that it is unusually calm and peaceful.
iv Pick evidence from the extract that helps one infer that this was not the protagonist’s first
time being late to school.1

The phrase “I had counted on the commotion to get to my desk without being seen” suggests that the protagonist had used the usual commotion to go unnoticed when arriving late before.
v What does the term ‘terrible iron ruler’ indicate about M. Hamel? 1

The term ‘terrible iron ruler’ indicates that M. Hamel is strict and possibly uses the ruler for disciplinary measures.
vi Which of the following headlines best suggests the central idea of the extract?
A. The Fears of a Latecomer
B. The Importance of Punctuality
C. The Rigidity of the School System
D. The Anxiety of a Young Student1

D. The Anxiety of a Young Student

OR

For Practice: Students can answer to practice
B Unaware of what his name represents, he roams the streets with his friends, an army of barefoot
boys who appear like the morning birds and disappear at noon. Over the months, I have come to
recognise each of them.
“Why aren’t you wearing chappals?” I ask one.
“My mother did not bring them down from the shelf,” he answers simply.
“Even if she did, he will throw them off,” adds another who is wearing shoes that do not match.
When I comment on it, he shuffles his feet and says nothing. “I want shoes,” says a third boy who has
never owned a pair all his life. Travelling across the country I have seen children walking barefoot, in
cities, on village roads. It is not lack of money but a tradition to stay barefoot, is one explanation.
(Lost Spring)
i What is the writer’s purpose in allowing the boys to speak for themselves via dialogue, as
opposed to only a writer’s commentary ?1

1. Writer’s Purpose in Letting Boys Speak for Themselves:
   • To allow the boys to express their situations, perspectives, and challenges directly.

ii The line, “It is not lack of money but a tradition to stay barefoot” can be best classified as:
A. A fact
B. An opinion
C. A theme
D. A plot point1

1. Classification of the Line “It is not lack of money but a tradition to stay barefoot”:
   • A. A fact

iii Explain any one possible inference that can be drawn from the line, “an army of barefoot
boys who appear like the morning birds and disappear at noon”.
1

1. Inference from “An Army of Barefoot Boys”:
   • The boys appear in the morning and disappear at noon, indicating a transient existence or possibly economic challenges.

iv Identify the line from the text that bears evidence to the fact that the writer’s association
with the boys is not a recent one.
1

1. Line Indicating Longer Association Between Writer and Boys:
   • “Over the months, I have come to recognize each of them.”

v Based on the context provided in the extract, select the most likely comment that the writer
would have made, based on the boy’s reaction to the mismatched shoes.
A. “Why are your shoes mismatched? That’s not a good look.”
B. “Don’t worry about your shoes, you can wear a matching pair later.”
C. “I like your shoes. What matters is that they protect your feet.”
D. “Have you chosen to mismatch your shoes?
1

1. Likely Comment Based on Boy’s Reaction to Mismatched Shoes:
   • C. “I like your shoes. What matters is that they protect your feet.”

vi Complete the sentence with ONE word.
The phrase “he answers simply”, suggests that the boy’s response to the writer’s question
about why he wasn’t wearing chappals was __________________.
1

1. Word Completion for “He answers simply”:
   • Unperturbed

Most Important Extracts from Flamingo for Comprehension

A girl from the countryside, she hadn’t gone through all the stages of worldly experience that generally precede a position of importance and sophistication that she had found herself catapulted into. She never quite recovered from the terror she felt that day. That was the end of a brief and brilliant acting career — the legal adviser, who was also a member of the Story Department, had unwittingly brought about that sad end. While every other member of the Department wore a kind of uniform — khadi dhoti with a slightly oversized and clumsily tailored white khadi shirt — the legal adviser wore pants and a tie and sometimes a coat that looked like a coat of mail. Often, he looked alone and helpless … (Poets and Pancakes)
i. Select the option that completes the given sentence appropriately.
‘Stages of worldly experience’ in the given context would refer to .
A. good education to gain knowledge.
B. situations that require one to be street smart.
C. smaller, not so important roles in acting.
D. training in soft skills.
Ans. B. situations that require one to be street smart.
ii. Select the suitable word from the extract to complete the following analogy:
sealed: closed :: propelled:
Ans. catapulted
iii. Select the correct option to fill in the blank.
The harm done to the actress was a/an
A. well-planned act.
B. unintentional act.
C. act of jealousy.
D. act of male dominance.
Ans. B. unintentional act.
iv. Based on the above extract, choose the statement that is TRUE for the legal adviser.
A. He disliked the actress from the countryside.
B. He acted after thinking through things carefully.
C. He did not gel well with others in the Department.
D. He was always dressed smartly.

Ans. C. He did not gel well with others in the Department.
v. Identify the textual clue that allows the reader to infer that the writer is sympathetic towards the professional fate of the actor. (Clue: a phrase)
Ans. sad end
vi. Complete the sentence with an appropriate explanation, as per the extract. The writer uses the word ‘uniform’ to refer to the outfits of the Department members because just like a uniform 
Ans. Their uniform depicts nationalism as they were khadi dhoti and kurta.
OR
Q. 3.B

Some might make quite extravagant claims for it as being, in its highest form, a source of truth, and, in its practice, an art. Others, usually celebrities who see themselves as its victims, might despise the interview as an unwarranted intrusion into their lives, or feel that it somehow diminishes them, just as in some primitive cultures it is believed that if one takes a photographic portrait of somebody then one is stealing that person’s soul. (The Interview)
i. What is the most likely reason some people consider the practice of interview to be an art? This could be because it requires

A. fluency of words.
B. sensitive and careful handling.
C. creativity and imagination.
D. probing and focusing on details.
Ans. C. creativity and imagination.
ii. Rewrite the sentence by replacing the underlined phrase with its inference. Celebrities feel that an interview diminishes them.
Ans. interview maks them appear ordinary.
iii. On the basis of the extract, choose the correct option with reference to the two statements given below.
(1) Celebrities don’t consent to be interviewed.
(2) Interviews intrude the privacy of celebrities.
A. (1) Can be inferred from the extract but (2) cannot.
B. (1) cannot be inferred from the extract but (2) can.
C. (1) is true but (2) is false.
D. (2) is the reason for (1).
Ans. D. (2) is the reason for (1).
iv. Rationalise, to support the given opinion: To say that an interview, in its highest form, is a source of truth, is an extravagant claim.
Ans. Interview can be false statements, hiding facts, and questions are unanswered.
v. Replace the underlined word with its antonym from the extract. Some celebrities hate the idea of having to give an interview because it makes them feel like supporters.
Ans. Victims
vi. The author’s views on interview, in the extract, can best be described as statements based on .
A. facts
B. hypothesis
C. beliefs
D. superstitions
Ans. A. facts