What made Mr Keesing allow Anne to talk in class?

Chubukov says of Natalya: “... as if she won’t consent! She’s in love; egad, she’s like a lovesick cat...” Would you agree? Find reasons for your answer.

Are there people like Lencho in the real world? What kind of a person would you say he is? You may select appropriate words from the box to answer the question.

   greedy            naive                   stupid                ungrateful 
   selfish            comical               unquestioning

Why didn’t Valli want to make friends with the elderly woman?

Did Lencho try to find out who had sent the money to him? Why/Why not?

What ideals does Nelson Mandela set for the future of South Africa?

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

How does Mandela describe the systems of government in his country

(i) in the first decade, and
(ii) in the final decade of the twentieth century?

Was Lencho surprised to find a letter for him with money in it?

Do you think Mr Keesing was a strict teacher?

Who does Lencho have complete faith in? Which sentences in the story tell you this?

Did Lencho try to find out who had sent the money to him? Why/Why not?

What does Mandela thank the international leaders for ?

Was Anne right when she said that the world would not be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old girl?

What did Mij do to the box?

What does courage mean to Mandela?

What does Valli tell the elderly man when he calls her a child?

What kind of a person is Valli? To answer this question, pick out the following sentences from the text and fill in the blanks. The words you fill in are the clues to your answer.

How did the rain change? What happened to Lencho’s fields?

What did being free mean to Mandela as a boy, and as a student ? How does he contrast these “transitory freedoms” with “the basic and honourable freedoms”?

How was Mij to be transported to England?