1.5 His First Flight
1.5 His First Flight
1.5 His First Flight
The young seagull was alone on his ledge. His two brothers and his sister had already flown away
the day before. He had been afraid to fly with them. Somehow when he had taken a little run
forward to the brink of the ledge and attempted to flap his wings he became afraid. The great
expanse of sea stretched down beneath, and it was such a long way down – miles. He felt certain
that his wings would never support him; so he bent his head and ran away back to the little hole
under the ledge where he slept at night. Even when each of his brothers and his little sister, whose
wings were far shorter than his own, ran to the brink, flapped their wings, and flew away, he failed
to muster up courage to take that plunge which appeared to him so desperate. His father and
mother had come around calling to him shrilly, upbraiding him, threatening to let him starve on his
ledge unless he flew away. But for the life of him he could not move.
That was twenty-four hours ago. Since then nobody had come near him. The day before, all day
long, he had watched his parents flying about with his brothers and sister, perfecting them in the art
of flight, teaching them how to skim the waves and how to dive for fish. He had, in fact, seen his
older brother catch his first herring and devour it, standing on a rock, while his parents circled
around raising a proud cackle. And all the morning the whole family had walked about on the big
plateau midway down the opposite cliff taunting him for his cowardice.
The sun was now ascending the sky, blazing on his ledge that faced the south. He felt the heat
because he had not eaten since the previous nightfall.
He stepped slowly out to the brink of thee ledge, and standing on one leg with the other leg
hidden under his wing, he closed one eye, then the other, and pretended to be falling asleep. Still
they took no notice of him. He saw his two brothers and his sister lying on the plateau dozing with
their heads sunk into their necks. His father was preening the feathers on his white back. Only his
mother was looking at him. She was standing on a little high hump on the plateau, her white breast
thrust forward. Now and again, she tore at a piece of fish lay at her feet and then scrapped each side
of her beak on the rock. The sight of the food maddened him. How he loved to tear food that way,
scrapping his beak now and again to whet it.
“Ga, ga, ga”, he cried begging her to bring him some food. “Gaw-col-ah”, she screamed back
derisively. But he kept calling plaintively, and after a minute or so he uttered a joyful scream. His
mother had picked up a piece of the fish and was flying across to him with it. He leaned out eagerly,
tapping the rock with his feet, trying to get nearer to her as she flew across. But when she was just
opposite to him, she halted, her wings motionless, the piece of fish in her beak almost within reach
of his beak. He waited a moment in supervise, wondering why she did not come nearer, and then,
maddened by hunger, he dived at the fish. With a loud scream he fell outwards and downwards into
space. Then a monstrous terror seized him and his heart stood still. He could hear nothing. But it
only lasted a minute. The next moment he felt his wings spread outwards. The wind rushed against
his breast feathers, then under his stomach, and against his wings. He could feel the tips of his wings
cutting through the air. He was not falling headlong now. He was soaring gradually downwards and
outwards. He was no longer afraid. He just felt a bit dizzy. Then he flapped his wings once and he
soared upwards. “Ga, ga, ga Ga, ga, ga, Gaw-col-ah,” his mother swooped past him, her wings
making a loud noise. He answered her with another scream. Then his father flew over him
screaming. He saw his two brothers and his sister flying around him curveting and banking and
soaring and diving.
Then he completely forgot that he had not always been able to fly, and commended himself to
dive and soar and curve, shrieking shrilly.
He was near the sea now, flying straight over it, facing straight out over the ocean. He saw a vast
green sea beneath him, with little ridges moving over it and he turned his beak sideways and cawed
amusedly.
His parents and his brothers and sister had landed on this green flooring ahead of him. They were
beckoning to him, calling shrilly. He dropped his legs to stand on the green sea. His legs sank into it.
He screamed with fright and attempted to rise again flapping his wings. But he was tired and weak
with hunger and he could not rise, exhausted by the strange exercise. His feet sank into the green
sea, and then his belly touched it and he sank no father. He was floating on it, and around him his
family was screaming, praising him and their beaks were offering him scraps of dog-fish.
-Liam O’ Flaherty
Meanings
Ledge – a narrow horizontal shelf projecting from a wall (or here) a cliff
Expanse – a stretch
plateau – tableland; .
preening – making an effort to maintain feathers, cleaning and trimming with the beak.
scrapped – rubbed
dizzy – having an uncomfortable feeling of spinning around and losing one’s balance, giddy
Language Study
1. Make four words each (minimum 3 letters) using the letters in the given word :
curvetting
e) son - sun
1. The young seagull was not confident about the ability of his wings.
Ans. True
2. The young seagull’s parents guided and improved his sibling in the art of flying.
Ans. True
3. The wings of the young seagull were not as short as his own.
Ans. False
Ans. False
4. Read the following words carefully, know their meanings and fill in the blanks by using
appropriate words given in the brackets : (Answers are directly given.)
5. Pick out from the passage the Homophones for the following :
b) The woodcutter cut the weakened branch with his sharp saw.
Ans. a) In the sentence (a) the Homograph ‘saw’ is the past tense of the word ‘see’.
b) In the sentence (b) the Homograph ‘saw’ means a tool of a carpenter used for cutting wood.
Ans. a) In the sentence (a) the Homograph ‘wing’ means the part of the body of a bird used for
flying.
b) In the sentence (b) the Homograph ‘wing’ is one of the parts of a large building.
Ans. a) In the sentence (a) the Homograph ‘land’ means to come down through the air onto the
ground.
b) In the sentence (b) it means an area of ground used for some purpose.
Ans. a) In sentence (a) head means the person in charge of an institution / organization.
b) In sentence (b) head means the part of the body on top of the neck.
3. cowardice 4. amusedly
1. When the young seagull pretended to be falling asleep, his parents took notice of him.
Ans. False
2. Flying across the young seagull, the mother dropped into his beak a piece of fish.
Ans. False
Ans. False
4. The young seagull’s father was preening the feathers on his white back.
Ans. True
9. Match the words in Column ‘A’ with their meanings in Column ‘B’ :
‘A’ ‘B’
a) ascending i) shining brightly
b) maddened by hunger ii) shocking
c) monstrous iii) made one very angry
d) blazing iv) rising up
Ans. a) ascending - rising up
c) monstrous - shocking
10. Pick out from the passage the Homophones for the following :
5. knot - not
11. Match adjectives given in Column ‘A’ with the nouns given in Column ‘B’ :
A B
a) high i) scream
b) joyful ii) nightfall
c) monstrous iii) hump
d) previous iv) terror
b) joyful - scream
c) monstrous - terror
d) previous - nightfall
12. Read the following words and fill in the blanks by using appropriate words given in the
brackets : (Answers are directly given.)
4. The thief attempted to give the slip, but was caught by the police.
13. Match the words in Colum ‘A’ with their meanings in Column ‘B’ :
14. There are words that have the same pronunciation but differ in spelling. They are
called Homophones. For example, a) fair-fare b) know-no
Sometimes the words have the same spellings and pronunciation but can have different meanings in
different situations.
Adverb
An adverb is a word that tells us something more about a Verb, an Adjective, or another Adverb.
About a Phrase or Sentence : Unfortunately, your answer is incorrect. Adverbs give us information
about:
Many adverbs end with – ly, such as ‘slowly’ actually, surprisingly etc. Like adjectives, adverbs can
also be used in comparative and superlative degree forms. Examples :
Passive :
Many actions involve two people/things - one that performs the action and one that is affected by
the action. Example : Geeta ate the apple. Here, the action of eating involves Geeta (who eats) and
the apple (which gets eaten). Geeta is the subject and ‘apple’ is the object of the verb ‘eat’. When
you want to talk about who performed the action, the doer of the action is the subject.
Sometimes, you want focus on the object - the thing affected by the action. Then you make it the
subject of that sentence.
You may or may not mention the doer - here, Geeta or the person who ate it. This is passive
construction or passive voice. In this type of construction, the thing affected by the verb is the
subject of the sentence, the verb is in the passive form (be + past participle), and the ‘doer’ of the
action may or may not be mentioned. In the following examples of passive voice, the ‘doer’ of
action is not mentioned.
If we wish to mention the ‘doer’ in passive sentences, we mention it by adding ‘by’ before it.
Example : This pen was given to me by my Aunt.
Note that only transitive verbs can be used in the passive voice.
IV. What were the young seagull’s brothers and sister doing ?
VI. How did the family welcome the young seagull’s first flight ?
Read the questions given below and give your personal response to them :
Q 1. What role does your family play in helping you achieve your goals ?