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Flamingo
Textbook in English for Class XII
(Core Course)
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ISBN 81-7450-650-0
First Edition ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
January 2007 Pausa 1928
q No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
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the publisher’s consent, in any form of binding or cover other than
January 2012 Magha 1933 that in which it is published.
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or by any other means is incorrect and should be unacceptable.
December 2014 Pausa 1936
December 2015 Agrahayna 1937 OFFICES OF THE PUBLICATION DIVISION, NCERT
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FOREWORD
The National Curriculum Framework, 2005, recommends
that children's life at school must be linked to their life outside
the school. This principle marks a departure from the legacy
of bookish learning which continues to shape our system and
causes a gap between the school, home and community. The
syllabi and textbooks developed on the basis of NCF signify
an attempt to implement this basic idea. They also attempt to
discourage rote learning and the maintenance of sharp
boundaries between different subject areas. We hope these
measures will take us significantly further in the direction of
a child-centred system of education outlined in the National
Policy on Education (1986).
The success of this effort depends on the steps that school
principals and teachers will take to encourage children to reflect
on their own learning and to pursue imaginative activities and
questions. We must recognise that, given space, time and
freedom, children generate new knowledge by engaging with
the information passed on to them by adults. Treating the
prescribed textbook as the sole basis of examination is one of
the key reasons why other resources and sites of learning are
ignored. Inculcating creativity and initiative is possible if we
perceive and treat children as participants in learning, not as
receivers of a fixed body of knowledge.
These aims imply considerable change in school routines
and mode of functioning. Flexibility in the daily time-table is
as necessary as rigour in implementing the annual calendar
so that the required number of teaching days are actually
devoted to teaching. The methods used for teaching and
evaluation will also determine how effective this textbook
proves for making children's life at school a happy experience,
rather than a source of stress or boredom. Syllabus designers
have tried to address the problem of curricular burden by
restructuring and reorienting knowledge at different stages
with greater consideration for child psychology and the time
available for teaching. The textbook attempts to enhance this
endeavour by giving higher priority and space to
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opportunities for contemplation and wondering, discussion
in small groups, and activities requiring hands-on experience.
The National Council of Educational Research and
Training (NCERT) appreciates the hard work done by the
Textbook Development Committee responsible for this book.
We wish to thank the Chairperson of the advisory group in
Languages, Professor Namwar Singh and the Chief Advisor
for this book, Professor Amritavalli for guiding the work of
this committee. Several teachers contributed to the
development of this textbook; we are grateful to their
principals for making this possible. We are indebted to the
institutions and organisations which have generously
permitted us to draw upon their resources, material and
personnel. We are especially grateful to the members of the
National Monitoring Committee, appointed by the Department
of Secondary and Higher Education, Ministry of Human
Resource Development under the Chairmanship of
Professor Mrinal Miri and Professor G.P. Deshpande, for their
valuable time and contribution. As an organisation committed
to systemic reform and continuous improvement in the quality
of its products, NCERT welcomes comments and suggestions
which will enable us to undertake further revision and
refinement.
Director
New Delhi National Council of Educational
20 November 2006 Research and Training
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ABOUT THE BOOK
This textbook for Class XII English course has been developed
on the basis of the recommendations made in the National
Curriculum Framework 2005. It follows the design of the
Class XI textbook, Hornbill, published in 2006.
The prose selections aim to provide exposure to a wide
variety of genres and themes, and writing from different parts
of the world. They take into account the interests of young
adults while making them aware of the socio-political issues
that they will confront as they step into the world outside
school. The tasks that follow the units provide opportunities
for the development of language skills.
Three short stories, representative of fiction from different
parts of the world - French, Swedish and British, have been
included. Alphonse Daudet’s The Last Lesson deals with
the theme of language imposition and language loyalty,
Selma Lagelerof’s The Rattrap, captures the basic goodness
in a human being in the face of material temptations and
A.C. Barton’s Going Places explores the theme of adolescent
hero-worship and fantasising.
Two of the non-fiction pieces are biographical and two
autobiographical. Of the two biographical pieces, Indigo, an
excerpt from Louis Fischer’s Life of Mahatma Gandhi
portrays Gandhi in action, helping peasants secure legal
justice and the excerpt from Anees Jung’s Lost Spring is an
account of the lives of street children, a contemporary reality
that youngsters need to be made sensitive to.
The autobiographical piece by William Douglas, a lawyer
who was a close associate of Franklin Roosevelt, deals with
his personal experience of overcoming the fear of swimming.
The second autobiographical account is by Asokamitran
writing in a humorous vein about his years in the Gemini
Studios.
The Introduction from The Penguin Book of Interviews
edited by Christopher Silvester has been included to
introduce pupils to the subject of media writing. This is
accompanied by a recent newspaper interview with Umberto
Eco by Mukund Padmanabhan.
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Each Unit is interspersed with ‘Think as you read’
questions to check factual comprehension. This is followed
by end-of-unit global questions and text-related issues to
be taken up for discussion. Language work on vocabulary
and sentence patterns is followed by writing tasks. Useful
vocabulary is presented at the beginning of each unit for
learners to notice them in the text and understand their
meaning from the context. Annotations are added where
necessary. ‘About the unit’ highlights the points of focus in
the tasks section following each text.
The poetry section has six poems. A short excerpt from
Keats’ Endymion has been chosen to give pupils a taste of
classical poetry, lines which have universal appeal and eternal
value. Robert Frost’s A Roadside Stand is on the rural-urban
economic divide. The other four poems are by reputed
contemporary poets including two women, Kamala Das and
Adrienne Rich. While the theme of Das’ poem, My Mother at
Sixty-six touches a personal chord of looking objectively at a
close relative, Rich’s poem, Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers, gives
expression to the voice of women stifled by the institution of
marriage. Stephen Spender’s poem on An Elementary School
Classroom in a Slum sensitively brings out the disparity
between the formal education system and the reality of the
lives of the poor. The poems are followed by ‘noticing’ items
which indicate the elements that deserve special attention in
the classroom.
The tasks in the poetry section encourage pupils to enjoy
aesthetic writing and evoke subjective responses to the
language of poetry.
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TEXTBOOK DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
CHAIRPERSON, ADVISORY GROUP FOR TEXTBOOKS IN LANGUAGES
Namwar Singh, Professor and formerly Chairman, School of
Languages, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
CHIEF ADVISOR
R. Amritavalli, Professor, English and Foreign Languages
University (EFLU), Hyderabad
CHIEF COORDINATOR
Ram Janma Sharma, Professor and Former Head, Department
of Education in Languages, NCERT, New Delhi
MEMBERS
Chaya Nautiyal, Deputy Director, Secondary Education,
Directorate of Education, Allahabad
Gayatri Khanna, ELT Consultant, New Delhi
Indu Khetarpal, Principal, Salwan Public School, Gurgaon
Kirti Kapur, Assistant Professor, NCERT, New Delhi
Malathy Krishnan, Professor, EFLU, Hyderabad
Nasiruddin Khan, Reader (Retd.), NCERT, New Delhi
Pranjit Dev Sarmah, Teacher, Garigaon, Guwahati
Rajendrasinh Jadeja, Director, H. M. Patel Institute of English
Training and Research, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat
Saryug Yadav, Associate Professor, RIE, Ajmer
S.K. Shyamla, PGT , Demonstration Multi Purpose School,
RIE, Mysore
MEMBER-COORDINATOR
Meenakshi Khar, Assistant Professor, Department of
Education in Languages, NCERT, New Delhi
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The National Council of Educational Research and Training
is grateful to Professor Alok Rai and Professor Harish Trivedi
from Department of English, Delhi University and
Vandana R. Singh, Consultant Editor for going through the
manuscript and making valuable suggestions.
For permission to reproduce copyright material in this
book NCERT would like to thank the following: Penguin
Books Pvt Ltd for Lost Spring by Anees Jung; and for
Introduction by Christopher Sylvester; Harper Collins for
Indigo by Louis Fischer; The Editorial and Advertising office
of Resurgence (No. 233 November-December, 2005) for
Keeping Quiet by Pablo Neruda; Chatto and Windus Ltd. for
Endymion by John Keats; Shri Asokmitran for Poets and
Pancakes by Asokmitran; Hutchinson & Co. Ltd. for Going
Places by A. R. Barton; Faber & Faber for An Elementary
School Classroom in a Slum by Stephen Spender.
The Council also acknowledges the services of
Sunanda Khanna and G.C. Chandrakar, Copy Editors;
Surender K Vats, Proof Reader; Mohd. Harun and
Arvind Sharma DTP Operators; Rajeev Kumar, Artist and
Parash Ram Kaushik, Incharge, Computer station. The efforts
of the Publication Department, NCERT are also highly
appreciated.
It has not been possible to trace the copyright in all cases.
The publishers apologise for any omissions and would be
glad to hear from any such unacknowledged copyright
holder.
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Contents
PROSE 1-88
1. THE LAST LESSON Alphonse Daudet 2
2. LOST SPRING Anees Jung 13
3. DEEP WATER William Douglas 23
..
4. THE RATTRAP Selma Lagerlof 32
5. INDIGO Louis Fischer 46
6. POETS AND PANCAKES Asokamitran 57
7. THE INTERVIEW
PART I Christopher Silvester
PART II An Interview with Umberto Eco 68
8. GOING PLACES A. R. Barton 77
POETRY 89-104
1. MY MOTHER AT SIXTY-SIX Kamala Das 90
2. AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
CLASSROOM IN A SLUM Stephen Spender 92
3. KEEPING QUIET Pablo Neruda 95
4. A THING OF BEAUTY John Keats 98
5. A ROADSIDE STAND Robert Frost 100
6. AUNT JENNIFER’S TIGERS Adrienne Rich 103
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