Complete, official NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English First Flight Chapter 1: A Letter to God by G.L. Fuentes, including full textbook exercises for companion poems Dust of Snow and Fire and Ice by Robert Frost. All in-text Oral Comprehension Checks, Thinking about the Text, Thinking about the Poem, and Thinking about Language exercises are fully solved in student topper format strictly for the 2026–27 CBSE curriculum.
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1. Oral Comprehension Check (In-Text Questions)
Oral Comprehension Check (Textbook Page 5)
Q1. What did Lencho hope for?
Ans: Lencho hoped for a good downpour or at least a gentle shower of rain for his ripe cornfield, which was blooming with flowers and promised a rich harvest.
Q2. Why did Lencho say the raindrops were like ‘new coins’?
Ans: Lencho compared raindrops to ‘new coins’ because the rain was essential for a healthy crop yield. A good harvest would bring prosperity and money when sold in the market; hence, big drops were ten-cent pieces and little ones were fives.
Q3. How did the rain change? What happened to Lencho’s fields?
Ans: Strong winds began to blow, and along with the rain, large hailstones began to fall. The hailstorm raged for an hour over the valley, stripping the trees, destroying the flowers, and ruining the entire cornfield so that it looked white as if covered with salt.
Q4. What were Lencho’s feelings when the hail stopped?
Ans: Lencho was filled with profound sorrow and despair. Standing in the middle of his ruined field, he lamented that a swarm of locusts would have left more than the hail, and grieved that his family would have no corn and would go hungry that year.
Oral Comprehension Check (Textbook Page 6)
Q1. Who or what did Lencho have faith in? What did he do?
Ans: Lencho had complete, unshakeable faith in God, believing that God’s eyes see everything, even what is deep in one’s conscience. He wrote a letter to God explaining his distress and requesting 100 pesos to sow his field again and survive until the next harvest.
Q2. Who read the letter?
Ans: The postmaster read the letter after a postman brought it to him, laughing at the unusual address ‘To God’.
Q3. What did the postmaster do then?
Ans: Deeply impressed by Lencho’s unshakeable faith, the postmaster decided to answer the letter. He collected money from his staff, gave a part of his own salary, and asked friends for contributions for an ‘act of charity’, managing to collect 70 pesos, which he mailed to Lencho signed ‘God’.
Oral Comprehension Check (Textbook Page 7)
Q1. Was Lencho surprised to find a letter for him with money in it?
Ans: No, Lencho showed not the slightest surprise on seeing the money; such was his absolute confidence that God would answer his appeal.
Q2. What made him angry?
Ans: When Lencho counted the money, he found only seventy pesos instead of the hundred pesos he had requested. Convinced that God could neither make a mistake nor deny him his request, he concluded that the post office employees had stolen the remaining thirty pesos.
2. Thinking about the Text (Textbook Solutions)
Q1. Who does Lencho have complete faith in? Which sentences in the story tell you this?
Ans: Lencho has complete faith in God. The following sentences prove this:
- “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, if you don’t help me, my family and I will go hungry this year.”
- “He wrote ‘To God’ on the envelope…”
- “God could not have made a mistake, nor could he have denied Lencho what he had requested.”
Q2. Why does the postmaster send money to Lencho? Why does he sign the letter ‘God’?
Ans: The postmaster sends money because he is profoundly moved by the writer’s extraordinary faith and does not want that faith in God to be broken. He signs the letter ‘God’ to ensure that Lencho believes the money was directly delivered by divine intervention, keeping his spiritual trust intact.
Q3. Did Lencho try to find out who had sent the money to him? Why/Why not?
Ans: No, Lencho never attempted to find out who had sent the money. His belief in God’s existence and immediate responsiveness was so total and unquestioned that the thought of human agency never occurred to him. For him, receiving money from God was an unquestionable certainty.
Q4. Who does Lencho think has taken the rest of the money? What is the irony in the situation?
Ans: Lencho thinks that the post office employees took the remaining thirty pesos. The supreme irony is that the very postal workers who demonstrated remarkable altruism, empathy, and charity to assist him are branded by Lencho as a “bunch of crooks”.
3. Thinking about the Poem: Dust of Snow & Fire and Ice
Dust of Snow (Page 14 Solutions)
Q1. What is a ‘dust of snow’? What does the poet say has changed his mood? How has the poet’s mood changed?
Ans: A ‘dust of snow’ refers to fine, powdery particles or flakes of snow. The sudden, gentle shower of snow shaken down on the poet by a crow perched on a hemlock tree changed his mood. His mindset shifted instantly from regret and depressive sorrow to joy and renewal, saving the rest of his day from being wasted.
Q2. How does Frost present nature in this poem? What do the ‘crow’ and ‘hemlock’ represent?
Ans: Frost presents nature through an unconventional, realistic lens rather than standard romanticized beauty. The ‘crow’ and ‘hemlock’ tree traditionally represent gloom, sorrow, and ill-omen. Frost intentionally subverts these ominous symbols to show that even dark, ordinary elements of nature can bring unexpected joy and uplift the human spirit.
Fire and Ice (Page 15 Solutions)
Q1. For Frost, what do ‘fire’ and ‘ice’ stand for?
Ans:
• Fire: Desires, lust, greed, avarice, fury, conflict, and unrestrained passion.
• Ice: Hatred, cold indifference, cruelty, rigidity, insensitivity, and intolerance.
• Fire: Desires, lust, greed, avarice, fury, conflict, and unrestrained passion.
• Ice: Hatred, cold indifference, cruelty, rigidity, insensitivity, and intolerance.
Q2. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem? How does it help in bringing out the contrasting ideas?
Ans: The rhyme scheme of the poem is
aba abc bcb. It links contrasting lines together through interlocking rhymes (fire/desire/fire and ice/twice/suffice), reinforcing the central idea that both fiery passions and cold hatred are equally destructive and sufficient to end the world.4. Thinking about Language (Metaphors & Clauses)
Textbook Metaphor Analysis (Page 8)
| Object / Expression in Text | Metaphorical Comparison | Significance / Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Huge mountains of clouds | Very large clouds like colossal mountains | Massive mass, height, and impending storm volume |
| Raindrops like ‘new coins’ | Raindrops compared to 10-cent and 5-cent pieces | Economic value and prosperity brought by harvest |
| Draped in a curtain of rain | Dense rain compared to a fabric curtain | Complete obscuring of vision and countryside |
| Field white as if covered with salt | Frozen hail compared to a sheet of salt | Barren whiteness and total agricultural devastation |
| An ox of a man | Lencho compared to a draft animal | Immense physical stamina, strength, and labour |
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