Class 10th English All Chapters Question Answer (PYQ 2022-2026 + NCERT Solutions) | First Flight & Footprints Without Feet

Answer: When Mandela realised that not only he, but all black people in South Africa were deprived of their basic rights, his hunger for personal freedom became a greater hunger for the freedom of his people. This desire for his people’s freedom completely transformed his life: it turned a frightened young man into a bold one, drove a law-abiding attorney to become a criminal, turned a family-loving husband into a man without a home, and forced a life-loving man to live like a monk.

Answer: The narrator says this because he had just survived a terrifying, near-death experience inside the black storm clouds. While flying from Paris to London, his compass, radio, and other instruments had suddenly gone dead, he could see nothing outside, and his fuel tank was almost empty. Therefore, when he finally landed safely on the runway with the help of the mysterious black aeroplane, he felt immense relief to step out of the old Dakota alive.

Answer: According to the Indian legend told by Rajvir, there was an ancient Buddhist ascetic named Bodhidharma. During his meditations, he often felt sleepy. Feeling angry and disturbed by his sleepiness, he cut off his eyelids and threw them on the ground. Ten tea plants grew out of his eyelids. When the leaves of these plants were put in hot water and drunk, they banished sleep. This is how tea was discovered according to Indian folklore.

Answer: Maxwell calls the airhostess “the very queen of her kind” because she was extraordinarily kind, calm, and helpful during a chaotic situation on the flight. When Maxwell took her into his confidence about Mijbil hurting himself in the box, she kindly suggested keeping the pet on his knee. Even when Mij escaped from the box and caused panic among passengers in the aircraft, she smiled charmingly, calmed Maxwell down, and promised to find the animal and bring it back to him.

Answer: Valli planned her bus ride very carefully over many days. By listening to conversations between neighbours and regular bus travellers and asking discreet questions, she found out that the town was six miles from her village, the one-way fare was thirty paise, and the trip took forty-five minutes. She saved up the sixty paise fare thriftily by resisting every temptation to buy peppermints, toys, balloons, and even suppressing her desire to ride the merry-go-round at the village fair. She slipped out at 1:00 PM while her mother took an afternoon nap.

Answer: ‘Selfishness’ usually means thinking only about one’s own personal gain, comfort, or feelings while ignoring others. Yes, Kisa Gotami was right in realising that she was being ‘selfish in her grief’. Blinded by her intense sorrow over her son’s death, she wanted only her own child to come back to life, forgetting the universal law of nature that death is common to all mortals and every family suffers the loss of loved ones.

Answer: In the poem ‘Fire and Ice’, ‘desire’ is equated with ‘fire’ (representing human greed, passion, and lust), while ‘hate’ is equated with ‘ice’ (representing coldness, rigidity, and hatred). Robert Frost says that from what he has tasted of fiery desire, he agrees with those who believe the world will end in fire. However, if the world had to perish twice, icy hatred is equally destructive and sufficient to destroy the world.

Answer: ‘How to Tell Wild Animals’ by Carolyn Wells is a humorous poem that describes dangerous ways of identifying various wild animals like the Asian Lion, Bengal Tiger, Leopard, Bear, Hyena, Crocodile, and Chameleon. Instead of giving dull textbook descriptions, the poet jokingly suggests that you can identify each beast by the way it attacks, roars at, hugs, or eats you. Through playful language and dark humour, the poem entertains readers while describing distinct traits of wild beasts.

Answer: The central idea of John Berryman’s poem ‘The Ball Poem’ is the ‘epistemology of loss’—learning to accept the loss of cherished things and loved ones as an inevitable part of growing up. Through the story of a little boy who loses his beloved ball in the harbour water, the poet shows that money is external and cannot buy back lost childhood memories. Every person must learn to take responsibility, bear the pain of loss, and move on in life with courage.

Answer: Rapunzel is a fairy-tale girl who was locked in a high tower by a witch and used to let down her long golden hair for the witch and a prince to climb up. Amanda wants to be Rapunzel because she believes life in a lonely tower is tranquil, peaceful, and free from her mother’s constant nagging. However, Amanda decides that she will certainly never let down her bright hair so that no one can ever enter the tower and disturb her peace.

Answer: In the poem, the trees are confined inside the poet’s house. All night long, they struggle to free themselves and move out into the open forest: their roots work hard to disengage themselves from the cracks in the veranda floor; their leaves strain toward the glass windows; their small twigs become stiff with exertion; and their long-cramped boughs shuffle under the roof like newly discharged patients moving toward the clinic doors.

Answer: At the beginning of the third stanza, the poet describes the moon as shining whole and bright in an open night sky (‘the whole moon shines in a sky still open’) because there are no trees outside in the forest. However, at the end of the poem, the moon is described as ‘broken like a mirror’, with its pieces flashing in the crown of the tallest oak tree. This change is caused because the trees have moved outside, and the tall oak branches now partially block the moon.

Answer: Custard cried for a nice safe cage because he was a humble, peace-loving dragon who did not like to boast or fight unnecessarily. While Belinda and her other pets (Ink, Blink, and Mustard) constantly bragged about their bravery, Custard preferred peace and safety, which is why everyone mocked him and called him a “cowardly dragon”. Yet, when a dangerous pirate actually broke in with pistols, all the boastful pets fled in terror, and only Custard fought bravely and gobbled up the pirate.

Answer: The young boy (the poet) tells Anne Gregory that young men are thrown into despair by the ‘great honey-coloured ramparts’ (her beautiful golden hair) falling at her ear, and that no human being will ever love her for herself alone and not her yellow hair. Even if she dyes her hair brown or black, human beings always judge others by outer physical beauty. He concludes by quoting an old religious man that only God can love a person purely for their inner soul and not their physical appearance.

Answer: One morning at the inn in Iping, Mrs. Hall and her husband entered the scientist’s open room and found it empty, with his bandages and clothes lying around. Suddenly, Mrs. Hall heard a sniff close to her ear. A moment later, the hat on the bedpost leapt up and dashed itself into her face. Then the bedroom chair became alive, sprang into the air, charged straight at her legs, pushed both her and her husband out of the room, and slammed and locked the door after them.

Answer: According to the author Robert W. Peterson, there are three essential qualities that go into the making of a great scientist like Richard Ebright: first, start with a first-rate, sharp mind; second, add keen curiosity to ask ‘why’ and ‘how’; and third, mix in the will to win for the right reasons—not merely to win prizes or show off, but out of a genuine desire to do the best job one can through hard work and real experiments.

Answer: The loss of the borrowed diamond necklace completely ruined the Loisels’ life. To pay off the huge debt of 18,000 francs borrowed to replace the necklace, they dismissed their maid and moved into a cheap attic room. Matilda had to wash greasy dishes, scrub clothes, carry water, and haggle over every sou, losing all her youth and beauty. Her husband worked evenings and nights copying pages. Ten hard years were spent in grinding poverty before the debt was repaid.

Answer: The root cause of Matilda’s ruin was her false pride, vanity, dissatisfaction with her simple middle-class life, and lack of courage to speak the truth. She could have easily avoided her ruin in two ways: first, by living within her means and wearing fresh flowers to the ball instead of borrowing jewellery; and second, by honestly confessing the loss of the necklace to her friend Mme Forestier, who would have told her that the necklace was fake and worth only 500 francs.

Answer: Bholi’s teacher played a transformative role in changing her life. When Bholi came to school as a frightened, neglected girl who stammered and was mocked by everyone, her teacher spoke to her in a soft, soothing, affectionate voice. She encouraged Bholi to speak without fear, gave her picture books, and assured her that education would earn her respect. Through her teacher’s love and guidance, Bholi grew into a confident, educated young woman (Sulekha) who boldly stood up against dowry.

Answer: At first, Bholi agreed to marry the old, lame grocer Bishamber Nath to protect her family’s honour (izzat). However, during the wedding ceremony, when Bishamber saw the pock-marks on Bholi’s face, he refused to garland her unless her father Ramlal paid a dowry of 5,000 rupees. Seeing her father humiliated, Bholi flung the garland into the sacred fire and boldly refused to marry such a mean, greedy, and contemptible coward. Thus, the marriage did not take place.

Answer: Think-Tank is a vain and arrogant ruler who claims he is never wrong, whereas his apprentice Noodle is wise, humble, and diplomatic. Whenever Think-Tank makes a foolish guess about books, Noodle never contradicts him directly. Instead, he addresses him with flattering titles like ‘Your Brilliance’ and presents his own intelligent ideas as ‘an insignificant bit of data’ or ‘a cloudy piece of information’ floating in his head. Thus, Think-Tank happily accepts the correction as his own thought.