NCERT Solutions Class 10 English (First Flight) Chapter 1 (A Letter to God)

NCERT Solutions Class 10 English (First Flight) 

The NCERT Solutions in English Language for Class 10 English (First Flight) Chapter – 1 A Letter to God has been provided here to help the students in solving the questions from this exercise. 

Chapter – 1 (A Letter to God) 

Oral Comprehension Check

1. What did Lencho hope for ?
Answer – Lencho hoped for water in the form of rain.

2. Why did Lencho say the raindrops were like ‘new coins’ ?
Answer – He said this because his crop really needed rain for being a good harvest. So when it rained, he saw it in the form of ‘new coins’.

3. How did the rain change ? What happened to Lencho’s fields ?
Answer – The rain changed into a hailstorm. Hails fell on the house, the garden, the hillside and the cornfield. They destroyed Lencho’s fields completely.

4. What were Lencho’s feelings when the hail stopped ? 
Answer – Lencho felt completely broken. The hail had left nothing. He felt that they would have no corn that year.

Oral Comprehension Check

1. Who or what did Lencho have faith in ? What did he do ?
Answer – Lencho had faith in God. He felt that God’s eyes saw everything. He wrote a letter to God.

2. Who read the letter ?
Answer – When the postman saw that the letter was addressed to God, he laughed and took the letter to the postmaster, who then read it.

3. What did the postmaster do then ?
Answer – The postmaster laughed when he read Lencho’s letter but soon he became serious and was moved by the writer’s faith in God. He didn’t want to shake Lencho’s faith. So, he decided to collect ,money and send it to Lencho on behalf of God.

Oral Comprehension Check

1. Was Lencho surprised to find a letter for him with money in it ?
Answer – No, Lencho was not surprised to find a letter with money from God as he believed that God will help him.

2. What made him angry ?
Answer – There were only seventy pesos in the envelope whereas Lencho had demanded a hundred pesos. The difference in the amount made him angry.

Thinking About The Text

1. Who does Lencho have complete faith in ? Which sentences in the story tell you this ?
Answer – Lencho had complete faith in God. The sentences in the story that show this are as follows:
(i) But in the hearts of all who lived in that solitary house in the middle of the valley, there was a single hope: help from God.
(ii) 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.
(iii) “God,” he wrote, “if you don’t help me, my family and I will go hungry this year.”
(iv) He wrote ‘To God’ on the envelope, put the letter inside and, still troubled, went to town.
(v) God could not have made a mistake, nor could he have denied Lencho what he had requested.
(vi) It said: “God: of the money that I asked for, only seventy pesos reached me. Send me the rest, since I need it very much.”

2. Why does the postmaster send money to Lencho ? Why does he sign the letter ‘God’ ?
Answer – Lencho’s trust in God moved the postmaster to tears. He therefore made the decision to give Lencho some money in order to maintain Lencho’s faith in God. As a result, he solicited donations from his friends and co-workers and then inscribed “God” as his name on the note. The mailman thought it would be a good ruse to tell Lencho that God has sent him the money and that God has personally signed it.

3. Did Lencho try to find out who had sent the money to him ? Why /Why not ?
Answer – As Lencho had complete faith in God, so he did not try to find out the actual sender of money.

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 had all his doubts on people working in the post office. The irony of the situation is the finger pointing on those who had tried to help out Lencho. In real life also we come across such situations. Many a time you would have tried helping someone and he may get a wrong message.

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. (Value Based Question)

Answer – Yes, there are still people like Lencho in the world. He is such a person who can go to any extent in his faith in God. He is resolute, determined and firm. Lencho is also ‘naive’, ‘stupid’ and ‘comical’.

6. There are two kinds of conflicts in the story : between humans and nature, and between humans themselves. How are these conflicts illustrated ?
Answer – These conflicts are illustrated in the form of hailstorm destroying Lencho’s crop. So he thinks of God and writes a letter to Him for help. The other conflict is illustrated by Lencho. It is in his not believing in the post office officials’ honesty. He thinks them ‘crooks’ and dishonest persons.

Thinking About Language

I. Look at the following sentence from the story :
Suddenly a strong wind began to blow and along with the rain very large hailstones began to fall.
‘Hailstones’ are small balls of ice that fall like rain. A storm in which hailstones fall is a ‘hailstorm’. You know that a storm is bad weather with strong winds, rain, thunder and lightning.
There are different names in different parts of the world for storms, depending on their nature. Can you match the names in the box with their descriptions below, and fill in the blanks ? You may use a dictionary to help you.

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 winds :
_ _ 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

II. Notice how the word ‘hope’ is used in these sentences from the story.
(a) I hope it (the hailstorm) passes quickly.
(b) There was a single hope : help from God.
In the first example, ‘hope’ is a verb which means you wish for something to happen. In the second example it is a noun meaning a chance for something to happen.
Match the sentences in column ‘A’ with the meanings of ‘hope’ in column ‘B’:

Answer –

III. Relative Clauses
Look at these sentences
(а) All morning Lencho—who knew his fields intimately—looked at the sky.
(b) The woman, who was preparing supper, replied, “Yes, God willing.”

The italicised parts of the sentences give us more information about Lencho and the woman. We call them relative clauses. Notice that they begin with a relative pronoun who. Other common relative pronouns are whom, whose, and which.
The relative clauses in (a) and (b) above are called non-defining, because we already know the identity of the person they describe. Lencho is a particular person, and there is a particular woman he speaks to. We don’t need the information in the relative clause to pick these people out from a larger set.
A non-defining relative clause usually has a comma in front of it and a comma after it (some writers use a dash (—) instead, as in the story). If the relative clause comes at the end, we just put a full stop.

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 sportspersons are going to meet the President. Their performance has been excellent, (whose)
Answer – These sportspersons whose performance has been excellent are 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)
Sometimes the relative pronoun in a relative clause remains ‘hidden’. For example, look at the first sentence of the story :
(a) The house—the only one in the entire valley—sat on the crest of a low hill.

We can rewrite this sentence as :
(b) The house—which was the onjly one in the entire valley—sat on the crest of a low hill.

In (a), the relative pronoun ‘which’ land the verb ‘was’ are not present.
Answer – This man whom I trusted cheated me.

IV. Using Negatives for Emphasis
We know that sentences with words such as no, not or nothing show the absence of something, or contradict something. For example :
(а) This year we will have no com. (Com will be absent.)
(b) The hail has left nothing. (Absence of a crop.)
(c) These aren’t raindrops falling from the sky, they are new coins. (Contradicts the common idea of what the drops of water falling from the sky are.)

But sometimes negative words are used just to emphasise an idea. Look at these sentences from the story:
(d) Lencho…had done nothing else but see the sky towards the north-east. (He had done only this.)
(e) The man went out for no other reason than to have the pleasure of feeling the rain on his body. (He had only this reason.)
(f) Lencho showed not the slightest surprise on seeing the money. (He showed no surprise at all.)

Now look back at example (c). Notice that the contradiction in fact serves to emphasise the value or usefulness of the rain to the farmer.

Find sentences in the story with negative words, which express the following ideas emphatically.

1. The trees lost all their leaves.
Answer – Not a leaf remained on the trees.

2. The letter was addressed to God himself.
Answer – It was nothing less than a letter to God.

3. The postman saw this address for the first time in his career.
Answer – Never in his career as a postman had he known that address.

V. Metaphors

The word ‘metaphor9 comes from a Greek word meaning ‘transfer’. Metaphors compare two things or ideas : a quality or feature of one thing is transferred to another thing. Some common metaphors are

• the teg of the table : The leg supports our body. So the object that supports a table is described as a leg.
• the heart of the city : The heart is an important organ in the centre of our body. So this word is used to describe the central area of a city.

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.

Answer –

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