Chapter – 1

A Letter to God

In this post, we have given the Important Questions of chapter 1 “A Letter to God”. It is the 1st chapter of the prose of Class 10th English.

Board	CBSE Board, UP Board, JAC Board, HBSE Board, UBSE Board, PSEB Board, RBSE Board
Textbook	NCERT
Class	Class 10
Subject	English First Flight
Chapter no.	Chapter 1
Chapter Name	A Letter to God
Category	Class 10 English Important Questions
Medium	English

Chapter 1 A Letter to God

Question 1. What did Lencho hope for?

Answer: Lencho hoped for a good rain 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 they were promising him a good 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 a strong wind began to blow and huge hailstones began to fall along with the rain. All the crops in Lencho’s field got destroyed because of the weather conditions.

Question 4. What were Lencho’s feelings when the hail stopped?

Answer: Lencho was filled with grief after the hail stopped as everything was ruined and there was nothing that he could feed his family with. He could see a bleak future for him and his family.

Question 5. Who or what did Lencho have faith in? What did he do?

Answer: Lencho had firm faith in God. He believed ‘ that God sees everything, even what is deep in one’s conscience and help everyone in one’s 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 the letter?

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.

Question 8. Was Lencho surprised to find a letter for him with money in it?

Answer: Lencho was not surprised to find a letter with money from God as he believed that God will help him.

Question 9. What made Lencho 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.

Answer the Following Questions

Question 1. What was Lencho expecting from the God? What did he receive? Why?

Answer. Lencho expected God to send him the hundred pesos he asked for. However he received only seventy pesos which had been collected by the Postmaster through contribution made by the post office employees.

Question 2. Explain the qualities of the post office employees?

Answer. The post office employees represented the people who believed in helping others. They were kind and helpful. They cooperated with each other and contributed to their best of the capability just to keep Lencho’s faith in God alive. They had love, concern, compassion and empathy for Lencho.

Question 3. Why would you not agree with Lencho calling them ‘a bunch of crooks’?

Answer. Lencho was not at all justified in calling them ‘a bunch of crooks’ because they helped him by collecting money and understanding Lencho’s unshakable faith in God. Each one of them parted with some money for the act of charity which ‘a bunch of crooks’ would never do.

Question 4. Why was Lencho angry when he received the letter?

Answer. When Lencho received the letter, he opened the envelope. He, at once, became angry on counting the amount in it. There were only seventy pesos in the envelope, whereas he had asked for one hundred.

Question 5. How did the postmaster help Lencho? OR What did the postmaster do to keep the faith of Lencho?

Answer. The postmaster collected money from the post office employees, he himself also contributed his share and sent the money-order to Lencho in God’s name to keep his faith.

Question 6. Where was Lencho’s house situated? Why did he sit seeing the sky?

Answer. Lencho’s house was situated on the crest of a low hill in the valley. The whole day he sat seeing the sky because he knew that his fields needed downpour or at least a shower and he was waiting to see the signs of rain.

Question 7. How was Lencho’s life affected by the rain?

Answer. Lencho was a hard working farmer. He lived with his family on the crest of a low hill. He was going to get a very good crop this year. His field needed only a downpour. The rain started. But within a very short time, the rain turned into hailstones. It destroyed his crop completely. Thus the rain affected his life badly.

Question 8. What did Lencho compare the raindrops to? Why?

Answer. Lencho compared the raindrops to new coins. He called the big drops ‘ten cent pieces’ and the smaller ones as ‘five cent pieces’. His field needed rain badly. The raindrops increased his hopes of a good harvest. That is why, he called them so.

Question 9. What were Lencho’s feelings when the hailstorm stopped?

Answer. Lencho was filled with utter sadness when the hailstorm stopped. He was troubled to see the corn which was totally destroyed. Nothing was left in the fields. He and his family had to go hungry without corn.

Question 10. How did Lencho’s hope change to despair?

Answer. Lencho was waiting for a shower of rain that his field needed. But his hope for good rain vanished when the wind changed into hailstorm. It destroyed everything. So, Lencho’s hope changed to despair as his family would face starvation.

Question 11. What were Lencho’s feelings when he found the letter with money in it? What did he do after opening the letter?

Answer. In the beginning, Lencho was very happy and satisfied to receive the letter. But when he counted the money and found it less, he became very angry. He wrote another letter to God, demanding thirty more pesos.

Question 12. What did Lencho call the raindrops? How did he value them?

Answer. Lencho called the big drops the ten cent coins and little ones of five cents. He called them so because his fields needed the rain for a good harvest. They were going to give him money.

Question 13. Why did Lencho become angry when he counted the money?

Answer. Lencho became angry when he counted the money because the money was not hundred pesos which he had demanded. It was only seventy pesos. Lencho had firm faith in God. Moreover, he knew that God could not make a mistake or deny his request.

Question 14. What did Lencho write in his second letter?

Answer. When Lencho found thirty pesos less, he wrote a second letter to God to send him the remaining amount, but not through the mail as he felt that the employees of the post office were a bunch of crooks.

Question 15. In the lesson ‘A Letter to God’, what moral values does the postmaster display in his behaviour?

Answer. The Postmaster first laughed looking at the letter which had a strange address. But soon he became serious. He was surprised at the faith that Lencho had in God. He wanted his faith to be intact in God. The Postmaster was a kind and compassionate fellow. He tried to keep Lencho’s faith in God intact by collecting the amount for him. He was an empathetic and softhearted fellow who cared for Lencho. He displayed good leadership qualities by asking each Post office employee to contribute to his extent. The Postmaster himself gave a part of his salary and also requested his employees and a few friends to contribute for the good cause as a charity. He encouraged to perceive others in a more positive light. He was a man who fostered a sense of community building and spreaded positivity which helps in creating a healthy society.

Thinking about the Text

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. There are few sentences which show this

• 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.
• 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.
• “God”, he wrote, “if you don’t help me, my family and I will go hungry this year”.
• He wrote ‘To God’ on the envelope, put the letter inside and still troubled, went to town.
• 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 Lencho’s faith in God alive and firm as he was completely moved by it. When postmaster reads the letter of Lencho to God, he becomes serious and does not want to shake his faith and decides to answer the letter. He gathers money with the help of his post office employees and friends on behalf of God and signs the letter ‘God’ so that Lencho’s faith does 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 suspected 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. His faith in God was so strong that he believed that he had sent money to him for his help in his problem.

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 was only seventy pesos and God cannot make such a mistake. So, he assumes that they have stolen the money.

The irony in this situation is that Lencho suspects those people who helped him in his problem and tried to keep his faith alive 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.

(i) Greedy

(ii) Naive

(iii) Stupid

(iv) Ungrateful

(v) Selfish

(vi) Comical

(vii) Unquestioning

Answer: It is almost impossible to find a person like Lencho as he is an unquestioning and naive kind of person. 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 real world, people are selfish and greedy and Lencho is totally lovable and different.

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: Conflict between Humans and Nature: The conflict between humans and nature is illustrated by the destruction of Lencho’s crop by the hailstorm as Lencho was expecting a good rain to have 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.

Conflict between Humans and Humans: The story also illustrated another conflict, between humans themselves as the postmaster alongwith his friends and staff sent Lencho money that Lencho demanded from God although they didn’t know Lencho. Lencho blamed them for taking away some amount of money. He called them “a bunch of crook”. This shows that man does not have faith in other man, thereby giving rise to this conflict.

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?

(i) gale,

(ii) whirlwind,

(iii) cyclone,

(iv) hurricane,

(v) tornado,

(vi) typhoon.

Question 1. A violent tropical storm in which strong winds move in a circle _ _c _ _ _ _ .

Answer: cyclone

Question 2. An extremely strong wind _ a _ _.

Answer: gale

Question 3. A violent tropical storm with very strong wind _ _ p _ _ _ _.

Answer: typhoon

Question 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

Question 6. A very strong wind that moves very fast in a spinning movement and causes a lot of damage _ _ _ _ l_ _ _ _.

Answer: Whirlwind

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

Answer:

	A		B
1.	Will you get the subjects you want to study in college? I hope so.	(a)	a feeling that something good will probably happen.
2.	1 hope you don’t mind my saying this but 1 don’t like the way you are arguing.	(b)	thinking that this would happen (it may or may not have happened.)
3.	This discovery will give new hope to HIV/AIDS sufferers.	(c)	stopped believing that this good thing would happen.
4.	We were hoping against hope that the judges would not notice our mistakes.	(d)	wanting something to happen (and thinking it quite possible)
5.	1 called early in the hope of speaking to her before she went to school.	(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)

III. Join the sentences given below using who, whom, whose, which, as suggested.

Question 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.

Question 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.

Question 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.

Question 4. Lencho prayed to God. His eyes see into our minds, (whose)

Answer: Lencho prayed to God, whose eyes see into our minds.

Question 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.

IV. 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
Cloud	Huge mountains of clouds	The mass or ‘hugeness’ of mountains
Raindrops
Hailstones
Locusts	An ox of a man	An epidemic (a disease) (hat spreads very rapidly and leaves many people dead

Answer:

Object	Metaphor	Quality or Feature Compared
Cloud	Huge mountains of clouds	The mass or ‘hugeness’ of mountains
Raindrops	Coins	Money that a good crop will bring
Hailstones	Frozen pearls	brightness of pearls
Locusts	a plague of locusts	An epidemic (a disease) that spreads very rapidly and leaves many people dead
Lencho	An ox of a man	strong

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