Class 11 English Notes

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Class 11 English Notes CBSE Class 11 English Notes A lot of times, English is neglected in the higher classes, especially when Maths and Science get tougher in Classes 11 and 12. But you need to remember that English can help you in scoring well in your board exams. With a thorough understanding of the Class 11 English Notes​ study material, English can be the most comfortable subject of the lot and consequentially boost your board exam marks by a significant margin, which is why LearnCBSE gives you comprehensive NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English to make learning easier and more efficient.

● Class 11 English Hornbill Notes ● Class 11 English Snapshots Notes

Class 11 English Hornbill Notes


CBSE Class 11 English Hornbill Notes The English Hornbill contain poems and proses in a complicated language, making it hard for some of the students to understand them. You must have a good grasp of the language, which is made easier with our solution. The C ​ lass 11 English Hornbill Notes​ free PDF solutions by Vedantu is a comprehensive guide to all questions of every chapter. Each solution is well-written to ensure easy understanding in students. It imparts an in-depth knowledge of the chapters and their characters. It also contains pre-answered questions that make it easier for you to learn the subject. LearnCBSE provides these solutions in a free downloadable format for you to be able to access it whenever you need.

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The Portrait of a Lady Summary We’re Not Afraid to Die… if We Can All Be Together Summary Discovering Tut: the Saga Continues Summary The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role Summary The Browning Version Summary A Photograph Summary The Voice of the Rain Summary Childwood Summary Father to Son Summary


1. The Portrait of a Lady Summary CBSE Notes for The Portrait of a Lady Summary The Portrait of a Lady’ is written in first person and is in the biographical mode. In this story, the writer gives a detailed account of his Grandmother with whom he had a long association. Khushwant Singh recalls his Grandmother as short, fat and slightly bent. Her silver hair was scattered untidily on her wrinkled face. She hobbled around the house in white clothes with one hand resting on her waist and the other telling the beads of her rosary. Khushwant Singh remembers her as not very pretty but always beautiful. He compares her serene face to that of a winter landscape, During their long stay in the village, Grandmother woke him up in the morning, plastered his wooden slate, prepared his breakfast, and escorted him to school.

While he studied alphabets, she read the scriptures in the temple attached to the school. On their way back home she fed stale chapattis to stray dogs. The turning point in their relationship came when they went to live in the city. Now, the author went to a city school in a motor bus and studied English, law of gravity, Archimedes’ principle and many more things which she could not understand at all. Please refer T ​ he Portrait of a Lady Summary for more information.

2. We’re Not Afraid to Die… if We Can All Be Together Summary CBSE Notes for We’re Not Afraid to Die… if We Can All Be Together Summary The story, ‘We’re Not afraid to Die-if We Can All Be Together’ is a story of extreme courage and skill exhibited by Gordon Cook, his family and crewmen in a war with water and waves for survival. In July 1976, the narrator, his wife Mary, son Jonathan and daughter Suzanne set sail from Plymouth, England to duplicate the round-the-world voyage made 200 years


earlier by Captain James Cook. They took the voyage in their professionally built ship, the Wavewalker, accompanied by two experienced sailors – Larry Vigil, an American and Herb Seigler, a Swiss, to tackle one of the world’s roughest seas – the Southern Indian Ocean. Please refer W ​ e’re Not Afraid to Die… if We Can All Be Together Summary​ for more information.

3. Discovering Tut: the Saga Continues Summary CBSE Notes for Discovering Tut: the Saga Continues Summary Discovering Tut: the Saga Continues gives an insight into the mystery surrounding the life and death of Tutankhamun, the last teenage ruler of the powerful Pharaoh dynasty that had ruled Egypt for centuries. He was the last of his family’s line, and his funeral brought an end to this powerful dynasty. Not much is known about his family. Tut’s father or grandfather, Amenhotep III was a powerful pharaoh who ruled for about four decades during the dynasty’s golden age. Please refer ​Discovering Tut: the Saga Continues Summary​ for more information.

4. The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role Summary CBSE Notes for The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role Summary The lesson, ‘The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role’ focuses on the deteriorating health of the Earth because of human being’s growing lust to exploit all its natural resources. A Zoo in Lusaka, Zambia calls the man as the most dangerous animal in this world. Fortunately, the Green movement launched in 1972 has been responsible for a new awareness that has dawned upon the human race. There has been an irrevocable shift from a mechanistic view to a holistic and ecological view of the world.


There is a growing worldwide consciousness that the earth itself is a living organism -an enormous being of which we are parts. It has its own metabolic needs that must be respected and preserved. But, today, its vital signs reveal a patient in declining health. In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development popularized the concept of sustainable development – a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Please refer ​The Ailing

Planet: the Green Movement’s Role Summary​ for more information.

5. The Browning Version Summary CBSE Notes for The Browning Version Summary The Browning Version’ presents a conversation between a lower fifth-grade student, Taplow and Mr. Frank, a teacher from the school where Taplow studies. From their conversation, we come to know that Taplow is there to do extra work extra duty as punishment for his teacher, Mr. Crocker-Harris. Although we do not see CrockerHarris in the play, we get to know a lot about him through Taplow’s conversation with Mr. Frank According to Taplow, Mr. Crocker-Harris is a different kind of a teacher.

He is too strict and ‘hardly human’. Unlike other teachers, he does not tell his students their results before the last day of the term. Tap low had asked Mr. CrockerHarris about his remove and in response, the teacher told him that he has given Taplow exactly what he deserves – “No less; and certainly no more”. Please refer T ​ he Browning Version Summary for more information.

6. A Photograph Summary


CBSE Notes for A Photograph Summary The poem, ‘A photograph’, contrasts the eternal state of nature and the transitory state of human beings. The poet describes a photograph that captures interesting moments of her mother’s childhood when she went for a sea holiday with her two girl cousins. The poet draws a contrast between nature, changing at a snail’s pace and the fast-changing human life. Please refer A ​ Photograph Summary​ for more information.

7. The Voice of the Rain Summary CBSE Notes for The Voice of the Rain Summary The Voice of the Rain celebrates rain and the accompanying water cycle that supports life and benefits the Earth. The poet recounts a ‘conversation’ he had with the falling raindrops. He asks the rain, ‘And who art thou?’ and strangely, the rain answers, calling itself ‘the Poem of Earth’. The rain says that it is born in the form of intangible vapors that rise eternally from the earth’s land and deep water bodies. It then reaches upwards towards heaven in the form of clouds, impalpable, vaguely formed and altogether changed. Yet, at its core, it remains the same as it was at birth. It, then, returns to its origin, the Earth, as raindrops to wash away the dust and rejuvenate the drought-ridden and dry land. Please refer ​The Voice of

the Rain Summary​ for more information.

8. Childwood Summary CBSE Notes for Childwood Summary In the poem ‘Childhood’, Markus Natten depicts the reality of childhood innocence gradually transforming into adult rationality, hypocrisy, and individuality. The poem begins with the poet wondering when did his childhood go – was it the day he ceased to be eleven; was it the day when he could distinguish between fantasy and reality by realizing that heaven and


hell don’t exist since they are not found in geography books; was it the day when he could understand the hypocrisy of adults by realizing that people were not all that they pretended to be; or was it the day when he became conscious of his own growing individuality by realizing that he had a mind of his own and that he was capable of producing thoughts and opinions that were different from other people. Please refer C ​ hildwood Summary​ for more information.

9. Father to Son Summary CBSE Notes for Father to Son Summary ‘Father to Son’ describes the troubled relationship between a father and his son. The poem talks about generation-gap between the father and the son and voices the father’s pain and helplessness in failing to understand his child.

The father wants the same kind of bond with his son as he had when the son was a little child. But now, silence is what surrounds their relationship and there is a complete lack of communication between them. Though they have lived in the same house for years, they behave as strangers. Please refer ​Father to Son Summary​ for more information.

Class 11 English Snapshots Notes CBSE Notes for Class 11 English Snapshots Notes With the motive of helping you to prepare for English Snapshots syllabus thoroughly, the Class 11 English Snapshots Notes​ PDF download option is available for free to any student who wants to refer to the material. The solutions on our website are available for questions asked at the end of each chapter in the syllabus. You can learn the chapter, attempt the


questions at the end and then refer to the solutions to see how prepared you are for the exams.

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The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse Summary The Address Summary Ranga’s Marriage Summary Albert Einstein at School Summary Mother’s Day Summary Birth Summary The Tale of Melon City Summary

1. The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse Summary CBSE Notes for The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse Summary This is a story of two tribal Armenian boys who belonged to the Garoghlanian tribe. For their family, even in times of extreme poverty nothing could match the importance of honesty. They never did anything wrong and never lied or never even stole anything. The story talks


about an incident that revolves around two cousins Aram who is nine years old and Mourad who is thirteen. The world, for Aram, at that time, seemed to be a delightful and extremely

yous yet mysterious dream. People believed in every imaginable kind of magnificence. Mourad was considered to be crazy by everybody he knew. Please refer T ​ he Summer of

the Beautiful White Horse Summary​ for more information.

2. The Address Summary CBSE Notes for The Address Summary At the beginning of the story, it is narrated how the protagonist was given a cold reception when she went to her native place after the war in search of her mother’s belongings. After ringing the bell of House Number 46 in Marconi Street, a woman opened the door. On being introduced, the woman kept staring at her in silence. There was no sign of recognition on her face. The woman was wearing her mother’s green knitted cardigan. The narrator could understand that she had made no mistake. She asked the woman whether she knew her mother. The woman could not deny this. Please refer ​The Address Summary​ for more information.

3. Ranga’s Marriage Summary CBSE Notes for Ranga’s Marriage Summary Ranga’s Marriage, by Masti Venkatesh Iyengar, is a story about a boy who returns to his village after receiving education in English medium from Bangalore. The boy is the son of the accountant of the village. They live in the village Hoshali in Mysore. The boy when returns, the whole village floods over him to see if there is any change in his personality. However, to their dismay, he still has the same eyes and mouth and everything else. He did


the traditional namaskar and all dispersed. Please refer R ​ anga’s Marriage Summary​ for more information.

4. Albert Einstein at School Summary CBSE Notes for Albert Einstein at School Summary The father of modern physics, Albert Einstein is famous to have discovered the theory of relativity which marked a revolution in physics. However, how many of us know the fact that in his early school days he was a dull student and got expelled from his school. No teacher liked him and he too, in turn, disliked attending school. This led to the school finally taking a decision in chasing him away.

The narrative begins with Albert being asked about a date by his history teacher. This was when he was very abrupt and crude in replying that he found it pointless to memorize dates when one could flip through the necessary pages whenever one needed to. He believed in education but didn’t consider learning facts as education. He hated school because he hated the conventional form of education and the teachers found him to be a ‘disgrace.’ Finally, the teacher, disgusted and fed up, asked him to be taken away by his father. Einstein also hated going home, not for the obvious reasons of bad food and lack of comfort, but because he hated the atmosphere of ‘slum violence.’ Please refer A ​ lbert Einstein at School

Summary​ for more information.

5. Mother’s Day Summary CBSE Notes for Mother’s Day Summary Mother’s Day, a play by J. B. Priestley, portraying the status of a mother in a household. Priestly humorously explores the story when Mrs. Pearson, in her forties, stands up for her rights and how her family reacts at this. Mrs. Pearson is very fond of her family and works


day and night to support her family member in the best possible manner. However, she is upset at the way she is being treated. Nobody cares for her or asks about her. All day long she stays at home doing all the work. In the evening when the kids and her husband return she gave threw her in meeting their demands.

She did not want any dislikeable thing to happen in her household yet she craved for their attention and a little respect. She went to her neighbor Mrs. Fitzgerald, a fortune teller and a magician. Older and heavy, Mrs. Fitzgerald comes with a plan. She proposed that they could exchange bodies and then with Pearson’s body, she would teach a lesson to Pearson’s family that Mrs. Pearson could not herself for she was too humble and nice to do that. Please refer M ​ other’s Day Summary​ for more information.

6. Birth Summary CBSE Notes for Birth Summary The story Birth is an excerpt from The Citadel. It relates how a medical fresher handles a child delivery case in a mysterious way and brings back life in a seemingly dead-born child. In doing so he applies his medical textbook knowledge as well as intuition. He finds that textbook knowledge alone is not sufficient to handle such cases. The story expresses the anxiety and excitement of the doctor, Andrew Manson, and his team. Please refer ​Birth

Summary​ for more information.

7. The Tale of Melon City Summary CBSE Notes for The Tale of Melon City Summary


The poem The Tale of Melon City is a narrative poem about how a melon, following a custom, was chosen to become the king of a state. It narrates in an amusing tone the events leading to such a situation when no other but a melon was coroneted as the king.

The chief of builders in his defense shifted the responsibility to the laborers. On hearing so, the King adjourned the proceedings for a moment and then decided to have all the laborers hanged. According to the laborers, it all happened due to faulty size of the bricks. So, the king summoned the masons. They, in their turn, put the blame on the architect. The king decreed to hang the architect. The architect reminded the king that he had made certain amendments to the plans when they were shown for his approval. In a way, the architect indirectly put the blame on the king. The argument of the architect left the king completely confused. Considering the matter to be intricate, the king sought the advice of a wise man. He ordered to bring to him the wisest man in the country. Please refer ​The Tale of Melon

City Summary​ for more information.


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