Answers to Passage 2 Questions

You can check the answers to the questions on pages 13 to 14 here:

1. It is "better to have a bookcase built in front of the entrance to our hiding place" instead of a door because this would disguise the entrance to the hiding place and make it less likely for anyone to discover that there was a Secret Annexe where the Franks and Van Daans were in hiding.

2. In this passage, the following people are resourceful and inventive in these ways:

Mr. Kugler thinks of the idea of building a swinging bookcase in front of the Annexe entrance, and Mr. Voskuijl builds the bookcase on his own. Peter makes a cushion using a towel and wood shavings, which he nails to the door frame, to prevent people from bumping their heads on the low doorway.

3a. Anne thinks Peter is an irritating and lazy person who lies around in bed all day.

3b. I think Anne's view of Peter is unfair as he does try to make the lives of everyone in the Annexe better by making a cushion for the low doorway. Perhaps Peter feels awkward living in a small space with strangers, especially with two girls around his age, which is why he does not really socialise with Anne.

4. I can tell Anne is bored of her life in hiding and feels trapped because she seems to be irritated with most of the people around her, such as Mr. Van Daan, her Mother and Peter. The only event she takes note of is that Peter washed his hair, which is a very dull event. She seems to yearn to go outside where the weather is beautiful, but can only enjoy it from the attic.

Answers to Passage 1 Questions

You can check the answers to the questions you have done on pages 9 to 10 here:

1. I think Anne wants to give her diary the name of a person because she wants her diary to be her friend. By naming her diary after a person, it will feel as if she is confiding in a friend when she writes in her diary.

2a. I think that having to emigrate from one country to another because of Nazi persecution of Jews must have been traumatizing for a family with young children like the Franks. Otto and Edith Frank were separated from Anne and Margot for almost half a year, and they must have been very worried about their children as they were only 4 and 7 years old respectively. Both parents and children must have missed each other very much.

2b. The Franks seem to have been a rather well-to-do middle-class family. Otto Frank works as a managing director of a company, and has the ability to pay for his family to migrate. Anne also attends Montessori nursery school, which is known for being an expensive school meant to groom intelligent young children.

3. In the sixth form Anne must have been very well-loved by her teacher, who cried so much when she left. She must have been a good student who contributed a lot to the classroom environment. This shows that Anne has good relationships with others, even though she claims that she is lonely and has no true friends.

4. I think Anne may have been more worried about not having a best friend than about the Nazi persecution of Jews because as a typical teenager, she would be more concerned about friendships than about political affairs. Also, she might have felt that the persecution of Jews was out of her control, and it was more important to her to find a friend she could confide her troubles in.

5a. The Nazis introduced 13 anti-Jewish decrees.

5b. Personal response - do include a reason.

5c. I think the cumulative effect of these numerous anti-Semitic laws would have been to severely restrict the Jews' freedom. They would not have been able to go to work or have a social life, and would essentially be under home imprisonment.