Flamingo Textbook for Class XII PDF

Flamingo Textbook in English for Class XII (Core Course) (i) Reprint 2024-25 (ii) Reprint 2024-25  Flamingo Textbook in English for Class XII (Core Course) (iii) Rep...

Flamingo Textbook in English for Class XII (Core Course) (i) Reprint 2024-25 (ii) Reprint 2024-25  Flamingo Textbook in English for Class XII (Core Course) (iii) Reprint 2024-25  12074 – FLAMINGO ISBN 81-7450-650-0 Textbook for Class XII First Edition ALL RIGHTS RESERVED January 2007 Pausa 1928 q No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, Reprinted mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. January 2009, December 2009, q This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of January 2011, January 2012, trade, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise disposed of without November 2012, October 2013, the publisher’s consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published. December 2014, December 2015, q The correct price of this publication is the price printed on this October 2016, November 2017, page, Any revised price indicated by a rubber stamp or by a sticker or by any other means is incorrect and should be unacceptable. December 2018, January 2021, July 2021, November 2021 OFFICES OF THE PUBLICATION DIVISION, NCERT NCERT Campus Revised Edition Sri Aurobindo Marg November 2022 Kartika 1944 New Delhi 110 016 Phone : 011-26562708 108, 100 Feet Road Reprinted Hosdakere Halli Extension March 2024 Chaitra 1946 Banashankari III Stage Bangaluru 560 085 Phone : 080-26725740 Navjivan Trust Building PD 150T SU P.O.Navjivan Ahmedabad 380 014 Phone : 079-27541446 © National Council of CWC Campus Educational Research Opp. Dhankal Bus Stop and Training, 2007, 2022 Panihati Kolkata 700 114 Phone : 033-25530454 CWC Complex Maligaon Guwahati 781 021 Phone : 0361-2674869 ` 70.00 Publication Team Head, Publication : Anup Kumar Rajput Division Chief Editor : Shveta Uppal Printed on 80 GSM paper with NCERT watermark Chief Production : Arun Chitkara Officer Published at the Publication Division by the Secretary, National Chief Business : Amitabh Kumar Council of Educational Research Manager (In charge) and Training, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi 110 016 and printed at Assistant Production : Sunil Kumar Swan Press, B-71, Naraina Officer Industrial Area, Phase-II, New Delhi 110028 Cover, Layout and Illustrations Joel Gill (iv) Reprint 2024-25  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 (v) Reprint 2024-25  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 (vi) Reprint 2024-25  RATIONALISATION OF CONTENT IN THE TEXTBOOKS In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is imperative to reduce content load on students. The National Education Policy 2020, also emphasises reducing the content load and providing opportunities for experiential learning with creative mindset. In this background, the NCERT has undertaken the exercise to rationalise the textbooks across all classes. Learning Outcomes already developed by the NCERT across classes have been taken into consideration in this exercise. Contents of the textbooks have been rationalised in view of the following: Content based on genres of literature in the textbooks and supplementary readers at different stages of school education Content that is meant for achieving Learning Outcomes for developing language proficiency and is accessible at different stages For reducing the curriculum load and examination stress in view of the previling condition of the Pandemic Content, which is easily accessible to students without much interventions from teachers and can be learned by children through self-learning or peer-learning Content, which is irrelevant in the present context This present edition, is a reformatted version after carrying out the changes given above. (vii) Reprint 2024-25 (viii) Reprint 2024-25  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. (ix) Reprint 2024-25  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 five 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. 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. (x) Reprint 2024-25  TEXTBOOK DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSON, ADVISORY G ROUP FOR TEXTBOOKS IN LANGUAGES Namwar Singh, Professor and formerly Chairman, School of Languages, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi CHIEF ADVISOR R. Amritavalli, Professor (Retd.), English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad C HIEF C OORDINATOR Ram Janma Sharma, Professor and Former Head (Retd.), Department of Education in Languages, NCERT, New Delhi M EMBERS Chaya Nautiyal, Deputy Director, Secondary Education, Directorate of Education, Allahabad Gayatri Khanna, ELT Consultant, New Delhi Indu Khetarpal, Principal (Retd.), Salwan Public School, Gurgaon Kirti Kapur, Professor, NCERT, New Delhi Malathy Krishnan, Professor (Retd.), EFLU, Hyderabad Nasiruddin Khan, Reader (Retd.), NCERT, New Delhi Pranjit Dev Sarmah, Teacher, Garigaon, Guwahati Rajendrasinh Jadeja, Director (Retd.), H. M. Patel Institute of English Training and Research, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat Saryug Yadav, Professor, RIE, Ajmer S.K. Shyamla, PGT , Demonstration Multi Purpose School, RIE, Mysore MEMBER-COORDINATOR Meenakshi Khar, Associate Professor, Department of Education in Languages, NCERT, New Delhi (xi) Reprint 2024-25  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. 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. (xii) Reprint 2024-25  Contents Foreword v Rationalisation of Content in the Textbooks vii About the Book ix P ROSE 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 P OETRY 89-101 1. MY MOTHER AT SIXTY-SIX Kamala Das 90 2. KEEPING QUIET Pablo Neruda 92 3. A THING OF BEAUTY John Keats 95 4. A ROADSIDE STAND Robert Frost 97 5. AUNT JENNIFER’S TIGERS Adrienne Rich 100 (xiii) Reprint 2024-25 Reprint 2024-25