Class 10 English Chapter 1 Question Answers - First Flight

Short Answer Questions
Q1: What did Mandela realise?
Ans: Mandela realised that there was no freedom in South Africa for anyone who looked like him. He realized that his boyhood freedom was an illusion and he was not free to fulfil his obligations towards his family and his people.

Q2: Why was Mandela pained?
Ans: Mandela was pained when he thought about all the courageous men who had struggled and fought for this day. They were not present on the occasion but it was their effort which had gained freedom for the people.

Q3: What ideals did Mandela set out for the future of South Africa in his speech?
Ans: Mandela set out ideals for the future of South Africa because he had deep feelings for his country and countrymen. He pledged to liberate all the people from poverty, deprivation and discrimination.

Q4: How according to Mandela had apartheid policy affected South Africa?
Ans: Apartheid policy had affected South Africa deeply. It had created a deep and lasting wound in the country and its people. It will take a long time to heal this wound.

Q5: What did Mandela think about the oppressor and the oppressed?
Ans: Mandela thought about the oppressor and the oppressed that both are robbed equally. A mail who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred. In the same way, if his freedom is taken away, they both are without freedom. So both of them must be liberated.

Q6: What, according to Mandela, is true-freedom?
Ans: According to Mandela, true freedom means freedom not to be obstructed in leading a lawful life.

Q7: How did hunger for freedom change Mandela’s life?
Ans: In the beginning of his life, Mandela was not aware about freedom Later, Mandela found that his freedom had been taken away from him. As a student, he wanted freedom only for himself but slowly his own freedom became the greater hunger for the freedom of his people. This changed him completely.

Q8: What are the ‘twin obligations’ referred to by Nelson Mandela?
OR
Nelson Mandela speaks of ‘twin obligations’. Elucidate. (CBSE SQP 2019-20)
Ans: According to Nelson Mandela, every man has two obligations in life. The first obligation is to his family, to his parents, wife and children. Secondly, he has an obligation to his country, people, and community.

Q9: Could a man, according to Mandela, fulfil these twin obligations in a country like South Africa?
Ans: No, these twin obligations could not be fulfilled by a man, in a country like South Africa, according to Mandela it was because a man of dark colour who attempted just to live as a human being was punished and isolated in the country.

Q10: What is the meaning of courage to Mandela?
OR
Who, according to Nelson Mandela, is a courageous man? (CBSE SQP 2020-21)
OR
Mandela feels that courage is triumph over fear. How would you define courage in this context? 
Ans: According to Mandela, courage was not the absence of fear, but triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. Mandela learned the true meaning of courage from his comrades in the struggle.

Long Answer Questions
Q11: Discuss the scene of the inauguration ceremony? Who took the oath in the ceremony? Why is the inauguration called a historic occasion for South Africa?
Ans: It was the bright and clear day of 10th May, 1994. The inauguration ceremony took place in the Union Buildings amphitheatre in Pretoria. The most famous world leaders and representatives gathered there. The generals and police officers were also there. They had medals and ribbons on their chests. South African jets, helicopters and troop carriers roared in perfect formation over the Union Buildings. First of all Mr. de Klerk, then Thabo Mbeki and then Nelson Mandela took the oath.
The inauguration can be called a historic occasion for South Africa as on this day the first democratic government was installed. At the end of more than three centuries of the white rule Nelson Mandela became the first Black President of South Africa.

Q12: What were Mandela’s opinions about the first and last decades of the twentieth century? Why does he say on the day of the inauguration that he was overwhelmed with a sense of history?
Ans: On the day of the inauguration, the speaker’s mind went back to history. He remembered the first decade, when the whites ruled over South Africa and they made a discrimination against the blacks. They built a system of racial discrimination against the blacks. Their behaviour was full of cruelty. They meted out inhuman treatment to the blacks.
But now in the last decade of this century, this cruel system was overturned. Now a new system replaced it. It was the first democratic government of South Africa. Now there will be no discrimination on the basis of colour. On the day of the inauguration Mandela was overwhelmed with a sense of history because in the first decade of the twentieth century and before his own birth , the white skinned peoples of south-Africa patched up their differences and erected a system of racial domination against the dark skinned peoples of their own land. But now in the last decade of the twentieth century, and his own eighth decade as a man, that system had been overturned forever and replaced by one that recognised the rights and freedoms of all peoples, regardless of the colour of their skin.

Q13: What does Mandela think about the patriots? Can they be repaid?
Ans: Nelson Mandela thinks that freedom and democratic government have all come only due to the great sacrifices of thousands of patriots. They were those men who did not care about their lives and died for their people and country. They can’t be repaid. He thinks of himself as the sum of all those who had sacrificed their lives. Now he regrets that he was not able to thank them. According to Mandela, the policy of apartheid greatly wounded the people. It was hard to recover. It would take much time. These great patriots were Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Luthuli, Dadoo, Fischer, Sobukwe, etc.

Q14: What ideas does Mandela have about courage, love and hate?
Ans: According to Mandela, he learnt the meaning of courage from his comrades. They struggled very hard for the freedom of the country. They did not care for their lives. They sacrificed everything for their people and country. They did not break before the brutality of the oppressors. They showed their full strength So Mandela learned courage from them. To him, courage means not the absence of fear but the victory over it. The brave man is one who conquers fear. No man is born hating another man due to colour or religion. Love comes more naturally to the human heart than hate. According to Mandela, both the oppressor and the oppressed are the prisoners of hatred. No one can become happy after taking away another’s freedom.

Q15: What ideas did we get about freedom, the oppressor and the oppressed from this lesson? How did Nelson Mandela get hunger for freedom?
Ans: According to Mandela, both the oppressor and the oppressed need freedom. Not only the oppressed are without freedom, but also the oppressor. He is the prisoner of hatred, only his level of thinking encourages him to snatch others freedom. It is all due to his narrow mindedness. It is an obvious idea that the oppressed have no freedom Nelson Mandela had hunger for freedom, when he knew that his freedom had been snatched. His idea for freedom was an illusion. He saw that his brothers and sisters were without freedom. His hunger for freedom encouraged him to join the African National Congress.

Q16: What differences came in Mandela’s opinion about the meaning of freedom, when he was a little boy and when he became young?
Ans: There were many differences in Mandela’s opinion about the meaning of freedom, when he was a little boy and when he became young. While he was a little boy, the meaning of freedom was to run in the fields and to swim in the streams.
When he became young, he realized that his freedom was an illusion. When he was a child, he measured freedom only on limited parameters such as, roasting meals, riding on the backs of slow moving bull as a little child, reading whatever he wanted and staying up late at night as a teenager, but later on, he realized that he was being selfish. He came to know that he and everybody who looked like him were not free and their freedom was being curtailed, they were facing discrimination and brutality by the whites. It was then that he realized that his boyhood freedom was just an illusion and that he had to fight for the collective freedom of his community and his country.
Now he had realised that not only his freedom, but also others’ freedom had been seized. So he felt a hunger for freedom now. He wanted all the people of his country to live with self-respect. They must do what they liked.

Q17: What are two obligations that Mandela described in this lesson? What was the reason that he was not able to fulfil those obligations?
OR
Nelson Mandela described twin obligations for a man. Do you agree with these obligations? Do you think that every person should fulfil these obligations in real life?
OR
Nelson Mandela speaks of ‘twin obligations’. Elucidate. (CBSE SQP 2020-21)
Ans: In the lesson, Mandela described two obligations that everyone had to perform. One obligation is for the family, children and wife and second obligation is for the country and community But due to apartheid policy in South Africa, Mandela was not able to fulfil his obligation. Although men could fulfil these obligations according to their capacities and abilities. But in South Africa it was impossible for the blacks. When Mandela tried to fulfil them for his family, he was cut off from his family. He was forced to live the life of separation. When he tried to serve his country, he was put into prison. Thus, Mandela was not able to fulfil his obligations.

Q18: India is a country of unity in diversity-there are different languages, traditions, dresses, castes and cultures. Do you find any sort of discrimination in India?
Ans: India is a very big country. It has different languages, traditions, dresses, castes and cultures. Even then India has unity in diversity. Its Constitution gives equality to every citizen. There is no place for colour prejudice in it. In India everyone has a right to get education, to appear in competitions and to live at any place. There is no discrimination among Indians on the basis of caste, creed and colour. Indians can live in any state and they can marry in any caste. There is no colour discrimination in India.

Q19:  How did Mandela’s hunger for freedom change his life?
Ans: Nelson Mandela was not born with a hunger to be free. With time and experience he discovered that boyhood freedom was only an illusion. He found that as a young mem his freedom had already been taken away from him. His people and community were denied the fundamental right of living a dignified life. This made him hungry for freedom. He joined the African National Congress. This desire for freedom transformed him from a frightened young man into a bold one, a law-abiding person to a criminal, a family- loving person to a man without a home. This desire forced a life-loving man to live the life of a monk.

Q20: If you were in Mandela’s position, would you have given preference to your family or your country? Why?
Ans: Family matters just as much as one’s nation. I’d have made an effort to strike a balance between the two. I don’t believe that leaving one’s family is a noble deed.