The Last Lesson - Alphonse Daudet (Class 12 English, Flamingo, Chapter 1)

1. M. Hamel had said he would question the class on participles.
2. Franz does not 'know the first word about them' - so the questioning is a threat.
3. Against school: the day is 'so warm, so bright', birds are chirping at the edge of the woods, and Prussian soldiers are drilling in the open field behind the sawmill - all of it more tempting than rules on participles.

Answer: M. Hamel had said he would question them on participles, and Franz did not 'know the first word about them'; the warm, bright day, the chirping birds and the drilling Prussian soldiers tempt him outdoors.

Check: One fear (the participle test) and three temptations (weather, birds, soldiers).

1. For two years the board at the town hall has carried all the village's bad news.
2. The list Franz recites: 'the lost battles, the draft, the orders of the commanding officer.'
3. That morning's crowd means new news - and it proves to be the order from Berlin to teach only German.

Answer: All their bad news had come from it - 'the lost battles, the draft, the orders of the commanding officer' - and that day it carried the order from Berlin.

Check: Name the three kinds of bad news, then that day's addition.

1. Usually the school opens with 'a great bustle' - desks opening and closing, lessons repeated in unison, the teacher's ruler rapping on the table.
2. This morning everything is 'as quiet as Sunday morning'.
3. Most surprising: the back benches, always empty, are filled with village people - old Hauser with his three-cornered hat and old primer, the former mayor, the former postmaster.

Answer: Instead of the usual commotion it is all 'as quiet as Sunday morning'; most surprising of all, the village people - old Hauser, the former mayor, the former postmaster - sit quietly on the back benches that were always empty.

Check: Contrast first (bustle vs Sunday quiet), then the filled back benches.

1. The whole district: 'Ah, that's the great trouble with Alsace; she puts off learning till tomorrow.'
2. The parents: they 'preferred to put you to work on a farm or at the mills' rather than keep children at their lessons.
3. Himself: 'Have I not often sent you to water my flowers instead of learning your lessons? And when I wanted to go fishing, did I not just give you a holiday?'

Answer: He faults the whole district for putting off learning 'till tomorrow', the parents who 'preferred to put you to work on a farm or at the mills', and himself for sending pupils to water his flowers and giving holidays when he wanted to go fishing.

Check: Three targets in order: Alsace, the parents, himself.

1. He calls French 'the most beautiful language in the world - the clearest, the most logical'.
2. He urges them to guard it among themselves and never forget it.
3. His comparison: 'when a people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language it is as if they had the key to their prison.'

Answer: That French is 'the most beautiful language in the world - the clearest, the most logical'; and that a people who hold fast to their language hold 'the key to their prison'.

Check: The three adjectives (beautiful, clearest, most logical) plus the key-to-prison comparison.

1. The church-clock strikes twelve, then the Angelus; at the same moment the Prussian trumpets sound under the windows.
2. M. Hamel stands, pale, and begins 'My friends... I... I...' - but something chokes him and he cannot finish.
3. He turns to the blackboard and writes as large as he can - 'Vive La France!' - then with a gesture: 'School is dismissed - you may go.'

Answer: As the church-clock strikes twelve and Prussian trumpets sound, M. Hamel - too choked to finish his sentence - writes 'Vive La France!' on the blackboard and dismisses the school with a gesture: 'School is dismissed - you may go.'

Check: Three beats: the clock and trumpets, the failed sentence, the written farewell.