Explanation

In the text, locusts refer to destructive winged insects that fly in large groups called swarms and devour crops. Lencho painfully compares the destruction caused by the hailstorm to a plague of locusts, noting that even such voracious pests would have left behind more corn than the storm did.

Explanation

The adjective amiable means warm, kind-hearted, good-natured, and friendly. Although the postmaster laughed initially upon seeing the address to God, his genial and compassionate nature quickly made him take Lencho's desperate plea seriously and collect money to help preserve his faith.

Explanation

Living in a solitary house in the middle of the valley with no close neighbors to turn to, Lencho placed his entire reliance on his supreme faith in God. He firmly believed that God's eyes see everything, even what is deep in one's conscience, and that no one is truly left to die of hunger.

Explanation

• Statement 1 is False: Lencho's house was the only one in the entire valley, situated on the crest of a low hill, not in the middle of a populous town.
• Statement 2 is True: Lencho was an experienced and dedicated farmer who "knew his fields intimately" and worked hard like an ox in the fields.

Explanation

What started as a welcome rain shower quickly turned dangerous when strong winds began blowing and huge hailstones began to fall. Lencho anxiously wished for the hailstorm to end quickly, but it continued relentlessly for an hour, completely devastating his entire cornfield.

Explanation

Lencho's absolute confidence in God was so profound that receiving money in an envelope addressed from God caused him no surprise whatsoever. However, when he counted the money and discovered only 70 pesos instead of the 100 he asked for, he became furious, convinced that God could neither make an arithmetic mistake nor deny his request.

Explanation

A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two distinct things using connecting words such as "like" or "as". Here, the hail-blanketed, bleached-white landscape is explicitly compared to a sheet of salt using the phrase "as if covered with salt".

Explanation

Lencho uttered these words to his sons while standing in the middle of his ruined field. A severe hailstorm had battered the valley for an hour, stripping every leaf from the trees and totally ruining the ripening corn and bean blossoms.

Explanation

The postmaster and his employees had contributed parts of their own salaries and collected donations out of charity to help Lencho. Expecting the humble farmer to express deep thankfulness and gratitude for the financial aid, the postmaster watched with quiet satisfaction—only for the letter to contain accusations calling the postal staff "a bunch of crooks."

Explanation

Lencho's faith was simple, unquestioning, and unshakable. He harbored absolute certainty and confidence that God heard his prayer and would send the money needed to sow his fields again and feed his family until the next harvest.

Explanation

At the opening of the story, Lencho had done nothing else throughout the morning except gaze toward the north-east sky, anxiously searching for rain-bearing clouds that would bring the downpour or shower his ripe corn crop urgently needed.

Explanation

The crest of a hill refers to its peak, summit, ridge, or highest point. Therefore, the exact opposite (antonym) of crest is the bottom or base.

Explanation

Lencho's house was the sole dwelling in the entire valley. It was positioned right on the crest of a low hill, which offered an expansive vantage point overlooking both the river and his vast fields of ripening corn.

Explanation

• Statement 1 is True: The opening lines of the story explicitly mention that his house was "the only one in the entire valley."
• Statement 2 is False: Lencho was an isolated rural farmer whose cornfields were in a secluded valley, far away from any bustling city or urban settlement.

Explanation

From the height of the hill's crest, one could clearly see the flowing river and the sprawling field of ripe corn dotted with flowers, which consistently promised a bountiful harvest to the hardworking farmer.

Explanation

• Assertion Analysis: Lencho spent the entire morning watching the sky because his crops were standing ripe and only lacked a nourishing downpour or gentle shower (True).
• Reasoning Analysis: The stalks had flowered, meaning timely moisture was the singular remaining factor to ensure a rich crop yield, directly explaining why rain was so desperately awaited (True, and explains A).

Explanation

When the rain finally started falling, Lencho walked out to feel the precipitation on his body and joyfully equated the droplets to money: "The big drops are ten-cent pieces and the little ones are fives." Rain meant a prosperous harvest, which would ultimately translate directly into currency and financial security.

Explanation

• a – 2 (Raindrops): Initially seen as a blessing and compared to five and ten-cent pieces.
• b – 1 (Hailstones): Resembled frozen pearls or new silver coins that quickly wrecked havoc.
• c – 3 (Destroyed field): Stripped of all vegetation, the ground appeared completely white as if covered with salt.
• d – 4 (Lencho): Characterized as an "ox of a man" due to his relentless labor in the fields.

Explanation

A sudden gale accompanied the showers, giving way to an intense hailstorm. Hail battered the valley until not a single leaf remained on the trees, the flowers were blown away from the plants, and the corn was totally destroyed.

Explanation

Despite Lencho's desperate hope that it would blow over quickly, the hail pounded the valley relentlessly for one hour, leaving the entire landscape bleak, desolate, and stripped of greenery.

Explanation

• Assertion Analysis: The devastation left the whole field bleached, stark, and blanketed in white without a single leaf remaining (True).
• Reasoning Analysis: The visual description employs the literary device of a simile ("white as if covered with salt") to emphasize how uniformly and completely the hail had smothered the soil (True, and explains A).

Explanation

A simile compares two distinctly different things using direct connectors like "like" or "as". Here, the frozen white hail covering the soil is directly compared to salt using the connecting phrase "as if covered with".

Explanation

Isolated in the valley with no humans to turn to, the family held on to a single conviction: "Don't be so upset, even though this seems like a total loss. Remember, no one dies of hunger." Their only remaining hope was the help of God, whose eyes see everything.

Explanation

Lencho asked God for exactly one hundred pesos. He calculated this precise sum to cover two critical needs: to sow his field again and to feed his family until the next harvest arrived.

Explanation

An employee who worked as a postman retrieved the mail from the drop box. Amused because he had never seen such an address in his entire career, he took the letter laughing heartily to show it to the postmaster.

Explanation

• Assertion Analysis: The postmaster initially joined in the laughter, but quickly composed himself and tapped the envelope on his desk thoughtfully (True).
• Reasoning Analysis: He was deeply impressed that a human being could possess such raw, genuine confidence in the Divine, exclaiming: "What faith! I wish I had the faith of the man who wrote this letter." This explains his sudden shift to solemn respect (True, and explains A).

Explanation

The postmaster did not want the sender's rare and innocent belief in God shaken by silence or disappointment. To keep that faith intact, he decided to answer the letter, realizing it required more than goodwill, ink, and paper—it required tangible money.

Explanation

• a – 1 (Postmaster): An amiable man who generously gave a chunk of his own income for a stranger.
• b – 2 (Employees): Willing participants in charity who ironically ended up suspect in Lencho's eyes.
• c – 3 (The Signature): Signed single-handedly as "God" so Lencho's belief remained pure.
• d – 4 (Lencho's count): Found 70 pesos, sparking his outrage over the missing 30 pesos.

Explanation

It was impossible for the postmaster to amass the full hundred pesos on short notice. He managed to put together a little more than half—amounting to exactly seventy pesos—which he placed inside an envelope addressed to Lencho.

Explanation

The postmaster wrote only a single concluding word as a signature: "God". This deliberate choice was made so that Lencho would continue to believe the money came directly from Heaven as an answer to his prayer.

Explanation

Lencho did not display the slightest surprise on seeing the money because his faith was absolute. But when he counted it and discovered only 70 pesos instead of the expected 100, he became furious, fully convinced that God could not have made an error or denied his petition.

Explanation

Because Lencho considered God infallible, he reasoned that the shortfall could only have happened during transit. He concluded that the post office workers had stolen the remaining 30 pesos from the envelope.

Explanation

In his follow-up letter, Lencho pleaded with God to send the remaining thirty pesos through some other medium instead of the postal service, asserting that "the post office employees are a bunch of crooks." This presents the supreme irony of the story.

Explanation

Lencho is depicted as an ox of a man who toiled tirelessly in his fields. Though literate enough to write, his worldview was exceedingly simple, innocent, and trusting, which led him to have complete and literal faith that God communicates through regular post.

Explanation

The story underscores the fragile relationship between humans and nature. Despite an honest farmer's hardest physical labor and devotion, a single hour of unpredictable climatic fury—a hailstorm—can wipe out an entire year's sustenance and survival.

Explanation

Unaware of the impending economic disaster, the children viewed the falling hailstones as playthings. Exposing themselves to the storm, they dashed out excitedly into the open fields to collect the glistening white hailstones, poetically referred to as "frozen pearls".

Explanation

The severity of the pelting hail was so intense that not a single leaf remained on the trees. The corn was entirely flattened and shredded, and all the delicate blossoms had been stripped clean from the plants, leaving the valley utterly desolate.

Explanation

• Assertion Analysis: Standing amidst his ruined fields, Lencho somberly told his sons: "A plague of locusts would have left more than this" (True).
• Reasoning Analysis: Swarms of locusts typically leave some patches or stalks behind, whereas the hour of relentless hail wiped out 100% of his crop, leaving absolutely nothing (True, and explains A).

Explanation

The night was filled with grief and despair because all of Lencho's hard labor throughout the season had produced nothing. With their corn completely ruined, the family stared directly at the grim reality that they would have no food for the year.

Explanation

• Statement 1 is True: Lencho's deep-rooted belief that God sees all and never lets anyone starve is the very foundation of his character.
• Statement 2 is False: Instead of losing faith after the disaster, his faith was so firm that he decided to directly write a letter to God seeking monetary relief.

Explanation

At daybreak on Sunday, having spent the night drafting his thoughts, Lencho began writing a letter requesting one hundred pesos. He walked into town himself, bought a stamp at the post office, affixed it to the envelope, and dropped the letter into the mailbox.

Explanation

• a – 2 (First Letter): Contained an earnest plea for 100 pesos after his crops were destroyed.
• b – 3 (Postman's reaction): Laughed heartily because in his whole career he had never known that address.
• c – 1 (Second Letter): Demanded the missing thirty pesos that God supposedly failed to deliver.
• d – 4 (Second Letter Delivery): Specifically begged God not to send it through the post due to dishonest staff.

Explanation

A letter addressed to "God" was unprecedented in postal history. The raw absurdity of expecting the postal department to physically deliver mail to the Almighty caused the postmaster to burst into spontaneous laughter.

Explanation

The postmaster was in awe of Lencho's extraordinary conviction. He marveled: "What faith! I wish I had the faith of the man who wrote this letter. Starting up a correspondence with God!" This unshakable faith moved him to take concrete action.

Explanation

• Statement 1 is True: The postmaster gave a portion of his own salary as an act of personal charity.
• Statement 2 is False: He did not force anyone; his employees and friends contributed willingly because they felt obliged to give something for an "act of charity".

Explanation

The text describes the postmaster as a "fat, amiable fellow". His warm, good-natured temperament made him empathetic to Lencho's desperate situation rather than dismissive or mocking.

Explanation

• Assertion Analysis: Lencho grew furious because he knew for certain that God could not have erred in counting the cash (True).
• Reasoning Analysis: In Lencho's mind, the Almighty possesses perfect precision and benevolence, meaning God would neither miscalculate nor deny him what he had begged for (True, and directly explains A).

Explanation

Lencho's faith remained rock-solid: "God could not have made a mistake, nor could he have denied Lencho what he had requested." Because he absolved God of all wrongdoing, his suspicion immediately shifted to the human intermediaries at the post office.

Explanation

Lencho wrote back immediately to report that only seventy pesos had reached him. He urgently needed the remaining thirty pesos to sow his land and survive until the crop grew, asking God to dispatch the balance without delay.

Explanation

Lencho specifically stated: "Send me the rest, since I need it very much." Having received 70 pesos, he was asking God to send the unpaid balance of thirty pesos to complete the original hundred pesos.

Explanation

• Statement 1 is True: Lencho genuinely believed that the postal employees had pocketed the missing 30 pesos.
• Statement 2 is False: Far from thanking them, he branded them a "bunch of crooks" and requested God not to send money through the post again.

Explanation

The word amiable denotes someone having or displaying a friendly, affable, and pleasant manner. It captures the postmaster's kind-hearted disposition that motivated his generous response.

Explanation

The ending delivers sharp situational irony laced with gentle humor. The very benefactors who sacrificed their own savings out of sheer goodwill are accused of theft by the man they tried to save, turning expected gratitude into comedy.

Explanation

Lencho is described as an "ox of a man", metaphorically demonstrating his exceptional endurance and physical labor in his cornfield. Despite his peasant background and intense manual work, he was also literate enough to read and write.

Explanation

• Assertion Analysis: The story highlights genuine human empathy acting under the guise of the divine, alongside the blind spot created by unconditional faith (True).
• Reasoning Analysis: The postmaster's quiet generosity shows human kindness, but Lencho's utter refusal to believe God could send less money makes him brand his helpers as thieves, highlighting the irony of unquestioning faith (True, and explains A).

Explanation

At its core, the story demonstrates how unwavering faith can move individuals to act with profound empathy and selfless generosity. Although dramatic irony complicates the outcome, the enduring message remains centered on compassion and the innocence of true belief.