NCERT Solutions Class 10 English First Flight Chapter 1 A Letter to God
Oral Comprehension Check (Page 5)
Question 1. What did Lencho hope for?
Answer: Lencho hopes for a downpour as it was much needed for a good harvest.
Question 2. Why did Lencho say the raindrops were like ‘new coins’?
Answer: Lencho compared the raindrops with new coins because his crops were ready for harvest and the raindrops would help him in getting a better harvest, resulting in more prosperity.
Question 3. How did the rain change? What happened to Lencho’s fields?
Answer: The rain changed into hailstones as suddenly a very strong wind began to blow and large hailstones began to fall along with the rain. All the crops in Lencho’s field got destroyed.
Question 4. What were Lencho’s feelings when the hail stopped?
Answer: When the hail stopped. Lencho was filled with grief because everything was ruined and there was nothing left to feed his family for the entire year. He could see a sad future for him and his family.
Page 6
Question 5. Who or what did Lencho have faith in? What did he do?
Answer: Lencho has faith in God. He believed that God sees everything, even if something is deep in one’s conscience and helps everyone in their problems. He wrote a letter to God demanding him a hundred pesos to sow his field again.
Question 6. Who read the letter?
Answer: Postmaster read the letter.
Question 7. What did the postmaster do after reading a letter?
Answer: After reading lencho’s letter the postmaster first laughed but soon he became serious and was moved by the writer’s faith in God. In order to keep Lencho’s faith in God alive, he decided to collect money from all possible sources and send it to Lencho on behalf of God.
Page 7
Question 8. Was Lencho surprised to find a letter for him with money in it?
Answer: Lencho was not surprised to find a letter for him with money from God as he had full confidence and was sure that God will help him.
Question 9. What made Lencho angry?
Answer: When Lencho counted the money he found seventy pesos only whereas Lencho had demanded a hundred pesos from god. The difference in the amount made him angry.
Thinking about the Text (Page 7,8)
Question 1. Who does Lencho have complete faith in? Which sentences in the story tell you this?
Answer: Lencho has complete faith in God as he is instructed that God knows everything and helps us in our problems. Given below are few sentences that show this
1. But in the hearts of all who lived in that solitary house in the middle of the valley, there was a single hope of help from God.
2. All through the night, Lencho thought only of his one hope: the help of God, whose eyes, as he had been instructed, see everything, even what is deep in one’s conscience.
3. “God”, he wrote, “if you don’t help me, my family and I will go hungry this year”.
4. He wrote ‘To God’ on the envelope, put the letter inside and still troubled, went to town.
5. God could not have made a mistake, nor could he have denied Lencho what he had requested.
Question 2. Why does the postmaster send money to Lencho? Why does he sign the letter God?
Answer: The postmaster sends money to Lencho in order to keep his faith in God alive and firm.
After reading Lencho's Letter to God, the postmaster decides to answer it on the behalf of God. So, he collected money from his colleagues and friends and signed the letter as God so that Lencho's faith not get shaken.
Question 3. Did Lencho try to find out who had sent the money to him? Why or why not?
Answer: Lencho did not try to find out who had sent the money to him because he never doubted the presence of God and had complete faith in God. He could not believe that it could be – anybody else other than him who would send him the money. This is because he never suspected that it could be anybody else other than God who would send him money.
His faith in God was so strong that he believed that God had sent money to him for his help.
Question 4. Who does Lencho think has taken the rest of the money? What is the irony in the situation? (Remember that the irony of a situation is an unexpected aspect of it. An ironic situation is strange or amusing because it is the opposite of what is expected).
Answer: Lencho thinks that the post office employees have taken the rest of the money as he had demanded a hundred pesos from God and in the letter, there were only seventy pesos and God could never make such a mistake. So, he assumes that they have stolen the remaining thirty pesos from the envelope.
The irony in this situation is that Lencho suspects those people who had contributed and send him the money, in order to avoid shaking his faith in God.
Question 5. Are there people like Lencho in the real world? What kind of a person would you say he is? You may select appropriate words from the box to answer the question.
Greedy, Naive, Stupid, Ungrateful, Selfish, Unquestioning, Comical
Answer: It is very difficult to find a person like Lencho as he is very unquestioning and naive. He is not stupid if he doesn’t know who has sent him money or a letter will reach God without any address. It is Lencho’s faith in God. In the real world, people are selfish and greedy and Lencho is totally different from them.
Question 6. There are 2 kinds of conflict in the story between humans & nature and between humans themselves. How are these conflicts illustrated?
Answer: Conflict between Humans and Nature: The conflict between humans and nature is shown by the destruction of Lencho’s crop by the hailstorm as Lencho was expecting a good rain to have a good harvest as that was the only hope he had for his earning. He worked so hard to feed his family, but nature turned violent and destroyed everything.
The conflict between Humans and Humans: The story also illustrated another conflict, between humans themselves as the postmaster along with his friends and staff sent Lencho money that Lencho demanded from God although they didn’t know Lencho. Lencho accused them of taking away some amount of money. He called them “a bunch of crooks”. This shows that man does not have faith in other men, thereby giving rise to this conflict.
Thinking about Language (Page 8,9,10,11)
Question 1. There are different names in different parts of the world for storms, depending onn their nature. Can you match the names in the box with their descriptions below, and fill in the blanks?
gale, whirlwind, cyclone, hurricane, tornado, typhoon.
1. A violent tropical storm in which strong winds move in a circle c______.
Answer: cyclone
2. An extremely strong wind _a__.
Answer: gale
3. A violent tropical storm with very strong wind __p____.
Answer: typhoon
4. A violent storm whose centre is a cloud in the shape of a funnel ___n___.
Answer: tornado
5. A violent storm with very strong winds, especially in the Western Atlantic Ocean ___r______.
Answer: Hurricane
6. A very strong wind that moves very fast in a spinning movement and causes a lot of damage ______l____.
Answer: whirlwind
Question 2. Match the sentences in column A with the meaning of ‘hope’ in column B.
|
|
|
|
|
(a) a feeling that something good will probably happen. |
|
2. 1 hope you don’t mind my saying this but 1 doesn’t like the way you are arguing. |
(b) thinking that this would happen (it may or may not have happened.) |
|
|
(c) stopped believing that this good thing would happen. |
|
|
(d) wanting something to happen (and thinking it quite possible) |
|
|
(e) showing concern that what you say should not offend or disturb the other person a way of being polite. |
|
6. Just when everybody had given up hope, the fishermen came back, seven days after the cyclone. |
(f) wishing for something to happen, although this is very unlikely. |
Answer:
1. (b)
2. (e)
3. (a)
4. (f)
5. (d)
6. (c)
Question 3. Join the sentences given below using who, whom, whose, which, as suggested.
1. I often go to Mumbai. Mumbai is the commercial capital of India, (which)
Answer: I often go to Mumbai, which is the commercial capital of India.
2. My mother is going to host a TV show on cooking. She cooks very well, (who)
Answer: My Mother who cooks very well, is going to host a TV show on cooking.
3. These sportsperson are going to meet the President. Their performance has been excellent, (whose)
Answer: These sportspersons, whose performance has been excellent, is going to meet the President.
4. Lencho prayed to God. His eyes see into our minds, (whose)
Answer: Lencho prayed to God, whose eyes see into our minds.
5. This man cheated me. I trusted him. (whom)
Answer: This man, whom I trusted, cheated me.
Question 4. Find sentences in the story with negative words, which express the following ideas emphatically.
(a) The trees lost all their leaves.
(b) The letter was addressed to God himself.
(c) The postman saw this address for the first time in his career.
Answer: (a) Not a leaf remained on the trees.
(b) It was nothing less than a letter to God.
(c) Never in his career as a postman had he seen that address.
Question 5. In pairs, find metaphors from the story to complete the table below. Try to say what qualities are being compared. One has been done for you.
Object | Metaphor | Quality or Feature Compared |
An epidemic (a disease) (that spreads very rapidly and leaves many people dead | ||
Answer:
|
Object |
Metaphor |
Quality or Feature Compared |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
An epidemic (a disease) (that spreads very rapidly and leaves many people dead |
|
|
|
|
Other activities that are given in the textbook are the activity that you have to do by yourself.
All the Solutions are updated from time to time with the latest syllabus given by CBSE. You Can Download the PDF of the Class 10 English First Flight Chapter 1 Question and answer (A letter to God Solutions) from the link given below.
So, These were the NCERT Solutions of Chapter 1 A letter to God of First Flight book of Class 10 English. These NCERT Solutions are precise and accurate are written using Simple English for easy understanding and helping the students to prepare well for their board exams. The Class 10 NCERT Solutions are written by our best teachers of the particular subject providing you with the best solutions on the web.