NCERT Solutions Class 10 English Chapter 1 A Letter to God

Lencho hoped for rains as the only thing that his field of ripe corn needed was a shower.

 

2. Why did Lencho say the raindrops were like ‘new coins’?
Answer
Lencho’s crops were ready for harvest. As raindrops would have helped in getting a better harvest, resulting in more prosperity, so Lencho compared them with new coins.

3. How did the rain change? What happened to Lencho’s fields?
Answer
The rain was pouring down. But suddenly, a strong wind began to blow and very large hailstones began to fall along with the rain.
All the crop in Lencho's fields destroyed.

4. What were Lencho’s feelings when the hail stopped?
Answer
After hail stopped, Lencho's soul was filled with sadness. He could see a bleak future for him and his family. Hew was worried about lack of food for the coming year.

Oral Comprehension Check

1. Who or what did Lencho have faith in? What did he do?
Answer
Lencho had faith in God. He believed that God’s eyes see everything, even what is deep in one’s conscience. He wrote a letter to God saying that he needed a hundred pesos to sow his field again.

2. Who read the letter?
Answer
Postmaster read the letter.

3. What did the postmaster do then?
Answer 
The Postmaster first laughed. But then he became serious. He was deeply moved by the writer’s faith in God. He did not want to shake this faith. So he decided to collect the money and send it to Lencho. 

Oral Comprehension Check

1.Was Lencho surprised to find a letter for him with money in it?
Answer
No. Lencho was not at all surprised to see the letter from God with money inside it. His confidence and faith in God was such that he had expected that reply from God.

2. What made him angry?
Answer
When he finished counting moneyhe found only seventy pesos. But he demanded hundred pesos. He was confident that God could neither make a mistake nor deny him what he had requested. Therefore, he concluded that the post office employees must have taken the remaining thirty pesos.

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
Postmaster was moved by Lencho’s complete faith in the God. So, he decided to send money toLencho. Moreover, the postmaster did not want to shake Lencho’s faith in God. So, he signed the letter ‘God’. It was a good ploy to convey a message that God had himself written the letter.

3. Did Lencho try to find out who had sent the money to him? Why/Why not?
Answer
No, Lencho does not try to find out who had sent the money to him. This is because he had great confidence in God and never suspected that it could be someone else other than God who would send him the money. His faith in God was so strong that he believed that God had sent him the 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 thinks that the post office people have taken the money. It is the post office people who send the money to Lencho. But, on the other hand, Lencho thinks they have stolen his money. He calls them crooks. Thus there is an element of irony in this situation.

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	Naïve	stupid	ungrateful
selfish	comical	unquestioning

Answer
I don't think there can be any such people in the real world. Lencho is literate and yet he dosen’t know how his letter will reach God without any address. He probably would be naïve and unquestioning.

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 by the destruction of Lencho’s crops by the hailstorm. As the crops failed by hail, Lencho started feeling sad and gloomy after the storm appropriately projects the conflict of the nature and the man. The Story also shown another conflict, between humans themselves. The postmaster, along with the help of the other post office employees, sent Lencho the money that they could manage to collect. They were not related to Lencho in any manner. It was an act of kindness and selflessness on their part. Even though they did a good deed, Lencho blamed them for taking away some amount of money. This shows that man does not have faith in his fellow humans, thereby giving rise to this conflict.

Thinking about the Language 

1. 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.

gale,	whirlwind,	cyclone,
hurricane,	tornado,	typhoon

1. A violent tropical storm in which strong winds move in a circle: __ __ c __ __ __ __
2. An extremely strong wind: __ a __ __
3. A violent tropical storm with very strong winds: __ __ p __ __ __ __
4. A violent storm whose centre is a cloud in the shape of a funnel:__ __ __ n __ __ __
5. A violent storm with very strong winds, especially in the western Atlantic ocean: __ __ r __ __ __ __ __ __
6. A very strong wind that moves very fast in a spinning movement and causes a lot of damage: __ __ __ __ l __ __ __ __
Answer
1. Cyclone
2. Gale
3. Typhoon
4. Tornado
5. Hurricane
6. Whirlwind

2. Match the sentences in Column A with the meanings of ‘hope’ in Column B.

 

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

Answer
 

	A		B
1.	Will you get the subjects you want to study in college? I hope so.	−	wanting something to happen (and thinking it quite possible)
2.	I hope you don’t mind my saying this, but I don’t like the way you are arguing.	−	showing concern that what you say should not offend or disturb the other person: a way of being polite
3.	This discovery will give new hope to HIV/AIDS sufferers.	−	a feeling that something good will probably happen
4.	We were hoping against hope that the judges would not notice our mistakes.	−	wishing for something to happen, although this is very unlikely
5.	I called early in the hope of speaking to her before she went to school.	−	thinking that this would happen (It may or may not have happened.)
6.	Just when everybody had given up hope, the fisherman came back, seven days after the cyclone.	−	stopped believing that this good thing would happen

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)
2. My mother is going to host a TV show on cooking. She cooks very well. (who)
3. These sportspersons are going to meet the President. Their performance has been excellent. (whose)
4. Lencho prayed to God. His eyes see into our minds. (whose)
5. This man cheated me. I trusted him. (whom)
Answer1. I often go to Mumbai, which is the commercial capital of India.
2. My mother, who cooks very well, is going to host a TV show on cooking.
3. These sportspersons, whose performance has been excellent, are going to meet the President.
4. Lencho prayed to God, whose eyes see into our minds.
5. This man, whom I trusted, cheated me.

4. Find sentences in the story with negative words, which express the following ideas emphatically.
1. The trees lost all their leaves. _______________________________________________________________
2. The letter was addressed to God himself. ______________________________________________________
3. The postman saw this address for the first time in his career. ______________________________________
Answer
1. The trees lost all their leaves. Not a leaf remained on the trees.
2. The letter was addressed to God himself. It was nothing less than a letter to God. 
3. The postman saw this address for the first time in his career. Never in his career as a postman had he known that address.

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

Answer
 

Object	Metaphor	Quality or Feature Compared
Cloud	Huge mountains of clouds	The mass or ‘hugeness’ of mountains
Raindrops	A curtain of rain	The draping or covering of an area by a curtain
Hailstones	The frozen pearls	The resemblance in colour and hardness of a pearl
Locusts	A plague of locusts	The consequences (destruction) of plague
Locusts	A plague of locusts	An epidemic (a disease) that spreads very rapidly and leaves many people dead
Man	An ox of a man	The working of an ox in the fields (hard work)

 

Short Answer Type Question

1. why did Lencho say that raindrops were like “new coins”? / why did Lencho compare the raindrops to and why?
Answer
Lencho was a corn farmer. His corn crop was in the final stages of development and just needed one shower or rain to mature fully. If there was good rain, it would result in a beautiful harvest and bring in profits and prosperity. He compares big raindrops to ten cent coins and little ones to five cent coins.

2. how did the rain change? What happened to Lencho’s field?
Answer
Initially Lencho was very happy and satisfied because there was good rains. However, suddenly a strong wind began to blow and along with the rain very large hailstorm began to fall. Such conditions continued for an hour, and hail rained on the house, the garden, the hillside, the cornfield, on the whole valley. Lencho corn crop was completely destroyed. The fields were white, as it covered with salt. There was not a leaf on the tree and the flowers were gone from the plants. The hail had left them with nothing.

3. What were Lenchos feeling when the hail stopped?
Answer
When the hail stopped and Lencho looked over his fields, he saw the hail had destroyed everything. His soul was filled with sadness. Everything had been destroyed at the last minute. All their hard work had gone in vain. They felt helpless and felt like they all would starve that year.

4. what was the post master‘s reaction upon reading the letter? What did the postmaster do?
Answer
The postmaster was astounded upon reading Lenchos letter. He broke out laughing at the fact that Lencho had written a letter to the God. However, he turned serious almost immediately and was surprised with Lenchos faith in God. He was very empathetic and understood the desperation of Lencho which led him to act like this.
In order not to shake Lenchos faith in God, the postmaster, a kind and selfless man, decided to answer the letter. He collected money from his employees and he himself gave a part of his salary, and several of his friends contributed something. He was able to gather about 70 pesos and put them in a envelope addressed to Lencho and signed as God.

5. what made Lencho angry? What did he do?
Answer
Even though Lencho was not surprised to find an answer from God, he became angry when he realised that only 70 pesos had been provided to him, when he specifically asked for 100 pesos. He knew that God could not make mistakes, nor could he have denied his request. He was specially angry at the post office employees, as he thought that they had stolen the money, when in reality it was the opposite. After reading the letter, he replied to God by writing a letter and angrily affixing a stamp to the letter, drop the letter in the mailbox. He wrote in the letter that he had only received 70 pesos and asked to God to send him the rest. He requested God not to send the money through the post as a post office employees were a bunch of crooks.

6. Who does Lencho think has taken the rest of the money? What is the irony in the situation?
Answer
After receiving the letter from the God, Lencho became very angry. He had only received 70 pieces out of 100 pesos he had asked for. He knew God could not make mistakes nor deny his request, so he thought that the post office employees had taken the money. However, the irony was that in reality the post master had done an act of charity to help Lencho. He had good intentions but Lencho blamed him and the post office employees for the theft of his money and called them a bunch of crooks. This was very unexpected.

7. describe the character of Lencho?.
Answer
Lencho was a farmer who grew corn. He was extremely experienced as he knew his fields intimately. He has been described as an “ox of a man”, as he was very hard-working. He knew how to write. Along these qualities, Lencho had a very strong unwavering faith in God. However, he was not rational at all. His desperation for money during the times of adversity had taken away all his sense of logic. He had a blind faith in God which led him to act on gratefully and a logically. However, Lencho had a lot of self-respect as he did not go about asking people for money. He was naive and not at all wise in dealing with the complex matters as he had blind faith in God.

8. there are two kinds of conflict in the story between humans and nature and between humans themselves. How are these conflicts illustrated?
Answer
This is with reference to the chapter “A letter to God” by G.L.Fuentes.This chapter talks about blind faith and how it affects people. The first conflict between the humans and the nature is when the rain, which Lencho desired for the growth of his corn crops, turned into hail and led to the destruction of his fields. This was undesirable. Another conflict was when Lencho accorded the title of “crooks” to the post office employees when in reality it was they who did an act of charity to help him get some amount of money. In the first case, the conflict was between nature and human as nature didn’t provide what the human wanted. In the second case, the conflict was between humans themselves as the efforts of one went unappreciated by the other.