Are you looking for Class 11 English Unit 1 Notes (NEB Board, Nepal)? 📖 This detailed guide covers everything from vocabulary (Ways with Words) to comprehension, critical thinking, and grammar exercises with complete answers.
Unit 1 of Class 11 English is based on Malala Yousafzai’s powerful speech at the United Nations. She highlights the importance of education, peace, and equality, and inspires young people to fight against discrimination and injustice.
These notes are prepared to help you understand the lesson deeply, prepare for exams, and write accurate answers.
Unit 1 Overview: Malala’s Speech
Malala Yousafzai, a young activist from Pakistan, delivered this speech after surviving a Taliban attack. She was shot for advocating girls’ right to education, but instead of revenge, she chose peace and forgiveness.
Her message is clear:
- Education is the most powerful weapon against terrorism and poverty.
- Governments must ensure free and quality education for all children.
- Peace is the foundation of learning and development.
A. Ways with Words
1. Find the words from the text which mean the following:
- Envoy → a messenger or representative, especially on a diplomatic mission
- Dignity → the state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect
- Revenge → harm done in response to harm
- Extremist → a person holding extreme political or religious views
- Compassion → sympathetic pity and concern for others’ suffering
- Prophet → a person believed to speak for God
- Philosophy → study of knowledge, reality, and existence
- Violence → the use of force to injure, abuse, or destroy
- Prejudice → unreasonable dislike of a group or idea
2. Match the words with their opposites:
- honour → disgrace
- innocent → guilty
- brutality → kindness
- forgiveness → punishment
- illiteracy → literacy
3. Dictionary Study
- Headword → Humanity
- Number of meanings → Four
- Abbreviations → U = uncountable, OPP = opposite, pl = plural, sth = something
- British spelling of humanize → Humanise
- Pronunciation → /ˈhjuːmənaɪz/
- Applied meaning in sentence “Every person should have the sense of humanity” → The quality of being kind to people and animals, ensuring they don’t suffer unnecessarily.
4. Arrange in alphabetical order
i. acute → advance → agreement → aid → allergy → amuse → analysis → anxiety → assure → attain
ii. small → smallpox → smart → smashed → smearing → smelling → smoke → smoothly → smuggler → speaking
iii. terminal → terminate → terminology → termite → terms → terrace → terrible → terribly
B. Comprehension
a. Why did the speaker receive thousands of good-wishes cards and gifts from all over the world?
Because she was shot by the Taliban on her forehead and hospitalized. People from around the world sent her good wishes and gifts for her recovery.
b. According to the speaker, what are hundreds of human rights activists and social workers struggling for?
They are struggling for education, peace, and equality.
c. What has she learnt from Gandhi?
She learnt the value of nonviolence.
d. In what sense is peace necessary for education?
Peace creates a safe environment where children can go to school without fear and focus on learning. Without peace, students cannot achieve quality education.
e. What are the main problems faced by both men and women?
The main problems are poverty, ignorance, injustice, racism, and deprivation of basic rights.
f. What is Malala calling upon all governments?
She calls governments to:
- Ensure free education for every child
- Fight against terrorism and violence
- Protect children from brutality and injustice
g. What is the main message of this speech?
The main message is that education is the strongest weapon to fight illiteracy, terrorism, violence, and violation of rights. Providing education to every child must be the world’s top priority.
C. Critical Thinking
a. How can we ensure every child’s right to quality education?
Government’s Role
- Provide free or subsidized education for poor families.
- Improve public schools so they match private school quality.
- Train and pay teachers well.
- Update curriculum to remove outdated content.
Parents’ Role
- Act as role models and support learning.
- Maintain a peaceful home environment.
- Encourage children’s curiosity and discipline.
- Ensure time management and organization.
b. Is there still discrimination between sons and daughters in terms of education in Nepal?
Yes. Many daughters are sent to government schools, while sons study in private schools. Parents often believe boys are stronger and future caretakers, while girls “leave home after marriage.”
Strategies to Overcome This:
- End gender bias in society.
- Provide scholarships and support for girls.
- End violence and harassment against women.
- Encourage parents to see education as more valuable than dowry.
- Empower women economically and socially.
c. What does Confucius’ saying about rice, trees, and education mean?
- Planting rice → short-term results (1 year).
- Planting trees → medium-term results (10 years).
- Educating children → long-term results (100 years).
Education builds the foundation of a nation’s future. For example, if today’s children are educated, tomorrow they will become leaders, doctors, engineers, teachers, and innovators who create a developed, peaceful society.
D. Grammar
Examples of word classification
- The man who is wearing glasses is my uncle’s friend. → who (pronoun), wearing (verb), my (determiner)
- Alas, she is dead. → Alas (interjection)
- Hari works very hard all the time but his wife is very lazy. → hard (adverb), wife (noun), very (adverb)
- Ann drove a car safely. → Ann (noun), safely (adverb)
- She cut her hand with a knife. → her (determiner), with (preposition)
- Nobody has claimed it. → nobody (pronoun), it (pronoun)