Power and Politics — Class 12 English Notes | NEB Full Exercise & Guide

Working with words

A. Find the words from the text for these meanings:

• a. reluctance: unwillingness or disinclination to do something
• b. repressive: preventing the expression or awareness of thoughts or desires
• c. mutilation: the infliction of serious damage on something
• d. ghettoized: restricted to an isolated or segregated place, group, or situation
• e. herstory: history viewed from a female or specifically feminist perspective
• f. genital: relating to the human or animal reproductive organs
• g. hysterectomies: surgical operations to remove all or part of the uterus
• h. paranoid: obsessively anxious, suspicious, or mistrustful
• i. eversion / eventration: thrusting forward of abdominal organs through the abdominal wall (Note: matches text terminology regarding medical/bodily contexts)

B. Complete the chart (Verb, Noun, Adjective):

C. Dictionary Definitions of Key Terms

• Racism: The belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.
• Lesbian: Relating to gay women or to homosexuality in women.
• Radical: Forming an inherent or fundamental part of the nature of someone or something; advocating thorough or complete political or social change.
• Feminist: The advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.
• Patriarchy: A system of society or government in which men hold power and women are largely excluded from it.

D. Underline the Consonant Clusters in the Following Sentences

(Note: Consonant clusters are groups of two or more consonant sounds that occur together without an intervening vowel sound).

• a. Fluffy went flip-flop all over the floor.
• b. The whites sing a song about the striking stars.
• c. Here are some flowers and a flask of tea of your favourite flavour.
• d. Smita fell ill with flu.
• e. My friend is frightened of frogs.
• f. Thumbelina stumbled out of the green bush.
• g. She heard a rumble and a cry.
• h. ‘Climb up’, said Tom.
• i. Freedom needs to be strived for.
• j. Children were munching crunchy French fries.

Comprehension

Answer the following questions:

• a. Why does Audre Lorde think that Mary got a sort of victory in the University of Boston?
  • Answer: Audre Lorde thought that Mary achieved a sort of victory at the University of Boston because she was glad to see many women attending the speak-out, realizing that this display of collective power would provide more space for women to grow and exist within.
• b. Why is Lorde thankful to Mary?
  • Answer: Lorde is thankful to Mary because Mary provided her with a book named Gyn/Ecology, which was full of import, useful, generative, and provoking ideas that proved strengthening and helpful.
• c. What impression has the writer had about the way white women looked upon black women?
  • Answer: The writer holds a critical and negative impression regarding how white women looked upon Black women, noting that white women were largely unable to genuinely hear Black women’s words or maintain a mutual dialogue with them.
• d. Why did Mary not cast black women as goddesses in her book, according to Lorde?
  • Answer: According to Lorde, Mary did not cast Black women as goddesses because she had made a conscious decision to limit her scope and deal exclusively with the ecology of Western European women.
• e. Why did Lorde think that she misused her words?
  • Answer: Lorde felt she misused her words because she ended up utilizing them merely to testify against white feminist frameworks as a woman of color, rather than fostering shared liberation.
• f. For Lorde, how were women, especially from the black community, undervalued?
  • Answer: For Lorde, women—especially from the Black community—were undervalued because they were marginalized and ghettoized by a white feminist framework operating strictly out of a patriarchal Western European perspective.
• g. How does Mary view white women? Does Lorde agree with Mary’s view?
  • Answer: Mary views white women as superior, assuming that their history and myth are the sole legitimate baseline for all women, while non-white women are treated merely as decorative elements or examples of female victimization. Lorde completely disagrees with this supremacist view, which erases the unique pain and oppression of Black women.
• h. What is Afrekete? How does it connect to this lesson?
  • Answer: Afrekete represents the collective voice and rich tradition of Black lesbian writing. It connects to this lesson because the author seeks to weave all Black women into the broader arena of literary expression and solidarity.

Critical Thinking

a. “The oppression of women knows no ethnic or racial boundaries.” Do you agree or not? Justify with your reasons.

Answer: Yes, I strongly agree with the statement that the oppression of women knows no ethnic or racial boundaries. Across history and geography, women of all races, ethnicities, and cultures have faced systemic patriarchal discrimination, unequal pay, institutional barriers, and gender-based violence.

While the intensity and intersection of oppression can vary—compounded heavily by race, class, and geographic location (such as minority women facing systemic racism alongside sexism)—the root mechanism of patriarchy remains global. Whether limiting access to education in developing regions or fighting the glass ceiling in advanced economies, women everywhere experience institutional marginalization simply because of their gender. True gender equality requires acknowledging these universal struggles while addressing the specific racial and ethnic frameworks that shape women’s lives.

b. Why is it important to question our beliefs and values? How are they set up in a person’s mind?

Answer: It is crucial to question our beliefs and values because doing so builds genuine character, self-awareness, intellectual honesty, and compassion. People often avoid questioning their core beliefs out of a fear that it will weaken them, but this underlying doubt implies a lack of true conviction. Objectively evaluating our ideas allows us to test their validity and understand their real-world consequences.

Beliefs and values are typically established in a person’s mind during childhood and early development through cultural conditioning, family upbringing, societal norms, education, and personal experiences. As we grow, filtering these inherited beliefs through critical thinking and empathy allows us to discard harmful biases and reinforce principles rooted in justice and truth.

Writing

Article for a National Daily: The Status of Women in Nepali Society

The Status of Women in Nepali Society

By: Editorial Desk

Nepal is a nation celebrated for its rich geographic, cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity. However, across almost all of these diverse communities, society remains predominantly patriarchal. A woman’s life is frequently influenced heavily by her father, husband, or son, with these traditional practices historically reinforced by systemic structures. The overall status of women in Nepal is shaped by these entrenched social frameworks, cultural values, and the extent to which state policies protect and promote women’s rights.

While women’s relative status varies across different ethnic groups, their substantial economic contributions are largely unrecognized because domestic and agricultural labor is taken for granted. Health indicators for women in Nepal remain among the lowest in South Asia. Child marriage—with a significant portion of young women marrying between the ages of 15 and 19—leads to premature pregnancies, contributing to elevated maternal mortality rates.

National statistics reflect stark disparities in education; female literacy lags significantly behind male literacy, and enrollment in higher education and technical fields remains skewed due to cultural norms. In many rural areas, girls are still viewed through restrictive traditional lenses, limiting their educational opportunities. Furthermore, a large portion of women’s labor is excluded from formal economic definitions, leaving fewer women classified as active in the formal professional workforce. While legal reforms have progressed, shifting the social status of women requires dismantling patriarchal norms from the grass-roots level up to national policy implementation.

Grammar

B. Choose the correct alternative (Adjective Order):

• a. an old foreign car / a foreign old car
• b. a beautiful white dress / a white beautiful dress
• c. a nice tall young man / a tall nice young man
• d. a big black wooden desk / a black wooden big desk
• e. a delicious Italian pizza / an Italian delicious pizza
• f. a huge brown bear / a brown huge bear
• g. a purple cotton sleeping bag / a cotton purple sleeping bag
• h. a beautiful old Indian village / an old beautiful Indian village
• i. a cute little kitten / a little cute kitten
• j. an expensive antique table / an antique expensive table

C. Put the adjectives in the correct order:

• a. I bought (red / a / comfortable / new) scooter.
  • I bought a comfortable new red scooter. (Or: a comfortable new red scooter)
• b. She reached home and sat on (relaxing / old / her / wooden) chair.
  • She reached home and sat on her old relaxing wooden chair.
• c. We ate (Chinese / delicious / some) food.
  • We ate some delicious Chinese food.
• d. I need (golden / delicious / some / round) apples.
  • I need some delicious round golden apples.
• e. We like to live in a (calm / unmediated / remote) place for some time.
  • We like to live in a calm remote unmediated place for some time.
• f. She is wearing (silver / beautiful / a / old) ring.
  • She is wearing a beautiful old silver ring.
• g. I am looking for (golden / stylish / a / Japanese) watch.
  • I am looking for a stylish Japanese golden watch.
• h. She dropped (old / china / attractive / a) cup and smashed it.
  • She dropped an attractive old China cup and smashed it.
• i. He wants to marry (young / pretty / educated / a / rustic) girl.
  • He wants to marry a pretty young educated rustic girl.
• j. We stayed in a (luxurious / five-star / new) hotel in Dubai.
  • We stayed in a new luxurious five-star hotel in Dubai.