The NCERT Class 10 English book Words and Expressions 2: What’s Inside

The NCERT Class 10 English book Words and Expressions 2 is the practice workbook that sits alongside First Flight. It has seven chapters — the book names each one a ‘unit’ — running to 111 printed pages, with the official NCERT PDF linked for every chapter in the table below.

This page also maps what is actually inside each unit: the reading texts, the vocabulary blocks, the grammar focus and the page counts, so you can find the work you need without opening all seven PDFs. The details below describe the current NCERT edition of the workbook as published on ncert.nic.in.

Download the official unit PDFs

The seven files below are NCERT’s own unit PDFs, hosted on ncert.nic.in — one file per chapter, with no third-party host in between. Each link opens the official workbook file for that chapter.

What’s in the English Class 10 PDF

The workbook covers seven chapters across 111 printed pages. A quick measure of the book:

• Seven chapters, one official PDF each — the files in the table above cover the whole workbook.
• 111 printed pages in total — the longest chapter, Mijbil the Otter, runs 20 pages; the shortest, Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom and Two Stories About Flying, run 14 pages each.
• The same block structure in every chapter — Let’s Begin opens, Reading Comprehension follows with Text I (and Text II in chapters 5, 6 and 7), vocabulary sits in Look Up and Look Up and Understand, every chapter prints a Fun Facts box, and chapters 1 to 6 each include a Listening block.
• No numbered headings, no activity blocks, no end-of-chapter exercise sets — the workbook’s practice work is organised into those unnumbered blocks, not into numbered sections.
• Scope note — this page covers the NCERT workbook Words and Expressions 2, not every Class 10 English book. First Flight and Footprints Without Feet are separate books, compared below.

What each unit actually teaches

The three columns in the directory above count numbered section headings, activity blocks and end-of-unit exercise sets. This workbook uses none of those.

Instead, every chapter runs its practice work through unnumbered blocks — Let’s Begin, Reading Comprehension (Text I and, in chapters 5-7, Text II), vocabulary in Look Up and Look Up and Understand, a Fun Facts box, and in chapters 1-6 a Listening block.

That is why the three columns read 0 across all seven chapters: the book’s work sits inside its blocks, not in numbered sections. The unit-by-unit lists below show those blocks in the order the book prints them.

Chapter 1: A Letter to God (pp. 1-16)

The workbook opens with a comprehension-first chapter. It warms up with Let’s Begin, reads ‘The Trader and the Tailor’ for comprehension, then moves into vocabulary work in Look Up and Understand before the chapter’s three language blocks: using ‘notice’ as a verb and noun, ‘wound’ as a verb and noun, and proofreading marks.

1. Let’s Begin
2. Reading Comprehension
3. Text I: The Trader and the Tailor
4. Look Up and Understand
5. Fun Facts
6. Using ‘Notice’
7. Wound as Verb and Noun
8. Proofreading Marks
9. Listening

The chapter runs 16 pages and, like every chapter in this workbook, carries no numbered section headings and no end-of-unit exercise set — the work sits inside the blocks above.

Chapter 2: Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (14 pages)

A one-text chapter with a single grammar target. After the Let’s Begin lead-in, comprehension works through Text I, vocabulary is split between Look Up and Understand and Look Up, and the chapter’s grammar block — use of articles — appears after the Fun Facts box, with Listening closing the unit.

1. Let’s Begin
2. Reading Comprehension
3. Text I
4. Look Up and Understand
5. Look Up
6. Fun Facts
7. Use of Articles
8. Listening

This chapter runs 14 pages, tied with Chapter 3 as the shortest in the workbook, and its grammar load sits in that one articles block.

Chapter 3: Two Stories About Flying (14 pages)

The only chapter with two named grammar blocks. Its reading text is ‘All about a Dog’; comprehension is followed by the two vocabulary blocks, then A. phrasal verbs and B. the passive, printed as a pair, then Fun Facts and Listening.

1. Let’s Begin
2. Reading Comprehension
3. Text I: All about a Dog
4. Look Up and Understand
5. Look Up
6. A. Phrasal verbs
7. B. The Passive
8. Fun Facts
9. Listening

It runs 14 pages, and the A/B grammar pair makes it the only chapter in the workbook with two named grammar blocks.

Chapter 4: Glimpses of (16 pages)

This chapter organises its work differently: comprehension and inference questions are printed inside the blocks themselves — Q.1 ‘Infer the meaning of the following’ and Q.3 ‘Answer the following questions’ — a long reading passage, ‘The Valley of Flowers’, appears after the Fun Facts box, and it is the only chapter with a Speaking block after Listening.

1. Let’s Begin
2. Reading Comprehension
3. Text I
4. Look Up
5. Q.1. Infer the meaning of the following
6. Q.3. Answer the following questions
7. Fun Facts
8. The Valley of Flowers
9. Listening
10. Speaking

At 16 pages it sits at the workbook’s middle length, and it is the only chapter that combines printed inference questions with a Speaking block.

Chapter 5: Mijbil the Otter (20 pages)

The longest chapter in the workbook. Its reading section carries two texts — Text I and Text II, with ‘Baby Bhakat’ printed between them — and its themed vocabulary block is animal rights, the only theme-named vocabulary block in the book.

1. Let’s Begin
2. Look Up
3. Reading Comprehension
4. Text I
5. Baby Bhakat
6. Text II
7. Look Up and Understand
8. Animal rights
9. Fun Facts
10. Listening

At 20 pages it is the longest chapter, and the Animal rights block is unique to it.

Chapter 6: Madam Rides the Bus (16 pages)

This chapter builds its comprehension around two texts: Text I, ‘Pedalling through the Golden Years’, and Text II, the Madam Rides the Bus passage the chapter is named for. Vocabulary sits in Look Up and Understand and Look Up, and the chapter ends with the workbook’s only Tongue Twister.

1. Let’s Begin
2. Reading Comprehension
3. Text I
4. Pedalling through the Golden Years
5. Look Up and Understand
6. Look Up
7. Text II
8. Fun Facts
9. Listening
10. Tongue Twister

It runs 16 pages, and it is the only chapter that ends with a Tongue Twister block.

Chapter 7: The Sermon at Benaras (15 pages)

The most reading-heavy chapter in the book: two prose texts (Text I and Text II), two poems — ‘Death Is Nothing At All’ and ‘The Ballad of Father Gilligan’ — and the grammar block on reported speech, the workbook’s last grammar lesson. Unusually, the chapter closes on a block called The Wild Geese rather than on a Listening block.

1. Let’s Begin
2. Death Is Nothing At All
3. Look Up
4. Reading Comprehension
5. Text I
6. Text II
7. The Ballad of Father Gilligan
8. Fun Facts
9. Reported Speech
10. The Wild Geese

It is the only chapter that prints poems inside its blocks, and Reported Speech is its single named grammar block.

Unit pages and study guides

The current status of each chapter’s study page is rendered below, with a link where one exists.

Which Class 10 English book do you need?

Three NCERT books exist for Class 10 English, and students routinely mix them up. The table below settles which is which.

This page covers only the workbook. If the book you are holding is First Flight or Footprints Without Feet, the download table above is not the set you need.

How to use the CBSE Class 10 English book with First Flight

A practical order of work for this workbook, unit by unit:

1. Read the matching First Flight chapter first. The pairing is visible from the unit titles themselves — A Letter to God, Mijbil the Otter and the rest share names with First Flight prose chapters, and the workbook assumes that prose is fresh in your mind.
2. Work each unit in its printed order. Let’s Begin, then Reading Comprehension (Text I and, in chapters 5-7, Text II), then the vocabulary blocks, then the chapter’s grammar blocks where it has them (chapters 1, 2, 3 and 7), then the Listening block.
3. Schedule the longest chapter separately. Mijbil the Otter runs 20 pages; give it a sitting with time for both reading texts and the Animal rights vocabulary.
4. Use the grammar blocks as revision targets. Articles (chapter 2), phrasal verbs and the passive (chapter 3), reported speech (chapter 7), and proofreading marks (chapter 1) each work as a self-contained ten-minute drill.
5. Check the current official syllabus. Textbook contents and the examinable syllabus are not always identical, so confirm what is examinable before the exam.

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.

If you are assembling the whole Class 10 set, start from the NCERT Class 10 books class hub, which lists this workbook alongside the other subjects. The all NCERT school books on this site root covers every class. Class 10 students revising a different subject often pair this page with the NCERT Class 10 Science book.

Sources and data verification

• The chapter details in the directory describe the NCERT Class 10 English workbook Words and Expressions 2, as published by NCERT on its official portal, ncert.nic.in — the same source as every PDF link in the download table above.
• This page covers only the workbook’s seven chapters, not First Flight and not Footprints Without Feet.
• This listing is maintained for the current NCERT edition of the workbook, as hosted on the official links above.
• NCERT is the authority for the textbook, its editions and its PDFs; CBSE is the authority for the curriculum, syllabus and examinations. Use the current official syllabus to confirm what is examinable.

Reference: NCERT Class 10 English textbook (Words and Expressions 2), official edition on ncert.nic.in. Section titles quoted from the textbook; page references are to the official PDF.

Frequently asked questions

How many units are in Words and Expressions 2?

Seven chapters, which the book presents as units. They run A Letter to God; Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom; Two Stories About Flying; Glimpses of; Mijbil the Otter; Madam Rides the Bus; and The Sermon at Benaras — 111 printed pages in all.

Is the Words and Expressions 2 PDF official and free?

Yes. The download table above links NCERT’s own unit files on ncert.nic.in, which NCERT publishes free of charge. There is no need to use a third-party site for these files.

Which chapter teaches reported speech?

Reported speech sits in the final chapter, The Sermon at Benaras. Articles are the grammar block in Chapter 2, Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, and phrasal verbs with the passive form the A/B grammar pair in Chapter 3, Two Stories About Flying.

What is the difference between First Flight and Words and Expressions 2?

First Flight is the main Class 10 English textbook of prose and poems, and Words and Expressions 2 is its practice workbook — the chapter titles match, so the two are used together. Footprints Without Feet is the separate supplementary reader.

Where can I find the answers to the exercises in Words and Expressions 2?

The exercises are printed inside each unit PDF linked in the download table above, in the Reading Comprehension, Look Up and grammar blocks. This page links the official book rather than hosting a solved answer key, so compare your work with your teacher’s or classroom notes.