NCERT Book Class 10 English (First Flight) Chapter 3 Two Stories about Flying; His First Flight; Black Aeroplane How to Tell Wild Animals, The Ball Poem

BEFORE YOU READ
Since the earliest times, humans have dreamt of conquering the
skies. Here are two stories about flying.
I. A young seagull is afraid to fly. How does he conquer his fear?
II. A pilot is lost in storm clouds. Does he arrive safe? Who helps
him?

I
His First Flight

THE young seagull was alone on his ledge. His two ledge
brothers and his sister had already flown away the a narrow horizontal
shelf projecting from
day before. He had been afraid to fly with them.
a wall or (here) a cliff
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 down. 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