english class 10 ch 1 first flight

 

Class 10 English Chapter 1 – A Letter to God

A Letter to God

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Question 1:

What did Lencho hope for?

Answer:

Lencho had hoped for a downpour or at least a shower for his ripe corn fields as it was needed for a good harvest.

Question 2:

Why did Lencho say the raindrops were like ‘new coins’?

Answer:

Lencho compared the raindrops to ‘new coins’, the big drops as ten cent pieces and the little ones as fives. As his crops were ready for harvest, he hoped that the rains would bring him prosperity so he felt the raindrops were like ‘new coins’.

Question 3:

How did the rain change? What happened to Lencho’s fields?

Answer:

The rain started pouring down. But suddenly a strong wind blew and very large hailstones, like frozen pearls, began to fall along with the rain. The hailstorm continued for an hour and destroyed Lencho’s corn fields and washed away the flowers from the plants too.

Question 4:

What were Lencho’s feelings when the hail stopped?

Answer:

After the hailstones stopped, Lencho’s soul was filled with grief and dismay. He realised that everything was ruined by the hailstorm and nothing was left to feed his family for the entire year. He could visualize the bleak future of his family.

Oral Comprehension Check (Page 6)

Question 1:

Who or what did Lencho have faith in? What did he do?

Answer:

Lencho had strong faith in God. He believed that God’s eyes see everything, even what is deep in one’s conscience. Hence, he wrote a letter to God citing that he needed a hundred pesos to sow his field again that was destroyed by the hailstorm.

Question 2:

Who read the letter?

Answer:

The postmaster read Lencho’s letter addressed to God.

Question 3:

What did the postmaster do then?

Answer:

Initially, the postmaster broke out into laughter, but was soon moved by the seriousness of Lencho’s faith in God. He didn’t want to shake the writer’s faith in the Almighty so he came up with an idea to collect money from his employees, friends and gave a part of his salary and sent it to Lencho.

Oral Comprehension Check (Page 7)

Question 1:

Was Lencho surprised to find a letter for him with money in it?

Answer:

No, Lencho was not at all surprised on receiving a letter from God with money in it. He was very confident and had firm faith in God that his request would definitely be taken care of by the Almighty.

Question 2:

What made him angry?

Answer:

When Lencho counted the money he found seventy pesos only, instead of hundred pesos demanded by him from God. He was confident that God could neither make a mistake in sending him less money, nor could he have denied Lencho what he had requested. Therefore, he came to the conclusion that the post office employees must have taken the remaining thirty pesos from the envelope.

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 had complete faith in God as he was instructed that God could see everything and helped whoever was in deep trouble. Given below are a few sentences which exhibit his faith in God:

1. 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.
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.
6. 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”.

Question 2:

Why does the postmaster send money to Lencho? Why does he sign the letter ‘God’?

Answer:

The postmaster was deeply moved by Lencho’s faith in God. Hence, he decided to send some money to Lencho in order to avoid shaking the latter’s faith in God. So, he collected some money from his colleagues and friends and signed the letter as ‘God’. The postmaster felt it was an ideal ploy to convey a message to Lencho that God has sent him the money and that God himself signed on it.

Question 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 him the money because he was confident that God had sent it to him. Not for a moment did he suspect that someone else other than God could have sent the money to him. His faith in the Almighty was so rock-solid that he knew that nothing escapes God’s eyes. Lencho felt that God was aware of the unfortunate incident faced by him and requested him to save him from this difficult situation.

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:

Upon counting the money, when Lencho found seventy pesos only in the envelope instead of hundred pesos that he had requested from God, he was confident that the Almighty couldn’t have made such a big mistake. From this situation, he understood that the post office employees could have stolen the remaining thirty pesos from the envelope. Hence, he called them crooks.

The element of irony in this situation is that Lencho ends up suspecting those very people who helped him in his crisis, 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.

Answer:

It is not easy to find people like Lencho in the real world as he has a naïve and unquestioning nature. From the story, we can conclude that he is not stupid and a literate person who wrote a letter to God without any address requesting for money. Lencho had deep faith in God and was confident that he would definitely receive some financial help from the Almighty.

Question 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 conflicts between humans and nature is shown in the story when Lencho’s crops were destroyed by the hailstorm. He had expected some good rain for a good harvest. However, when his crops were damaged by the hailstorm, he lost all hope and became sad at the sight of his destroyed field.

However, the story also depicts conflicts of humans between themselves. The postmaster collected some money from his colleagues, friends and gave a part of his salary to help Lencho so that the latter’s faith in God is not shaken. It was a beautiful act of selflessness and kindness on their part. Despite their noble act, when Lencho received the money, he blindly believed that God had sent him the money and he blamed the post office employees for stealing some money from the envelope. This implies that man lacks faith in his fellow human beings, which gives rise to conflicts amongst themselves.