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CHARACTERS:
Lencho: Farmer, lives on top of a hill, strong faith in God
Post Office Workers: Kind-hearted, help Lencho anonymously
PLOT SUMMARY:
1. Lencho's crops nearly ready for harvest
2. Hailstorm destroys entire crop — Lencho devastated
3. Lencho writes letter to God asking for 100 pesos
4. Post Office workers find the letter, moved
5. Workers collect 70 pesos (can't gather full amount)
6. Lencho receives the money, but thinks God sent only 70 pesos
7. Lencho writes SECOND letter asking for remaining 30 pesos
8. Accuses "bunch of crooks" (post office workers) of stealing!
IRONY: The people who helped him are called thieves.
THEMES:
✓ Unshakeable faith in God
✓ Irony — help goes unrecognized
✓ Contrast between Lencho's faith and his cynicism toward humans
IMPORTANT LINES:
"God could not have made a mistake, nor could He have denied Lencho what he had requested."
BACKGROUND:
South Africa under APARTHEID:
● Racial segregation enforced by white minority
● Black people denied rights, dignity, education
● Mandela fought for equality → imprisoned 27 years
INAUGURATION DAY SUMMARY:
Date: May 10, 1994
Place: Union Buildings, Pretoria
Mandela becomes first democratically elected President
Former enemies — generals who had imprisoned him — saluted him
KEY QUOTES:
"An oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed."
→ True freedom = both oppressor and oppressed are freed from hatred
COURAGE vs BRAVERY:
"The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid,
but he who conquers that fear."
THEMES:
✓ Dignity and freedom for all
✓ Reconciliation over revenge
✓ Courage in the face of oppression
PART 1 — His First Flight (Liam O'Flaherty):
A young seagull afraid to fly, refused to leave ledge
Family flew away, left him alone
Mother showed fish dangling near him → hunger motivated him
Finally jumped → spread wings → soared!
THEME: Overcoming fear with determination; sometimes we need push
PART 2 — Black Aeroplane (Frederick Forsyth):
Pilot flying from Paris to England
Enters storm clouds, instruments fail, lost
Mysterious black plane appears, guides him to safety
At airport, no record of another plane or pilot!
THEME: Mystery; help can come from unexpected sources
QUESTION: Was the black plane real or imagination?
ANNE FRANK: Jewish girl hiding from Nazis in Amsterdam, 1942-44
Wrote diary to cope with hiding; called it "Kitty"
EXTRACT THEMES:
● Loneliness — Anne feels misunderstood
● Writing as therapy — diary is her best friend
● Teacher-Student conflict
MR. KEESING (teacher): Gave Anne extra writing as punishment
Assignment 1: "A Chatterbox" — Anne wrote an essay defending talking
Assignment 2: "Quack Quack Quack said Mistress Chatterback"
Assignment 3: Anne wrote poem with rhyming father-son-duck story
Mr. Keesing read it in class → everyone laughed → punishment ended
DIARY PURPOSE:
"Paper is more patient than people" — Anne's reason for writing
DUST OF SNOW (Robert Frost):
Crow shakes snow from hemlock tree onto poet
Changes poet's mood from gloomy to happy
THEME: Small things in nature can lift our spirits
SYMBOLISM: Crow (bad omen), Hemlock (poison) BUT snow = purity
FIRE AND ICE (Robert Frost):
Fire = desire/passion; Ice = hatred/cold indifference
"Some say the world will end in fire" — desire
"Some say in ice" — cold indifference/hatred
THEME: Both extreme emotions can destroy the world
A TIGER IN THE ZOO (Leslie Norris):
Tiger pacing in cage, longing for freedom
Contrasts — behind bars vs wild in jungle
THEME: Captivity vs freedom; animal rights
ANIMALS (Walt Whitman):
Poet prefers animals over humans
Animals: No complaints, no sins, no unhappiness
THEME: Humans have become corrupt; animals are innocent
AMANDA! (Robin Klein):
Amanda daydreaming of freedom while being constantly nagged
Mother's instructions vs Amanda's inner world (mermaid, Rapunzel)
THEME: Excessive instructions kill a child's creativity
THE BALL POEM (John Berryman):
Boy loses his ball, learns first lesson about loss and responsibility
THEME: Acceptance of loss is part of growing up
PRESENT SIMPLE:
Active: She writes a letter.
Passive: A letter is written by her.
PAST SIMPLE:
Active: He painted the wall.
Passive: The wall was painted by him.
FUTURE:
Active: She will sing a song.
Passive: A song will be sung by her.
PRESENT CONTINUOUS:
Active: They are building a house.
Passive: A house is being built by them.
PAST CONTINUOUS:
Active: She was cooking food.
Passive: Food was being cooked by her.
PRESENT PERFECT:
Active: He has written a novel.
Passive: A novel has been written by him.
MODAL:
Active: You should keep this.
Passive: This should be kept by you.
DIRECT → INDIRECT speech changes:
TENSE CHANGES:
Present Simple → Past Simple
"I eat rice" → He said that he ate rice.
Past Simple → Past Perfect
"I ate rice" → She said she had eaten rice.
Will → Would
"I will come" → He said he would come.
Can → Could
"I can swim" → She said she could swim.
PRONOUN CHANGES:
I/me → he/she/him/her
We/us → they/them
You → he/she/they (depends on context)
TIME/PLACE CHANGES:
now → then
today → that day
yesterday → the previous day
tomorrow → the next day
here → there
this → that
QUESTION REPORTING:
Yes/No questions: add "if/whether"
"Are you ready?" → He asked if I was ready.
Wh-questions: keep the Wh-word
"Where do you live?" → She asked where I lived.
FORMAL LETTER (Application/Complaint):
Exam Hall No.
[Your Address]
[City, Pin code]
[Date]
The Principal,
[School Name]
[Address]
Subject: Application for leave / Regarding...
Respected Sir/Madam,
I, [Name], a student of Class [X], Section [Y],
am writing to request...
[Body paragraph 1: State the reason/problem]
[Body paragraph 2: Details/explanation]
[Body paragraph 3: Request/What you want]
I would be grateful if you could consider my request.
Thanking you,
Yours obediently,
[Your Name]
[Class and Roll Number]
A TRIUMPH OF SURGERY (James Herriot):
Mrs. Pumphrey's dog Tricki overfed, became ill
Vet took Tricki away for 2 weeks (actually kept him fit)
Mrs. Pumphrey's gifts flooded the surgery (wine, brandy, eggs)
Vet and his partners benefited from it all
THEME: Mistaken love harms; proper care helps
THE THIEF'S STORY (Ruskin Bond):
Arun befriends Hari Singh (thief)
Hari plans to steal Arun's money, gets the chance
But Arun's trust makes Hari feel guilty
Returns the money — changes his life
THEME: Trust can transform a person; goodness wins
THE MIDNIGHT VISITOR (Robert Arthur):
Ausable (spy) outsmarted Fowler and Max by fake story
Made Max believe balcony existed, Max jumped to his death
THEME: Wit and quick thinking win over physical strength
A QUESTION OF TRUST:
Griffin (invisible man) robs a store
Susannah Foster, who he thinks is his accomplice, tricks him
THEME: Criminals can be outwitted; crime doesn't pay
Literature:
Grammar:
Class 10 English complete CBSE notes — A Letter to God, Nelson Mandela, Two Stories About Flying, From the Diary of Anne Frank, The Hundred Dresses, Glimpses of India, Madam Rides the Bus, The Proposal with summaries themes and grammar.
48 pages · 1.8 MB · Updated 2026-03-11
The story highlights unshakeable faith and irony. Lencho has absolute faith in God and writes a letter asking for money after hailstorm destroys his crops. Post office workers collect money but can't send full amount. Lencho thinks post office workers stole some, showing the irony — those who helped him are considered thieves by his blind faith. Theme: Faith vs reality; Help that goes unrecognized.
1. Tenses (all 12 tenses), 2. Active/Passive voice, 3. Direct/Indirect speech, 4. Modals (can, could, may, might, must, should, would), 5. Determiners (a, an, the, some, any), 6. Subject-verb agreement, 7. Clauses (main, subordinate, relative), 8. Prepositions. Focus on error correction and sentence reordering questions.
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