What does Valli mean when she says, “I was just agreeing with what you said about things happening without our knowledge.”

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?

Why does the postmaster send money to Lencho? Why does he sign the letter ‘God’?

Why does Anne provide a brief sketch of her life?

At the beginning of his speech, Mandela mentions “an extraordinary human disaster”. What does he mean by this? What is the “glorious human achievement” he speaks of at the end?

Why were two national anthems sung?

Why do you think Kisa Gotami understood this only the second time? In what way did the Buddha change her understanding?

Who read the letter?

Why does the conductor refer to Valli as ‘madam’?

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

What does Kisa Gotami understand the second time that she failed to understand the first time? Was this what the Buddha wanted her to understand?

What does courage mean to Mandela?