English Class 10 Chapter 1 Question Answer First Flight

A Letter to God

Solutions For All Chapters First Flight 10

Oral Comprehension Check (Page 5)

1. What did Lencho hope for?
Answer: Lencho hoped for rain.

2. Why did Lencho say the raindrops were like ‘new coins’?
Answer: He said the raindrops were like new coins because they promised a good harvest.

3. How did the rain change? What happened to Lencho’s fields?
Answer: The rain turned into hail, and the hailstones destroyed Lencho’s entire field.

4. What were Lencho’s feelings when the hail stopped?
Answer: Lencho was filled with sadness and despair when the hail stopped.

Oral Comprehension Check (Page 6)

1. Who or what did Lencho have faith in? What did he do?
Answer: Lencho had complete faith in God. He wrote a letter to God asking for a hundred pesos to sow his field again and to survive until the next harvest.

2. Who read the letter?
Answer: The postman and later the postmaster read the letter.

3. What did the postmaster do then?
Answer: The postmaster decided to answer Lencho’s letter. He collected money from his employees, contributed part of his salary, and sent the money to Lencho, signing the letter as “God.”

Oral Comprehension Check (Page 7)

1. Was Lencho surprised to find a letter for him with money in it?
Answer: No, Lencho was not surprised to receive a letter with money because he had faith in God.

2. What made him angry?
Answer: He became angry when he found seventy pesos instead of a hundred.

Thinking about the Text (Page 7,8)

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 “It’s during the meal that, just as Lencho had predicted, big drops of rain began to fall” and “God: if you don’t help me, my family and I will go hungry this year” show his faith.

2. Why does the postmaster send money to Lencho? Why does he sign the letter ‘God’?
Answer: The postmaster sent money to Lencho in order to keep his faith alive. He signed the letter ‘God’ so that Lencho would believe it had really come from Him.

3. Did Lencho try to find out who had sent the money to him? Why/Why not?
Answer: No, Lencho did not try to find out who had sent the money because he firmly believed it was sent by God.

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 thought that the post office employees had taken the rest of the money. The irony is that the very people who helped him selflessly were the ones accused of being crooks.

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.

Answer: Yes, there are people like Lencho in the real world. He was naive and unquestioning, because he had simple faith in God and believed without doubt that his letter would reach Him.

6. There are two kinds of conflict in the story: between humans and nature, and between humans themselves. How are these conflicts illustrated?
Answer: The conflict between humans and nature is shown when the hailstorm destroys Lencho’s entire crop. The conflict between humans themselves is shown when Lencho suspects the post office employees of stealing part of the money.

Thinking about Language (Page 8,9,10,11)

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 wind _ _ p _ _ _ _.
Answer: typhoon

4. A violent storm whose centre is a cloud in the shape of a funnel _ _ _ n_ _ _.
Answer: tornado

Question 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.

7. Match the sentences in column A with the meaning of ‘hope’ in column B.

Answer: 1. (b), 2. (e) , 3. (a), 4. (f), 5. (d), 6. (c)

III. 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, 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)
Answer: This man whom I trusted cheated me.

IV. 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.

V. Metaphors

The word metaphor 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 leg 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: