This page covers Unit 2, “Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”, from Words and Expressions 2 — the NCERT Class 10 English practice book that accompanies the First Flight textbook. The unit runs 14 printed pages, and the official NCERT PDF is right below. Use this page as a map: what every task asks, how to answer it, and where the original file lives.
The official textbook file is Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom Class 10 PDF (Words and Expressions 2, Unit 2), published on the NCERT textbook portal at ncert.nic.in. Open it to read Sardar Patel’s speech in full, then work through the vocabulary, grammar, editing and project tasks with the explanations below.
Chapter at a glance: what is inside this unit
Here is the order in which the unit’s blocks appear, and what each one expects from you.
- Let’s Begin — a peer discussion on how freedom and responsibilities go hand in hand, opening from Mandela’s line in First Flight.
- Text I — Sardar Patel’s convocation speech, “Call to Youth to Build Character and be Disciplined”.
- Look Up and Understand — the speech’s key words to learn in context, and comprehension questions that follow, mostly multiple choice.
- Idiom — “break the ice”: to end a conflict or commence a friendship.
- Vocabulary — use four words from the speech in sentences, then build a freedom/responsibility word web and write five sentences from it.
- Use of Articles — fill the missing articles in a passage from the speech, do a set of sentences, and discuss why “the” dominates the speech.
- Pronouns — a one-line warm-up joke.
- Comma — two “Fun Facts” rules with worked examples.
- Editing — a passage with one error per line.
- Listening — reconstruct, in your own words, a short text read aloud twice.
- Speaking — build an outline with a partner, then deliver a two-minute morning-assembly speech.
- Role play — interview Nelson Mandela in pairs.
- Comparative study — compare any two of Mandela, Gandhi and Martin Luther King in a group of four.
- Project — write about two freedom leaders from different nations.
What this unit covers and how to work through it
First, the confusion that brings most students here. The prose lesson “Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” is in your First Flight textbook; this unit is Unit 2 of the companion practice book Words and Expressions 2. Same title, different book — this page covers only the workbook unit, and if you need the First Flight lesson, that is a different NCERT file.
The Class 10 English notes on this site keep both straight.
The unit is built around one idea: freedom must be earned again after it is won. Let’s Begin recalls Mandela’s point that freedom comes with responsibilities. Text I then tests that idea against Sardar Patel’s 1948 convocation speech, which tells young people the same thing in different words.
Everything after that drills one skill at a time — vocabulary, articles, comma, editing, listening, speaking, project.
Work through it in this order: re-read the Mandela chapter in First Flight; read Patel’s speech once for the gist; answer the comprehension questions; then move vocabulary → grammar → editing → listening → speaking → project. The speech carries its own source line: The Collected Works of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Volume XIII (1948).
Sardar Patel’s speech: the argument in three moves
Text I is the longest reading in the unit, and it feels dense on a first read. The speech moves in three clear steps — follow those and every comprehension question answers itself.
Move 1 — Honour and obligation. Patel opens by doubting he deserved the honour the university gave him, and turns it into a lifelong obligation. Gifts, he argues, must be earned; a gift conferred on someone whose worthiness has not been tested puts that person under a heavy debt.
He then transfers the same test to his audience: if he must prove worthy of the honour, the nation must prove worthy of the freedom it won “after such a bitter and sustained struggle”.
Move 2 — Freedom must be consolidated. This is the heart of the speech. Patel attacks the idea that winning freedom is the end: those who think so, he says, “have really attained nothing”. The freedom just won is still a child — he calls it “this one-year-old child” — that must be nursed, nourished and strengthened.
His warning is concrete: after the Second World War the world has become self-centred, and the poison stirred up by the churning of the ocean is spreading. New nations like India are the least able to digest it, so “the foundations of freedom have to be well and truly laid”.
Move 3 — Character, discipline and duty. The third move tells young people what to do. Patel says there is no time for useless controversies; the one task is to make the country “strong and unassailable”. The “most essential requisite is character” — a student who leaves the precincts of the alma mater without character has wasted the opportunity of a lifetime.
He ends by placing the burden on students: India’s resources and manpower await full use, universities must train citizens who are disciplined and united, and only then will India earn “her rightful place in the comity of nations”.
The comprehension questions test exactly these three moves.
The question on the one major characteristic of university education comes from move 3, and so does the question on the greatest danger facing India — the unit prints Patel’s own words under Look Up and Understand: “the real danger of India lies in our disunity”, with communalism as the poison spread in the past.
The opening image: freedom and responsibility in one line
The unit opens, before any text, with a single image whose caption states the whole unit’s thesis.
That caption is the thread that runs through every task in this unit. Mandela argued, as you have read in First Flight, that freedom is not a licence but a prize tied to responsibility. Patel’s speech makes the same argument in different words: freedom won by sacrifice decays unless citizens of character sustain it.
You will meet the same idea again in the Let’s Begin discussion, in Patel’s warning that those who stop at winning freedom “have really attained nothing”, in the freedom/responsibility word web, in the speeches you write, and in the interview role play. Whenever a task feels disconnected, come back to this one line.
Key vocabulary from the unit, with plain meanings
Look Up and Understand lists the words you need before the comprehension questions make sense. Here is each word in the exact sense Patel uses it in the speech.
| Word | Plain meaning | How Patel uses it in the speech |
|---|---|---|
| conferring | giving or granting (an honour) | He thanks the university for conferring this honour on him. |
| endeavour | effort, hard work | Gifts achieved by one’s own endeavour are good and deserved. |
| obligation | a duty that binds you | Accepting the honour places him under a very difficult obligation. |
| precincts | the grounds and buildings of a place | A student who leaves the precincts of the alma mater without character has wasted the chance. |
| unassailable | impossible to attack or break down | The foundations of freedom must be made strong and unassailable. |
| comity of nations | the community of nations living in friendly respect | India has to attain its rightful place in the comity of nations. |
| communalism | division and hostility along community lines | He calls it a poison spread in the past; the real danger of India is disunity. |
| inheritance | what earlier generations handed down | India has a precious inheritance and the teachings of its departed leaders. |
| resurgence | revival, rising again | Citizens must make their fitting contribution to the nation’s resurgence. |
| alma mater | the school or university one attended | “Leave the precincts of the alma mater” — leave the university. |
Two of these words carry comprehension questions: the “comity of nations” question asks which meaning Patel did not intend, and the greatest-danger question turns on communalism and disunity. The Vocabulary task then asks you to use precincts, comity of nations, unassailable and mutual cooperation in sentences of your own.
The Idiom block adds one more phrase: “break the ice” means to end a conflict or commence a friendship.
Grammar the unit practises: articles, comma and pronouns
This unit does not teach new grammar from scratch. It makes you apply rules you already know — mainly when to use a, an and the, and where a comma belongs.
Articles: the first-mention rule
- a / an for first mention, or any one of many. Use a before consonant sounds and an before vowel sounds: a newspaper, an apple.
- the for something already mentioned, already known, or unique and shared — the world, the sky, the freedom we have won.
The unit’s sentence about buying a newspaper and a magazine makes the rule visible: both items appear for the first time, so both take a. When the speaker mentions the same items again, they are now known to the listener and take the — my newspaper becomes the newspaper.
The fill-in task on the speech works the same way. Patel keeps saying the weapons of the World War, the churning of the ocean, the countries which were free, the freedom that we have won: he is pointing at specific, known things. The discussion question asks why “the” occurs most often in the passage — that is the reason.
You cannot replace it with a or an, because those would make the things general instead of particular.
Practice: an original articles passage with answers
Try this fresh passage — same rules, new words. Fill the seven blanks, then check the table.
___(1) old man sat on ___(2) bench in a park, reading ___(3) newspaper. After a while ___(4) man folded ___(5) newspaper and looked at ___(6) sky. He had not seen ___(7) blue sky in weeks.
| Blank | Answer | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | an | “old” begins with a vowel sound. |
| 2 | a | first mention; one bench among many. |
| 3 | a | first mention; one newspaper among many. |
| 4 | the | second mention; we now know which man. |
| 5 | the | that particular newspaper, now known. |
| 6 | the | the sky is unique and shared by everyone. |
| 7 | a | any blue sky — one example, not a specific one. |
Comma: the unit’s two rules
Rule 1: a comma separates items in a series. The unit’s example: “I like to drink coffee, tea, orange juice, and milk.” New example: “For the project we need chart paper, coloured pens, glue, and a pair of scissors.”
Rule 2: a comma goes before the conjunction that joins two complete sentences. The unit’s example: “She likes to read poems, and she likes to read fiction.” New example: “He finished his homework early, and he still had time to revise.” Both halves must be able to stand alone as sentences.
Pronouns: keep it honest
The Pronouns block is exactly what it looks like: a one-line warm-up joke. “Name two pronouns.” — “Who, me?” Read it, get the joke, and move on; the unit does not turn this into a full grammar lesson.
The editing passage: error types and corrections
The Editing task gives a passage on writing and clear thinking with one error in every line. Here are the errors as printed, the type of each, and the correction the exercise expects. Read the table once, then find each error yourself.
| Error as printed | Error type | Correction |
|---|---|---|
| some peoples are born clear headed | plural form | some people |
| and is therefore natural writers | subject–verb agreement | and are therefore |
| will never wrote well | verb form after a modal | will never write |
| Thinking clearly was a conscious act | tense consistency | Thinking clearly is |
| must forced on themselves | verb form after a modal | must force |
| makes shopping list or doing an algebra problems | parallel structure + plural | making a shopping list or doing an algebra problem |
| Good writing do not come naturally | subject–verb agreement | does not |
| most people seems to think | subject–verb agreement | seem |
| Professional writer are constantly | plural form + agreement | Professional writers are |
| they’d like to “trying a little writing” | verb form after “like to” | they’d like to “try a little writing” |
| meaned when they retire | participle form | meaning when they retire |
The transferable tip: read each line twice — once for verbs, once for plurals. In this exercise, checking subject–verb agreement and verb forms catches nearly every error. The unit’s one-line proof lies in the sandwich line: “Good writing do not come naturally” — read aloud, the mistake announces itself.
Common mistakes to avoid in this unit
Five traps in this unit send students wrong more often than anything else. They are named here before you fall into them, with the correction and a way to check yourself.
| Mistake | Correct rule | How to check your answer |
|---|---|---|
| “The” with general plurals: “the countries which were free” is right in the speech because Patel means specific countries, but “the” is wrong in a general statement. | “the” = particular or known; a plural alone = general. | Ask: does the sentence mean “these specific ones” or “any of them”? Specific → the; general → no article. |
| Joining two complete sentences with a comma only. | Use comma + conjunction (and, but, or) or a full stop. | Cover the conjunction: do both halves stand alone as sentences? If yes, the comma needs the conjunction. |
| Writing “peoples” when you mean more than one person. | “people” is the plural of person; “peoples” means nations or ethnic groups. | Am I talking about individuals (people) or whole communities (peoples)? |
| Reading NOT questions backwards. | Q.5 asks what Patel did not mean by “comity of nations” — the correct answer is the warlike option. | Underline NOT and answer the opposite way from a positive question. |
| Treating freedom as doing whatever you like. | The unit’s own example is “Freedom is not free”; Patel adds that those who stop at winning it “have really attained nothing”. | Tie every freedom sentence to a responsibility: what must citizens do to keep it? |
The NOT-question trap deserves one more line. Most students know “comity of nations” means friendly nations, so they pick a friendly option — but Q.5 asks what Patel did not mean. Read every NOT-type question twice: the right answer is the one that does not fit the definition.
How to approach the listening, speaking and project tasks
Four tasks in this unit ask you to produce something, and students skip them mostly because they do not know how to start. Here is a starting method for each, from the unit’s own instructions.
Listening: rebuild the text from meaning
The listening text is a short passage about the sound of a coin dropping on the pavement and how it catches everyone’s attention. Your job is not to memorise it but to recreate it.
- On the first read-aloud, note only key words and names — never full sentences.
- In your group of four, compare notes and discuss what the text was about.
- Rebuild the text from meaning, not memory — your version need not match word for word.
- When the teacher reads it again, check only that your meaning matches.
Speaking: from outline to assembly speech
Task 1 is partner work: discuss what freedom means to you and put down an outline. Task 2 turns that outline into a two-minute morning-assembly speech built on the three printed questions — how you feel about the country’s freedom today, whether we are truly free and independent, and whether we take our responsibilities seriously.
Answer each question in one short paragraph, and end by tying freedom to responsibility: that is the unit’s theme.
Role play: the Mandela interview
Work in pairs. The interviewer prepares five questions covering Mandela as a person and his anti-apartheid work; the interviewee answers from the First Flight chapter. The interviewer notes the answers down, and then the pair swaps roles. Plan the five questions in rough chronological order so they give an overview of Mandela’s life.
Comparative study: two leaders, one table
In groups of four, research Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King — all three fought against enormous odds using non-violence. Choose any two and fill the ten-row comparison table on their principles and lives. Split the research: one pair on backgrounds, one pair on principles, then compare.
Project: leaders of two nations
The Project asks for two leaders from different nations who spearheaded freedom movements after the Second World War. Use the six printed prompts — their thoughts, their uniqueness, honesty and integrity, confidence and leadership qualities, inspirational speeches, and contributions to freeing their countries — and develop the profiles in chronological order.
The unit’s own hints: visit the library, consult your social science teachers, and ask elders in your neighbourhood.
Exam notes: where this unit fits in Class 10 English
Words and Expressions 2 is the NCERT practice book that accompanies the First Flight textbook. The prose chapter on Nelson Mandela lives in First Flight; this unit supplies the reading, vocabulary, grammar, editing, listening and speaking practice on the same theme.
The annual exam’s exact testing pattern is not printed in the NCERT textbook, so no one can promise which tasks will appear. Textbook contents and the examinable syllabus are not always identical — check the current official syllabus.
What is safe to say: the skills this unit drills — inference-based reading, vocabulary in context, article and comma rules, spotting subject–verb agreement and verb-form errors, listening for gist, and organising a short speech — are the everyday currency of Class 10 English papers.
The editing format here, one error per line in a short passage, is the shape of grammar-editing tasks in board-style papers. Practise the unit honestly and those skills transfer.
Revision summary: what you should be able to do after this unit
If you can do all eight of these, you have finished this unit. Use this as a two-minute self-test the night before.
- Explain Mandela’s point that freedom comes with responsibilities, in your own words.
- Outline Patel’s three moves: honour as obligation, freedom needing consolidation, character and duty.
- Define the Look Up and Understand words in plain English, including comity of nations and communalism.
- Use a/an/the with the first-mention versus shared-context rule.
- Place commas in a series and before the conjunction in a compound sentence.
- Spot and fix the editing error types: plurals, agreement, modal + base verb, tense, parallel structure, participle.
- Reconstruct a heard text from key points.
- Deliver a two-minute freedom speech, run a five-question interview, and draft a comparative profile of two leaders.
Related resources
This listing is maintained for the 2026-27 academic session using the NCERT textbook information available to us. NCERT remains the authority for confirming the latest edition.
Next steps for this unit:
- Unit 1 of this workbook — Words and Expressions 2: A Letter to God — the previous unit in the same book.
- The Class 10 English notes hub — First Flight, Footprints Without Feet and workbook help in one place.
- Class 10 notes across subjects, and the top-level CBSE notes index.
- The next First Flight prose chapter, Two Stories About Flying.
All official NCERT files, including the complete Words and Expressions 2 book, are published on the NCERT textbook portal at ncert.nic.in; the download link at the top of this page points to that portal.
| What the chapter holds | Count | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|
| Printed pages | 14 | |
| Figures with NCERT captions | 1 | |
| Tables | 6 | |
| Official NCERT PDF | Download the chapter PDF | the chapter exactly as NCERT publishes it |
Reference: NCERT Class 10 English textbook Words and Expressions 2, chapter 2 (Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), official edition on ncert.nic.in.
Sources and data verification
Four facts about what this page describes, plainly.
- The figures and section names on this page describe the NCERT Class 10 English book Words and Expressions 2, Unit 2, Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, official NCERT edition.
- This page covers this workbook unit only — not the First Flight chapter of the same name, and no other Class 10 English book.
- The listing is maintained for the current academic session using the NCERT information available to us.
- NCERT settles textbooks, editions and official PDFs; CBSE settles curriculum, syllabus and examinations.
Frequently asked questions about this unit
Is the Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom unit in Words and Expressions 2 the same as the First Flight chapter?
No. Same title, two different books. First Flight carries the prose lesson on Mandela’s autobiography; Words and Expressions 2, Unit 2 is its companion practice unit, built around Sardar Patel’s speech. The First Flight chapter PDF is a different NCERT file.
What is the main reading text of Unit 2?
Sardar Patel’s convocation speech, “Call to Youth to Build Character and be Disciplined”, taken from The Collected Works of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Volume XIII (1948). It is labelled Text I in the unit.
What grammar topics does this unit cover?
Articles — mainly when to use “the” — two comma rules (items in a series, and before the conjunction in a compound sentence), a one-line pronouns warm-up, and an editing passage with one error per line.
How should I solve the editing exercise in this unit?
One error per line. Check plurals (“some peoples”), subject–verb agreement (“Good writing do”), verb forms after modals and “like to” (“will never wrote”, “must forced”, “trying a little writing”), tense consistency (“Thinking clearly was”), parallel structure (“makes shopping list”), and the participle form (“meaned”).
What does comity of nations mean in Sardar Patel’s speech?
The community of nations living in friendly, respectful relations. Patel wants India to earn its rightful place there. The comprehension question on it is a NOT question — it asks which option he did not mean, and the answer is the warlike option.
Does this unit come in the Class 10 English board exam?
Words and Expressions 2 is an NCERT textbook, but textbook contents and the examinable syllabus are not always identical — check the current official CBSE syllabus. The skills it drills, especially editing and grammar, are board-style.
Explore Class 10 English Books
Related chapters:
- A Letter to God
- A Triumph of Surgery
- Nelson Mandela