CBSE Class 10 Footprints Without Feet Book Chapter 4 A Question of Trust Question Answers from previous years question papers (2019-2024)

 

A Question of Trust Previous Year Questions with Answers –  Question Answers from Previous years Board Exam Question papers provide valuable insights into how chapters are typically presented in exams. They are essential for preparing for the CBSE Board Exams, serving as a valuable resource.They can reveal the types of questions commonly asked and highlight the key concepts that require more attention. In this post, we have shared Previous Year Questions for Class 10 English Chapter 4, “A Question of Trust”.

 

Questions which came in 2024 Board Exam

 

Q1. Horace Danby was a typical thief. Describe how he planned his work. [2024, 40-50 words]

Ans. Horace was a meticulous plannner. He had been studying the house at Shotover Grange for two weeks. He had studied the plan of the house, the electric wiring system, the paths and the garden. He had seen the housekeeper hang the keys of the kitchen door on a hook outside. When the family left for London and the two servants were off to the movies, he found the perfect time for the theft.

 

Q2. “Horace Danby is a thief who was cheated by another thief.” Justify. [2024, 40-50 words]

Ans. Horace was skilled and carried out the thefts systematically. During the theft at Shotover Grange, he met a woman who appeared to be the lady of the house. She negotiated with him to let him free if he helped her retrieve the code of the safe. Horace trusted her and helped her. However, she was a thief, she stole the jewels and Horace got caught because his finger prints were all over the place.

 

Q3. How did the lady in red manage to outsmart and out maneuver the other thief, Horace Danby, by robbing the safe without leaving a single fingerprint? [2024, 100-120 words]

Ans. The lady in red was also a thief like Horace Danby. But it was the lady in the red dress who outmanoeuvred and outwitted Horace. No doubt, Horace did his job quite professionally. He worked hard to find out the necessary details about the location of the house and the position of the key and the safe.

But, Horace proved to be a novice in judging the young lady. The young lady acted with so much confidence and in such a convincing manner that she could easily pass off as the lady of the house. Horace Danby became a mere puppet who danced to the tune of the lady.

When caught red-handed, he pleaded her to let him go. The young lady exploited his confusion and fear of going to prison fully. She made Horace open the safe. The unsuspecting Horace was made to believe that he was working for the lady of the house. So he opened the safe without putting on his gloves.

He gave the jewels to the lady leaving his fingerprints on the safe. So he was found out and arrested. Naturally, the young lady in red proved far smarter and outmanoeuvred Horace Danby.

 

Questions from the Chapter in 2023 Board Exams

 

Q1. What does the phrase ‘honour among thieves’ mean? Why does Horace get angry at this phrase? [2023, 40-50 words]

Ans. The phrase means that one thief should respect another thief because they both belong to the same profession. In the story, we see that one thief outsmarts the other, takes his help in committing the theft, escapes with the booty and gets him arrested. Thus, one thief cheats another one and thus, does not honour him. Horace is the thief who is cheated and so, he is irritated at being cheated by another thief.

 

Questions that appeared in 2020 Board Exams

 

Q1. Horace Danby was good but not completely honest. How was he deceived by ‘the lady’? [2020, 100-150 words]

Ans. Horace Danby was a good man because he robbed a safe a year, to buy rare, expensive books which he would read throughout the year. However, he wasn’t honest because after all, he committed thefts which are equivalent to cheating. 

He helped the lady when he thought that she was the owner of the house. As Sherry, the pet dog at Shotover Grange was rubbing against her, Horace was confirmed that she was the owner.  He had not expected one of the family to be there. However, he accepted her presence, helped her open the safe and believed her reason that she had forgotten the code of the safe. The lady was smart and Horace did not suspect her even once. She took his finger prints all over the place which landed him in the jail. On her part, she was also a thief and she escaped with all the jewels kept in the safe.  

 

Q2. Horace Danby was a meticulous planner but still he faltered. Where did he go wrong and why? [2020, 100-150 words]

Ans. The place where he went wrong was that he did not gather enough information about the real occupants of the house. He gathered all the information about the tracks, wirings, gardens, servants and even the dog’s name but he still forgot to overlook the identities of the house owners. He even took out the information of the valuables inside the safe. Once he got into a problem, he could not even think properly and carelessly opened the safe and touched many things in the room without wearing his gloves.

 

Q3. What were Horace Danby’s plans for his latest robbery? [2020, 100-150 words]

Ans. Horace was sure that the robbery he was planning for that year was going to be as successful as all the others so far. He had been observing and studying the house at Shotover Grange for two weeks. He had observed everything minutely. That afternoon, when he planned to rob the house, he had seen the two servants, who remained in the Grange, going to the movies. He came out from behind the garden wall. He had packed his tools carefully in a bag on his back. Horace knew that there were about fifteen thousand pounds worth of jewels in the Grange safe and if he sold them one by one, he was sure to get enough money to last him for another year.

 

2019 Exam Question and Answers from the chapter

 

Q1. How can you say that Horace Danby was good and respectable but not completely honest? [2019, 30-40 words]

Ans. Horace Danby was good and respectable because he was an expert in his profession of making locks. However, as he loved collecting rare and expensive books, he robbed a safe every year to finance the purchase of these books through an agent. Thus he was not completely honest.

 

Q2. How did Horace enter Shotover Grange? [2019, 30-40 words]

Ans. Horace had seen the housekeeper hang the key in the hook outside the kitchen door. He came out from behind the garden wall. He put on his gloves, took the key and opened the door of the kitchen and entered Shot over Grange.

 

Q3. What was Horace Danby suffering from? How did it affect him? [2019, 30-40 words]

Ans. He suffered from attacks of Hay fever in summers. He would experience a tickle in the nose, followed by a bout of sneezing.

 

Q4. Why did Horace Danby steal every year? [2019, 30-40 words]

Ans. He robbed a safe every year. Each year he planned a robbery and stole enough to last twelve months. Then he would buy the books he loved through an agent.

 

Q5. Horace was clever but the lady in red was cleverer. Do you agree with this statement? Justify your answer. [2019, 100-120 words]

Ans. Absolutely, I do agree with this statement. Horace was cunning since he carefully planned the robbery, researched the target, took the right tools, as well as his gloves to guarantee he left no fingerprints. But, the young woman in red had all the essential knowledge and, by pretending to be the mistress of the home, took advantage of Horace’s anxiety over being found out to get him to unlock the safe and give her the diamonds. Even when she diverted his attention by picking up a cigarette that Horace offered to light after taking off his gloves, she made sure that Horace left his fingerprints at the scene. As a result, the lady tricked him.

 

Also see:

A Question of Trust Important Questions, NCERT Solutions, Extra Questions 

A Question of Trust Summary, Explanation 

A Question of Trust MCQs 

A Question of Trust Character Sketches