NCERT Solutions for Class 4th English Chapter 6 Braille — Let us Read
Book page 55–57 Updated on2026-09-19
Q1.
Let us Read — Braille. Read the chapter and understand what Braille is and who made it.
Answer
Here is the whole story, part by part, in the order the book tells it.
A little boy in France (page 55). Long ago, in France, a little boy named Louis Braille was playing outside his home. He was three years old. His father was a blacksmith and was working nearby. Louis started playing with the tools around him. Suddenly a sharp tool pierced his eye. He cried out in pain. Within a few days he became blind in that eye. The other eye also got affected, and he became totally blind.
School in Paris (page 56). In 1819, when Louis was ten years old, he got admission in the Royal Institute for Young Blind Persons in Paris. There he learnt letters by using wood, cloth or pins arranged in pincushions. He could feel those shapes with his fingers.
‘Night Writing’ (page 56). Around this time an army man named Capt. Charles Barbier de la Serre had invented something called ‘Night Writing’. It was an alphabet of raised dots and dashes that soldiers could ‘read’ with their fingers in the dark. But it was too difficult, and so it was not a success.
Louis makes it simple (page 56). Louis, now a teenager, became interested in Night Writing and simplified it. He gave the world the Braille alphabet. The book says: “Thus, a blind person taught the world to see.”
What Braille is (page 57). Braille is a method of reading through touch. There is one Braille symbol for each of the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet.
Why a Braille book is thick (page 57). Braille needs more space, because the letters cannot be written too close together. So a Braille book is thicker than a regular printed book.
Braille is for everyone (page 57). The speech bubble on this page says that Braille is not just for people with blindness. People with sight can learn Braille too. Then they can write small poems and stories in Braille.
The picture beside the speech bubble (page 57) — what it shows: A young woman in a pink salwar kameez sits in an armchair. She wears dark glasses. An open book rests on her lap and her fingers are on the page. A long cane leans against the arm of the chair beside her.
A short description of this picture, because the book prints it as a painting.The Braille alphabet as your book prints it on page 56. Each letter has its own block of six dot places — two across and three down. A solid dot is raised and can be felt; an outlined dot place stays flat.
Why dots work: Your fingertip cannot see, but it can feel a tiny bump very well. Louis kept only dots, and kept them inside one small block, so a fingertip can feel a whole letter in one touch. That is why his alphabet worked and Night Writing did not.
The picture beside the text (page 57) — what it shows: A boy sits at a table with a big open book in front of him. The two pages of the book are covered with rows of tiny raised dots. He is not looking down at the page. His right hand rests flat on the page and his fingers are moving along a line of dots.
A short description of this picture, because the book prints it as a painting.
Dates and names to remember: Louis Braille · France · blind at three · Royal Institute for Young Blind Persons, Paris · 1819, aged ten · Capt. Charles Barbier de la Serre · ‘Night Writing’.
Q2.
New Words (page 57): blacksmith, blind, pincushions, invented.
Answer
These are the four new words the book puts in the New Words box on page 57.
Word
What it means
In the chapter
A sentence of your own
blacksmith
A person who makes things out of iron, using fire and a hammer.
“His father, a blacksmith, was working nearby.”
The blacksmith made a new gate for our school.
blind
Not able to see.
“he became totally blind.”
The blind girl reads her lessons in Braille.
pincushions
Small soft cushions in which pins are kept stuck.
“pins arranged in pincushions.”
My mother keeps her needles in a round pincushion.
invented
Made something new that nobody had made before.
“had invented something called ‘Night Writing’.”
Who invented the bicycle?
Tip — how to say them:blacksmith = black + smith. pincushions = pin + cushions, and cushion is said “koo-shun”. invented has three beats: in-ven-ted.
Why a blacksmith matters in this story: A blacksmith works with hot iron and sharp, heavy tools. Those tools were lying near the little boy. That is how the accident happened.