A Letter to God · Class 10 English · First Flight: 60 flashcards
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1. Where does Lencho's house stand?
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On the crest of a low hill — the only house in the entire valley, overlooking the river and the cornfield.
2. Which direction does Lencho watch all morning?
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The north-east, where the clouds gather before the rain.
3. What does the earth need at the start of the story?
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A downpour, or at the very least a shower, to finish the ripening crop.
4. What does Lencho compare the raindrops to?
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New coins — the big drops ten-cent pieces, the little ones fives.
5. What turns the welcome rain into a disaster?
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A strong wind begins to blow and large hailstones fall along with the rain.
6. What do the boys do during the hailstorm?
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They run out into it to collect the hailstones, which are called frozen pearls.
7. How long does the hail fall?
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For a full hour, over the house, garden, hillside, cornfield and the whole valley.
8. What does the field look like after the storm?
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White, as if it had been covered with salt, with not a leaf left on the trees.
9. What comparison does Lencho use for the damage?
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That a plague of locusts would have left more behind than the hail did.
10. What is the family's single hope after the storm?
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Help from God — there is no one else in the valley to ask.
11. What unusual ability does Lencho have?
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Though he is built like an ox and labours like an animal in the fields, he knows how to write.
12. How much does Lencho ask for, and what for?
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A hundred pesos, to sow his field again and to live until the new crop comes.
13. When does Lencho write and post the letter?
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The following Sunday, at daybreak; he carries it to town himself and posts it.
14. Who first sees the letter addressed to God?
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A post office employee who works as a postman, who takes it to his boss laughing.
15. How is the postmaster described?
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As a fat, amiable man — good-natured and friendly.
16. Why does the postmaster decide to answer the letter?
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So that the writer's faith in God will not be shaken; he admires that faith and wishes he had it.
17. How does the postmaster raise the money?
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He asks his employees, gives part of his own salary, and obliges several friends to contribute for an act of charity.
18. How much reaches Lencho, and how is the letter signed?
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A little more than half the sum — seventy pesos — signed with the single word God.
19. What is Lencho's reaction when he counts the money?
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He shows no surprise at receiving it, but becomes angry, because God could neither make a mistake nor deny him what he asked.
20. What does Lencho write in his second letter?
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That only seventy pesos reached him, that he needs the rest, and that it must not be sent by mail since the people who work there are a pack of thieves.
21. What comparison does the story use for Lencho's build?
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As a big, powerfully built man who laboured in his fields like a beast of burden — the story compares him to an ox.
22. Which unexpected skill does Lencho possess?
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He knows how to write, which lets him send his request as a posted letter.
23. What had Lencho been taught about God's eyes?
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That they see everything, even what is deep in a person's conscience.
24. Which two purposes does Lencho give for the hundred pesos?
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To sow his field again, and to live until the new crop comes.
25. What does Lencho's lack of surprise at the money prove?
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That his confidence in God was complete — money from God was exactly what he expected.
26. Whom does Lencho hold responsible for the missing thirty pesos?
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The post office employees, whom he calls a bunch of crooks.
27. Which two adjectives does the story itself give the postmaster?
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Fat and amiable — good-natured and pleasant.
28. What does the postmaster say about the writer's faith?
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That he wishes he had the faith of the man who could start a correspondence with God.
29. Why does the postmaster decide to answer the letter?
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So that the writer's faith in God would not be shaken.
30. What does the phrase 'more than goodwill, ink and paper' mean for the postmaster?
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That a real reply needs real money, which someone must actually pay.
31. Name the three sources of the money sent to Lencho.
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The post office employees, several friends obliged to give for charity, and part of the postmaster's own salary.
32. How does the postmaster feel as Lencho is handed the envelope?
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Satisfied with himself, as anyone feels after doing a kindness — the story calls it the quiet pleasure of having done a good turn.
33. Why is the postmaster's anonymity necessary?
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His own name would reveal a human sender and destroy the faith he was protecting.
34. What does Lencho's wife say when he promises rain?
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'Yes, God willing' — the story's first mention of faith.
35. What are the sons doing before and during the storm?
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The older boys work in the field and the younger ones play; during the hail they run out to collect the frozen pearls.
36. What two things does the postman do for the plot?
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He carries the letter to the postmaster instead of discarding it, and later hands Lencho the envelope himself.
37. Why is 'ungrateful' only a half-true word for Lencho?
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He does not know that any person helped him, so he is not refusing thanks he knows are owed; his injustice comes from certainty, not meanness.
38. Which word best describes Lencho's attitude to his own faith?
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Unquestioning — he never asks how the letter could reach God or who might have replied.
39. What does the postmaster risk by asking employees and friends for money?
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His own standing: he puts friends under obligation and asks staff for contributions, which is awkward for any employer.
40. In one line, what is the contradiction at the centre of Lencho?
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Absolute trust in God and instant suspicion of human beings, both shown in the moment he counts the money.
41. What central question does the story pose?
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What should a person put their faith in — and it answers twice, with God and with ordinary people.
42. Name the two conflicts in the lesson.
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Humans against nature, in the hailstorm; and humans against each other, in Lencho's accusation against the post office staff.
43. What is situational irony, as the story shows it?
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What happens is the opposite of what is deserved: the men who gave Lencho money are the ones he calls a bunch of crooks.
44. What is the dramatic irony in the lesson?
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The reader watches the money being collected, so we know what Lencho never learns about the sender.
45. Why is the ending painful rather than funny?
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The insult is posted, so the benefactor himself must open and read it, and nobody ever corrects Lencho.
46. Why is 'faith is always rewarded' a weak statement of the theme?
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The money came from a postmaster, his employees and his friends, so the story shows human hands answering the prayer.
47. What does it mean to say Lencho's faith is never tested?
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He never learns the truth, so nothing ever challenges his belief; it survives because the facts never reach it.
48. Trace the story's central image in three stages.
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Rain as new coins, hail as silver coins and frozen pearls, and the ruined field as a covering of salt.
49. What does the salt image suggest beyond colour?
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Salt makes land barren, so the picture carries the idea that nothing will grow there.
50. How does the story's tone change from start to finish?
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From the gentle comedy of a laughing postman, to the seriousness of a man giving his own salary, to an abrupt and ironic ending.
51. Justify the title A Letter to God.
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It is literal — an addressed, stamped letter — and it names the story's question: whether such a letter can be answered, and by whom.
52. What makes the kindness in the story unusual?
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It is collective and anonymous: several people give, none is named, and none is thanked.
53. How long does the storm take, and how long does the rest of the story take?
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The hail lasts one hour; the events after it run over three Sundays.
54. What does that difference in time tell us?
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The writer's subject is not the disaster but what people do afterwards.
55. Who learns something by the end of the story?
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The postmaster, who reads himself described as a crook, and the reader. Lencho learns nothing.
56. Why does the story stay outside Lencho's mind at key moments?
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We are shown what he does and writes rather than what he privately concludes, which keeps the reader judging him.
57. What value does the postmaster's anonymity illustrate?
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That the best giving is untraceable to the giver — he protects the belief rather than collecting thanks.
58. State the theme of human goodness as the story presents it.
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Ordinary people are quietly capable of generosity to strangers, and usually receive nothing in return for it.
59. What would be lost if Lencho discovered the truth at the end?
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The irony would collapse into a scene of gratitude, and the story's hard question about faith would be answered too easily.
60. How should a theme answer close?
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With the complication — that the faith is confirmed only because the truth is hidden, or that the kindness is real because it is unrewarded.
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