Chapter 1: A Letter to God (A Letter to God)

Sample answer (the details are imagined; use your own).

The 'For official use only' part (M.O. number, stamps, amount in words) is filled in by the post office, not by the sender.

In addition to the sender, the form has to be signed by the payee (the receiver of the money).

payee (receiver)

The 'Acknowledgement' section of the form is sent back by the post office to the sender after the receiver (payee) signs it.

sender; receiver (payee)

The 'Space for Communication' section is used for writing a short message from the sender to the receiver.

writing a short message to the receiver

The form has six sections. The sender needs to fill out four sections and the receiver (payee) the remaining two, that is, the signatures on the money order and the acknowledgement.

four sections; the receiver two (as counted from the form)

Lencho hoped for rain. His field of ripe corn needed 'a downpour or at least a shower', and the rain would bring a good harvest.

To Lencho the rain meant money, because it would make his corn grow and give him a good harvest. He said the big drops were like ten cent pieces and the little ones like fives.

First there was only rain, but then a strong wind began to blow and very large hailstones fell for an hour. The field turned white as if covered with salt. Not a leaf remained on the trees, the corn was totally destroyed and the flowers were gone from the plants.

Lencho's soul was filled with sadness. He said that even a plague of locusts would have left more than the hail had, and that his family would have no corn that year.

Lencho had faith in God, whose eyes, as he had been instructed, see everything. He wrote a letter to God asking for a hundred pesos to sow his field again and to live until the next crop. He wrote 'To God' on the envelope, stamped it and posted it.

The postman first read it and showed it laughing to the postmaster. The postmaster then read it.

The postman and the postmaster read the letter.

The postmaster was moved by Lencho's faith and decided to answer the letter so that the man's faith would not be shaken. He gave part of his salary, asked his employees and friends for money, and sent Lencho a little more than half the amount in an envelope, signed 'God'.

No. Lencho showed not the slightest surprise on seeing the money, because he was fully confident that God would answer his request.

No, he was not surprised.

He became angry when he counted the money, because it was less than the hundred pesos he had asked for. He thought God could not have made a mistake.

The money was less than he had asked for.

Lencho has complete faith in God. The following sentences show this:

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. "Lencho showed not the slightest surprise on seeing the money; such was his confidence -- but he became angry when he counted the money. God could not have made a mistake, nor could he have denied Lencho what he had requested."

Lencho has complete faith in God.

The postmaster was impressed by Lencho's faith and did not want to shake it. So he collected money from his employees, friends and his own salary and sent it to Lencho. He signed the letter 'God' because Lencho believed the reply was coming from God himself; any other name would have broken his faith.

No, he did not. Lencho was sure that God had sent the money in reply to his letter, so he felt no need to find out who had sent it. He showed not the slightest surprise on seeing it.

No, because he believed it was sent by God.

Lencho thinks the post office employees have taken the rest of the money; he calls them 'a bunch of crooks'.

The irony is that the very people he blames are the ones who helped him. The postmaster and his employees gave their own money out of kindness, yet Lencho accuses them of cheating. Lencho trusts God completely, but has no trust in the honest people who actually helped him.

Yes, there are people in the real world who trust blindly, accept whatever happens as the will of God, and never question things. Sample answer: Lencho is a naive and unquestioning person. His faith is strong and sincere, but he does not stop to think, and he is quick to suspect the post office employees. Because of this, his behaviour is also slightly comical. He is not greedy or selfish, as he asks only for what he needs to sow his field again.

Words that fit: naive, unquestioning, comical.

Humans and nature: Lencho and his family hope for rain to ripen the corn, but the hailstorm destroys the whole crop and leaves them facing hunger. Nature, which promised a good harvest, becomes their enemy.

Humans and humans: Lencho and the post office staff are in conflict, though it is a misunderstanding. The employees laugh at his letter, then help him secretly, but Lencho accuses them of being crooks and of keeping part of the money.

1 cyclone, 2 gale, 3 typhoon, 4 tornado, 5 hurricane, 6 whirlwind

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.

Each relative clause is non-defining, so it is set off by commas.

"Not a leaf remained on the trees."

"It was nothing less than a letter to God."

"Never in his career as a postman had he known that address."

Sample answer (open-ended): Last year I lost my school bag on the way home from a trip, and my exam notebooks were inside. I thought I would never see them again. Late in the evening a stranger who had found the bag read my name and address on the notebook and returned it to my house. It felt like a small miracle, and it taught me that people can be kind to strangers.

Sample poster plan (open-ended):

Heading: SAVE WATER TODAY, SECURE TOMORROW. Slogan: Every drop counts.

• In summer: fix leaking taps, turn off the tap while brushing, reuse kitchen water for plants, and water plants early in the morning or in the evening.
• When water is in excess (monsoon): collect rainwater from roofs in tanks (rainwater harvesting), recharge wells and borewells through recharge pits, and build small check dams and ponds in the area.
• Draw a raindrop falling into a tank, a closed tap and a smiling family. Add the line: Harvest the rain, save the future.

A 'dust of snow' is a light, powdery sprinkle of snow. Here a crow, sitting on a hemlock tree, shook down some snow on the poet. This small, unexpected event changed his mood. Before it he was sad and regretted the way his day was going; afterwards his heart was lighter and cheerful, and the rest of the day was saved.

Frost presents nature as something that can heal a sad heart through even its smallest and plainest things.

(i) Poems usually name sweet birds such as the nightingale, the skylark or the cuckoo. A crow is rarely mentioned. It makes us think of a black, noisy, ugly bird, often seen as a bad omen.

(ii) A hemlock is a poisonous plant (tree) with small white flowers. The poet chooses it, instead of a maple, an oak or a pine, to show that joy can come from things we think of as gloomy or unattractive.

(iii) The crow and the hemlock stand for sorrow and gloom. The dust of snow they shake down stands for a sudden touch of joy, a small happy moment that lifts the poet's sadness.

Sample answer (open-ended): Yes. Once I felt low after doing badly in a test. On the way home a small girl waved at me and gave me a flower from her garden. That simple act made me smile, and I felt much better for the rest of the day, just as the dust of snow did for the poet.

Sample answer (open-ended): Scientists say that the world may end some day, but not for billions of years. If the sun grew hotter and burst, everything would burn up in fire. If it grew colder and colder, all water would freeze, nothing could grow, and life would die in ice. Either way, life on earth would not survive.

For Frost, 'fire' stands for desire and the hot, destructive passions such as greed, avarice, lust, fury and conflict. 'Ice' stands for hatred and the cold feelings of coldness, indifference, insensitivity, intolerance, rigidity and cruelty. The poet says that both can destroy the world.

The rhyme scheme is abaabcbcb (fire - ice - desire - fire - twice - hate - ice - great - suffice).

The rhymes of 'fire' and 'desire' fall in the lines about fire, while 'ice', 'twice' and 'suffice' rhyme in the lines about ice. The repeated sounds link each idea with its own rhyme, so the two opposite forces, fire and ice, stand out clearly against each other. The short lines at the end and the repeated 'ice' rhyme also bring the poem to a sharp, final conclusion.

abaabcbcb