NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 1 – Download Free PDF (Updated for 2023-24)
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 1 comprises one prose lesson – “A Letter to God” and two poems – “Dust of Snow” and “Fire and Ice”, designed by the experts at BYJU’S. These solutions, which are reliable and accurate, are written using simple English that will help students to prepare well and face the exam with full confidence. The NCERT Solutions of Class 10 for English have been solved by our team of subject-matter experts to provide the best-in-class solutions for students.
Chapter 1 of NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English First Flight provides students with both subjective and objective questions. Students can download the PDF and use them while answering the textbook questions to understand the topics. The NCERT Solutions PDF can be accessed anytime by the students in order to evaluate themselves before the 2023-24 board exams.
| NCERT Solutions Class 10 English – A Letter to God |
| NCERT Solutions Class 10 English – Dust of Snow |
| NCERT Solutions Class 10 English – Fire and Ice |
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 1
Access Answers to NCERT Class 10 English Chapter 1 – A Letter to God
A Letter to God
Oral Comprehension Check (Page 5)
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 a 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 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 and friends, 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 to receive 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 only seventy pesos, instead of the 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:
- But in the hearts of all who lived in that solitary house in the middle of the valley, there was a single hope of 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.
- 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 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 only seventy pesos in the envelope instead of the 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 suspected 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.
| greedy | naive | stupid | ungrateful |
| selfish | comical | unquestioning | |
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. He is 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 are shown in the story when Lencho’s crops are 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 and 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 among themselves.
Thinking about Language (Page 8-11)
Question 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. A violent tropical storm in which strong winds move in a circle: _c_ _y_ c _l_ _o_ _n_ _e_
2. An extremely strong wind: _g_ a _l_ _e_
3. A violent tropical storm with very strong winds: _t_ _y_ p _h_ _o_ _o_ _n_
4. A violent storm whose centre is a cloud in the shape of a funnel: _t_ _o_ _r_ n _a_ _d_ _o_
5. A violent storm with very strong winds, especially in the western Atlantic Ocean: _h_ _u_ r _r_ _i_ _c_ _a_ _n_ _e_
6. A very strong wind that moves very fast in a spinning movement and causes a lot of damage: _w_ _h_ _i_ _r_ l _w_ _i_ _n_ _d_
Question 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 fishermen came back, seven days after the cyclone. | – stopped believing that this good thing would happen |
Question 3:
Relative Clauses: 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)
Answer:
1. 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.
Question 4:
Using Negatives for Emphasis: 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 seen that address.
Question 5:
Metaphors: 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 | Coins | The money that the good crops will bring when sold |
| Hailstones | Frozen pearls | Resembles the colour, hardness and brightness of pearls |
| Locusts | A plague of locusts | The destruction caused by plague and its consequences |
| 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 and hardworking nature resembles the working of an ox in the fields |
Speaking (Page 11)
Question 1:
Have you ever been in great difficulty, and felt that only a miracle could help you? How was your problem solved? Speak about this in class with your teacher.
Answer:
Activity to be done by yourself.
Listening (Page 12)
Question 1:
Listen to the letter (given under ‘In This Lesson’) read out by your teacher/on the audio tape. As you listen fill in the table given below.
| The writer apologises (says sorry) because | |
| The writer has sent this to the reader | |
| The writer sent it in the month of | |
| The reason for not writing earlier | |
| Sarah goes to | |
| Who is writing to whom? | |
| Where and when were they last together? |
Answer:
Activity to be done by yourself.
Writing (Page 12)
Question 1:
Lencho suffered first due to drought and then by floods. Our country is also facing such situations in the recent years. There is flood and there is drought. There is a need to save water through water harvesting. Design a poster for your area on how to save water during summer and when it is available in excess.
Answer:
Activity to be done by yourself.
Access Answers to NCERT Class 10 English Chapter 1 Poem – Dust of Snow
Thinking about the Poem (Page 14)
Question 1:
What is a “dust of snow”? What does the poet say has changed his mood? How has the poet’s mood changed?
Answer:
The ‘dust of snow’ refers to the snowflakes and its fine particles. The poet’s mood changed due to the sudden shower of snowflakes. He was dismayed earlier, but it changed to a happy and joyful mood as he felt refreshed and energized to enjoy the rest of the day.
Question 2:
How does Frost present nature in this poem? The following questions may help you to think of an answer.
(i) What are the birds that are usually named in poems? Do you think a crow is often mentioned in poems? What images come to your mind when you think of a crow?
(ii) Again, what is “a hemlock tree”? Why doesn’t the poet write about a more ‘beautiful’ tree such as a maple, or an oak, or a pine?
(iii) What do the ‘crow’ and ‘hemlock’ represent — joy or sorrow? What does the dust of snow that the crow shakes off a hemlock tree stand for?
Answer:
In the poem, Frost presents nature in a very unconventional manner.
- Generally, poets consider birds and trees to represent beauty and positive qualities. They write about birds such as parrots, peacocks, cuckoos, etc., and trees with beautiful flowers and bearing tasty fruits. In this poem, Frost mentions a crow, which is often not used in poems. Generally, a crow is a black bird with a harsh voice and is considered a bad omen. Therefore, the word ‘crow’ in the poem brings foreboding and depressing pictures to our mind.
- Frost mentions “a hemlock tree”, which is a poisonous plant having small white flowers. The poet however, didn’t choose to use a maple, pine or oak tree that symbolize beauty and joyfulness. Instead, he chose the hemlock tree while leaving aside all the beautiful trees of nature to represent his sadness and regretful feelings.
- The ‘crow’ and ‘hemlock’ tree represent sorrow and depressing mood and feelings felt by the poet in this world. The dust of snow symbolized a sense of natural joy and energy in him. The dust of snow that the crow shakes off a hemlock tree refers to the sad and depressing moments experienced by the poet initially which were gone as he enters into a joyful and optimistic feeling.
Question 3:
Have there been times when you felt depressed or hopeless? Have you experienced a similar moment that changed your mood that day?
Answer:
Yes, there have been innumerable times when I felt sad, depressed and hopeless due to some unavoidable circumstances in my life. Sometimes, such moments were caused due to indifferent behaviour and attitude of other people and sometimes due to my own conduct. On one occasion, I returned tired and upset from school. Upon reaching home, my puppy jumped and embraced me. This little joy literally changed my mood and I was overjoyed by such a nice gesture by the little creature. This uplifted my mood for the rest of the day. I played with my puppy for a while and caressed him with love and affection.
Access Answers to NCERT Class 10 English Chapter 1 Poem – Fire and Ice
Thinking about the Poem (Page 15)
Question 1:
There are many ideas about how the world will ‘end’. Do you think the world will end someday? Have you ever thought what would happen if the sun got so hot that it ‘burst’, or grew colder and colder?
Answer:
There are multiple theories about how the world will ‘end’. Yes, I do believe that the world will end someday as we all know that every particular thing which begins also has an end to it. This holds true for the world too, that if the Sun got so hot and it bursts, the entire life on Earth would perish immediately as the planet would not be able to tolerate the intensity of heat. On the contrary, if the Sun grew colder and colder, it is obvious that life will come to an end without sunlight. We are aware of the fact that sunlight is a rich source of energy to all the planets in the solar system.
Question 2:
For Frost, what do ‘fire’ and ‘ice’ stand for? Here are some ideas:
| greed | avarice | cruelty | lust |
| conflict | fury | intolerance | rigidity |
| insensitivity | coldness | indifference | hatred |
Answer:
‘Fire’ stands for greed, avarice, lust, conflict and fury. ‘Ice’ stands for cruelty, intolerance, rigidity, insensitivity, coldness, indifference and hatred.
Question 3:
What is the rhyme scheme of the poem? How does it help in bringing out the contrasting ideas in the poem?
Answer:
The rhyme scheme of the poem is: a, b, a, a, b, c, b, c, b.
This rhyme scheme helps in projecting the contrasting ideas of ‘fire’ and ‘ice’ that are presented in the poem. The poet Frost mentions both fire and ice as the probable ends of the planet Earth. He talks about how ‘fire’ represents desire and might be a possible cause of the end of the world. The poet also mentions ‘ice’ in the poem to symbolize the coldness and indifference that people might have towards one another, which will be a reason good enough to end the world. In the second stanza of the poem, the poet says that he knows enough about hate in this world and is sure that even destruction through hatred (ice) would be sufficient and adequate to bring about an end to the planet Earth.
You can download these NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English in PDF format through the links provided. Given below are some brief descriptions of the story and poems included under NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 1.
A Letter to God (Prose)
This story, written by G.L. Fuentes depicts a simple poor farmer named Lencho’s firm faith in God. Being an honest farmer, Lencho had hoped for a shower for a good harvest. However, his crops were destroyed due to a hailstorm and therefore, he wrote A letter to God seeking financial help of 100 pesos to sow his fields again and save his family from starvation. He placed his letter in a mailbox in town without an address. Upon seeing such a letter, the postmaster was deeply moved and decided to help the poor farmer so that his faith in God was not shaken.
Therefore, the postmaster contributed a decent amount himself and collected some money from his colleagues and friends and put it in the envelope. Soon Lencho visited the post office, the post office employees gave him the envelope containing money. When he opened the envelope, he was upset to find 70 pesos only, and he again wrote a letter to God criticizing the post office employees that they must have stolen the remaining 30 pesos from the envelope. This story is all about Lencho’s deep faith in the Almighty and how the post office employees helped him by collecting money anonymously in the name of God, to help him in his crisis.
Chapter 1 A Letter to God :
Dust of Snow (Poem)
In this poem, the poet Robert Frost writes about his experience of sitting under the hemlock tree as he is upset one day, since all isn’t going well in his life. However, his mood changes when the soft and cold snow touches him and he is filled with a sense of happiness and satisfaction. Students get to experience a variety of emotions while reading this poem as the poet presents a simple moment having a larger significance.
Chapter 1 Poem Dust of Snow:
Fire and Ice (Poem)
In this poem, Robert Frost the poet mentions the two different beliefs regarding the end of the world. He compares human desires to that of fire in nature and believes that the world will end in fire some day. He also believes that the world might also end in ice as there has been enough hate in the world that can destroy it.
Chapter 1 Poem Fire and Ice:
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 1
NCERT is an organization which sets a precedent for curriculum and syllabus in the country and provides textbooks and study materials. The solutions designed here are based on the English syllabus of Class 10 CBSE board. So, using the NCERT Solutions mainly helps students to appear for the board exams without any tension. The Class 10 English is divided into three parts namely, oral comprehension, thinking through the text and thinking about the language. The oral comprehension helps students test their spoken skills whereas the other two sections help students to understand the vocabulary and English content. The chapter-wise links are also provided in order to enable the students to master the language. The solutions PDF provided here helps students understand how to approach the subject and score well in the final exams.
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