Class 10 English Words and Expressions II Unit 9 (Old Chapter 11), The Proposal, complements Anton Chekhov’s one-act farce ‘The Proposal’. It develops dramatic comprehension, expressive reporting verbs, adjective-preposition collocations, play-script-to-narrative conversion, and short skit writing.
What Class 10 English (Words and Expressions II) Chapter 9 Covers
Reading Comprehension & Vocabulary (Dramatic Terms & Reporting Verbs) Reading extracts explore comic drama, misunderstanding, and neighbourly relations. Vocabulary exercises introduce theatrical terms (farce, monologue, aside, stage directions) and expressive reporting verbs (insist, accuse, boast, exclaim, retort, implore, clamour, snap) alongside adjective + preposition combinations (astonished at, annoyed with, anxious about, fond of).
Grammar & Writing: Script-to-Reported Narrative & One-Act Skit Grammar tasks train students to transform dramatic dialogue (with interruptions, exclamations, and imperatives) into coherent third-person reported narrative. The writing section guides students in scripting a humorous short skit or dialogue resolving an everyday misunderstanding amicably.
Exercises in Chapter 9
- Workbook Exercises (Unit 9 / Old Chapter 11) cover play comprehension, reporting verbs, adjective-preposition pairs, converting dramatic dialogue to reported speech, editing, and skit writing.
Read Class 10 English (Words and Expressions II) Chapter 9 Online
More Chapters
- Previous: Chapter 8: The Sermon at Benares
- All English (Words and Expressions II) chapters and the other Class 10 books: Class 10 NCERT books 2026-27
- All Class 1 to 12 NCERT Textbooks: NCERT Books PDF (Class 1–12)
- Every book chapter by chapter: NCERT chapter wise PDF
FAQ
How do you convert dramatic exclamations and arguments into reported speech?
Use expressive reporting verbs that capture the speaker’s tone—such as exclaimed, insisted, retorted, accused, or boasted—followed by ‘that’ and the shifted tense. For example, Lomov’s ‘Oxen Meadows are mine!’ and Natalya’s ‘No, they belong to us!’ become ‘Lomov insisted that Oxen Meadows were his, to which Natalya retorted that they belonged to her family.’
What is a ‘farce’ in drama, as exemplified by Chekhov’s The Proposal?
A farce is a comic dramatic work that uses buffoonery, horseplay, absurdly exaggerated characters, and improbable or trivial conflicts (such as arguing over a small meadow and hunting dogs in the middle of a marriage proposal) to entertain the audience.