NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 10 The Book That Saved The Earth

NCERT Solutions for CBSE Class 10 English Footprints Without Feet Chapter 10 The Book That Saved The Earth are provided here. This story is written by Claire Boiko and includes many questions that are important for exams. We have solved all the NCERT questions of the lesson with a detailed explanation that help students to complete their assignments & homework. We have provided NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Footprints Without Feet Chapter 10 The Book That Saved The Earth in PDF format so that you can download them for offline use.

Class 10 English Footprints Without Feet Chapter 10 NCERT Questions and Answers

Read and Find Out (Page No. 8)

Question 1. Who does ‘I’ refer to in this story?

Answer: I refers to Hari Singh, the narrator of the story who is a 15 year old experienced thief.

Question 2. What is he “a fairly successful hand” at?

Answer: He is a fairly successful hand at stealing. He is an experienced thief. He is so clean and swift in his work that he robs people without being caught.

Question 3. What does he get from Anil in return for his work?

Answer: When Hari asked Anil if he could work for him, Anil said that he could not pay him. Finally, the agreement was that if he would cook, then Anil would feed him. However, Anil soon found out that he did not know how to cook. Therefore, he taught him how to cook and later, how to write his name. He promised he would teach him how to write whole sentences and how to add numbers. Apart from this, when Hari went out to buy the day’s supplies, he would make a profit of a rupee in a day.

Read and Find Out (Page No. 10)

Question 1. How does the thief think Anil will react to the theft?

Answer: The thief thought that on discovering the theft, Anil’s face would show a touch of sadness. The sadness would not be for the loss of money, but for the loss of trust.

Question 2. What does he say about the different reactions of people when they are robbed?

Answer: Hari’s experience at theft had made him aware of differences in reactions of people when they’re robbed. According to him, a greedy man shows fear; the rich, anger and a poor man, acceptance.

Question 3. Does Anil realise that he has been robbed?

Answer: Yes, Anil had realised that he had been robbed. He knew this probably because all the notes were wet and damp from the rain. However, he did not say anything to the thief and behaved normally.

Think About It (Page No. 13)

Question 1. What are Hari Singh’s reactions at the prospect of receiving an education? Do they change overtime? {Hint: compare, for example, the thought: ‘I knew that once I could write like an educated man there would be no limit to what I could achieve’ with these later thoughts:

‘Whole sentences, I knew, could one day bring me more than a few hundred rupees. It was a simple matter to steal and sometimes just as simple to be caught. But to be a really big man, a clever and respected man, was something else.’) What makes him return to Anil?

Answer: Hari Singh comes to Anil’s house as a servant. Anil offers to educate him. He is overjoyed, but his reactions to the prospect of receiving an education undergo a change with the passage of time. In the beginning, he thinks that if he wrote like an educated man he could achieve limitless success (or money). Later, there are some changes in this perception. He feels that if he wrote whole sentences, they could bring him more than a few hundred rupees. Then money loses attraction for him with reference to education. What he wants from education is to become a big, clever and respected man. This makes him return to Anil because only Anil could teach him as he wants.

Question 2. Why does Anil not hand the thief over to the police? Do you think most people would have done so? In what ways is Anil different from such employers?

Answer: Anil does not hand over the thief to the police because he realized that Hari had learnt his lesson and had changed for the better. Otherwise, he would never have come back and kept the money at the same place from where he had stolen it. Anil even knew how Hari cheated him of a rupee a day while buying the day’s supplies. But he never said anything to him. This is such a case where most people would have handed him over to the police. Anil was different from such employers because he was a modest and trusting man. He had offered to teach Hari how to cook and also to educate him. When he found out that Hari had stolen the money, but had kept it back, he knew that it was Hari’s conscience that had made him do so. Hari could have easily run off with the money, but he did not. This made Anil give him another chance and build him into a better person that he could already see him becoming.

Talk About It (Page No. 13)

Question 1. Do you think people like Anil and Hari Singh are found only in fiction, or are there such people in real life?

Answer: People like Anil and Hari Singh are found only in fiction. Though exceptions might be there, these people are rarely found. Anil was a kind and considerate person who was concerned, about Hari’s education and future. And Hari was a thief whose heart changes after realising the importance of education for his future. People like these are imaginary in today’s world.

Question 2. Do you think it is a significant detail i story that Anil is a struggling writer? this explain his behaviour in any way

Answer: It is a significant detail in the story that Anil is a struggling writer. He leads a hand to mouth existence. He earns money by fits and starts. So, he knows what it means to be without money. He can understand Hari Singh’s position. That is why, he takes him as a servant although he has no money to pay him a salary. He has a large heart. So although he may have detected the theft of his money, he does not report to the police.

Question 3. Have you met anyone like Hari Singh? Can you think and imagine the circumstances that can turn a fifteen year old boy into a thief?

Answer: No, I haven’t met anyone like Hari Singh but such kind of people do exist in the world. Many a time, a fifteen-year-old boy may be forced under unavoidable circumstances to become a robber. Mostly people commit crime to feed themselves or their families, or sometimes to satisfy their urge or addiction, to maintain health or to fulfil their demands to lead a luxurious life and so on and so forth.

Question 4. Where is the story set? (You can get clues from the names of the persons and places mentioned in it). Which language or languages are spoken in these places? Do you think the characters in the story spoke to each other in English?

Answer: The story is set somewhere in Uttar Pradesh near Lucknow. We can say so because the story mentions that there is a railway station for Express train to Lucknow. The presence of sweet shops and bazaars also indicate it to be a decent-sized town. No, the characters in the story do not speak to each other in English but probably in Hindi.