Question

Read the following extract from Alphonse Daudet’s short story, ‘The Last Lesson’ and answer the questions that follow:

“My children, this is the last lesson I shall give you. The order has come from Berlin to teach only German in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine. The new master comes tomorrow. This is your last French lesson. I want you to be very attentive.” What a thunder-clap these words were to me! Oh, the wretches; that was what they had put up at the town-hall!

1. What does the word, ‘that’ in the extract refer to?
   What other ‘bad news’ had the villagers received from the bulletin board outside the town-hall?     [3]
2. How does the narrator describe the daily bustle at the start of a typical school day?     [3]
3. What was different on that morning when he arrived late for school?     [3]
4. What thoughts filled the narrator’s head when he heard the above announcement?     [3]
5. What does M. Hamel urge his listeners never to forget?
   M. Hamel writes a few words on the board at the end of the lesson. What were they?
   What does he hope to inspire through his words and actions on that day?     [4]

Answer 1

1. In this case, ‘that’ refers to what the crowd was reading from the board. Rather, it was the German announcement that French would no longer be taught in schools. This meant that the French teacher was no longer needed.
   Other topics people learned from the board included the lost battles, the draft, and the main officer’s directives. Since Germany took over the government, there has been no good news.
2. On a usual school day, the bustle could be heard in the street such as the opening and closing of desks, lessons repeated loudly in unison, and the sound of the teacher’s ruler rapping on the table. The school seemed bursting with life.
3. There was no sound at all, unlike other days. It looked like Sunday morning. When someone was late, teacher M. Hamel would usually be very angry, but on this day, the teacher was nice and told Franz to come in and sit down. Furthermore, the teacher wore a green coat, a shirt with frills, and a small black silk cap, which he wore only on important occasions. People from the town were in class today, which was different from other days.
4. The boy was really shocked when Hamel said that this would be his last French class. The fact that French would never be taught was a blow, and he felt bad about the things he had missed or not paid attention to. The books that had been a bother earlier were now like old friends that he would miss. He forgot about getting hit with the stick and being grumpy because he knew he would never see the teacher again.
5. The class is told never to forget how beautiful and useful their mother tongue, French, is. It should be protected as a valuable thing because it is the most beautiful, clear, and sensible language in the world.
   “Vive La France” is written in big letters on the board by Hamel. He wants to encourage them to continue speaking their mother tongue because it defines who they are. The people will never be slaves as long as they keep their language. This is because a person’s mother tongue is the key to freedom.