Class 10 English · Original EZT practice
A Letter to God (Class 10): summary and reading practice
An act of help can reach its recipient without being understood. Read Gregorio Lopez y Fuentes's story by tracking what the reader knows, what Lencho believes and how a letter connects the two.
6 original reading questions, 6 fresh self-check questions and 4 mixed questions, with model answers and reasons. These are not copied textbook exercises, an official chapter index or a full answer key. No affiliation with NCERT is claimed.
Official sources for topic and edition context, checked 17 October 2026:
A short summary for context
Lencho depends on a promising corn crop, but a storm turns from welcome rain to destructive hail. Facing the loss, he trusts that God will help his family. The following Sunday he writes asking for one hundred pesos to sow again and live until the next crop. A postmaster, moved by the letter, contributes and gathers donations, but can send only seventy pesos. Lencho receives the money without surprise, then becomes angry at the shortfall. Certain that God could not have made the error, he sends another letter asking for the remaining thirty and accusing the postal workers. The reader knows that the people he suspects have actually arranged the help.
Original EZT paraphrase of the linked NCERT selection. Read the full account for its voice and detail.
Read, make a claim, support it, then revise.
Read the passage, then write your own answer. Choose an accurate detail and explain what it supports. Open the model only after attempting the question. Check whether you have confused an observation, a character's view and your interpretation.
Track who knows the source of the money
Reading approach: Narrative irony can depend on a difference between the reader's information and a character's belief.
EZT practice question
At the end, what important information does the reader possess that Lencho does not acknowledge, and how does that affect the accusation?
Show a model answer
- The reader has seen the postmaster organise a collection.
- Lencho treats the shortfall as evidence against the postal workers instead.
Answer: The reader knows that human donors supplied the help. That knowledge makes the accusation an unfair reversal of the workers' role, creating irony.
Check: The explanation uses the distribution of information, not a claim that a theft actually occurred.
Watch for this: Do not repeat Lencho's accusation as if the narrator confirms it.
Now try a fresh reading question
If the collection scene were withheld until after the ending, what might change for a first-time reader?
Read a model response
The reader would have less information for recognising the accusation's unfairness at that moment.
Changing when information is revealed can change suspense and irony.
Compare the jobs of the two letters
Reading approach: A repeated object can do different work at different points in a plot.
EZT practice question
Explain how the first and second letters move the plot in different directions without copying their wording.
Show a model answer
- The first carries a request that prompts the postmaster's response.
- The second reveals Lencho's explanation of the incomplete response.
Answer: The first letter starts an act of help; the second exposes the misunderstanding that follows it. Together they connect the need, the response and the ironic ending.
Check: The answer explains a structural role for each letter rather than only naming the amounts.
Watch for this: The second letter does not prove the helpers withheld money for themselves.
Now try a fresh reading question
Why is "both letters are simply requests for money" an incomplete account of their narrative role?
Read a model response
It leaves out the accusation and the reader's knowledge of the donors.
Shared subject matter does not mean identical plot function.
Use stated time markers rather than a tidy invented sequence
Reading approach: A short summary can compress events but must not move them to a different stated time.
EZT practice question
A draft says, "Lencho posts his first letter on the night the hail falls." Correct it using the selection's time marker.
Show a model answer
- After the destruction, the narrative describes a night of hope and thought.
- It says he begins writing the following Sunday at daybreak.
Answer: He writes the first letter the following Sunday at daybreak and carries it to town. The story does not place the posting on the storm night.
Check: This keeps the stated sequence without inventing a calendar date or a precise number of days between events.
Watch for this: The following Sunday is not automatically the very next morning; the storm's weekday is not given.
Now try a fresh reading question
Why should a summary not give a numerical date for that Sunday?
Read a model response
The selection supplies no such calendar date.
Precision is useful only when the source supports it.
Distinguish a donation shortfall from proof of theft
Reading approach: The story supplies an account of how much can be collected. Do not replace it with a character's suspicion.
EZT practice question
What can a careful paragraph say about the thirty-peso gap without accusing any donor of dishonesty?
Show a model answer
- The request is one hundred pesos and the envelope contains seventy.
- The collection scene explains that the postmaster cannot gather the whole requested sum.
Answer: The gap is the difference between the request and the amount raised. Lencho's theft claim is his mistaken explanation, not a demonstrated missing transfer of thirty pesos.
Check: 100 − 70 = 30 identifies the shortfall, not the history of thirty stolen coins.
Watch for this: Do not invent a full hundred-peso donation that someone later reduced.
Now try a fresh reading question
Would finding only seventy pesos alone identify who, if anyone, stole money? Explain.
Read a model response
No. A shortfall alone does not establish a theft or a thief.
The answer should use the actual collection account rather than assume the requested amount was sent.
Follow a character's movement within a scene
Reading approach: An initial reaction need not be the character's final response.
EZT practice question
A character note describes the postmaster as doing nothing but laugh at a stranger. What part of the narrative does that note leave out?
Show a model answer
- He initially reacts with amusement.
- He then takes the request seriously enough to contribute and seek donations.
Answer: The note omits his movement from amusement to practical help. An account of his character needs the later action as well as the first reaction.
Check: This describes reported conduct without claiming he knows Lencho personally.
Watch for this: Do not turn an initial laugh into evidence that the later collection was a cruel trick.
Now try a fresh reading question
How would "he never laughed" also distort the scene?
Read a model response
It would remove the initial reaction and flatten the change that follows.
Accurate interpretation can include a detail that complicates a sympathetic reading.
Keep an unwritten resolution outside the summary
Reading approach: A reader can imagine what happens next, but an imagined continuation must be labelled as such.
EZT practice question
An answer ends, "Lencho later thanks the postmaster and apologises." What is the problem, and how can a student still discuss that possible ending?
Show a model answer
- The selection ends with the second letter's accusation.
- It does not narrate a later discovery or apology.
Answer: Remove the apology from the plot summary. It may be discussed as an explicitly imagined continuation and compared with the effect of the actual unresolved ending.
Check: The actual ending leaves the reader aware of a misunderstanding that Lencho has not corrected.
Watch for this: Do not convert a satisfying moral conclusion into a reported event.
Now try a fresh reading question
What would an explicit apology change about the effect of the ending?
Read a model response
It would resolve the misunderstanding rather than leave the reader with the irony.
This is a comparison of possible narrative effects, not evidence that the apology occurs.
Try a mixed set
Write your own explanation before opening each model response.
1. Does the postmaster personally provide all seventy pesos?
Show answer and reason
The story describes both his contribution and a wider collection.
Keep the organiser distinct from the full set of donors.
2. Does Lencho ask only for a future crop investment, with no living needs?
Show answer and reason
No.
His request includes sowing again and living until the next crop.
3. Can the story support a discussion of faith without proving that faith always brings money?
Show answer and reason
Yes.
A narrated response in one story is not a universal financial promise.
4. What makes the accusation ironic rather than simply a description of a theft?
Show answer and reason
The reader knows the accused workers helped arrange the money.
The evidence contradicts the accusation instead of confirming it.
Know the story but need help explaining a detail?
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Questions about this practice page
- Which reader contains this selection?
- The linked NCERT source places A Letter to God at the opening of First Flight for Class 10.
- When is the first letter written?
- The following Sunday at daybreak. The selection does not give a numerical calendar date.
- How much is requested and received?
- Lencho asks for one hundred pesos and receives seventy. Thirty is the shortfall, not a sum the story proves was stolen.
- Does Lencho learn who helped him?
- The selection does not narrate a later discovery or apology. Do not add one to its summary.
- Are these official exercise answers?
- No. They are original questions and example responses about reading evidence, structure and viewpoint, not an official question map.