Class 10 English Chapter 1 Extract Based Question Answers - First Flight

1. Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:
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 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. 

Q1: Why was the young seagull afraid? 
Ans:  The young seagull was afraid of flying over the sea.
Q2: What did the young seagull feel about his wings? 
Ans: The young seagull felt that his wings would never support him.
Q3: Pick out the word from the passage that means the same as ‘the verge’. 
Ans:  The word is ‘brink’.
Q4: Pick out the word from the passage which means ‘a narrow flat piece of rock that sticks out from a cliff’.
Ans: The word is ‘ledge’.

2. Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:
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 elder 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. 

Q1: The young seagull had been alone for how much time? 
Ans: For twenty four hours, the young seagull had been alone.
Q2: Why was the whole family taunting the young seagull? 
Ans: The whole family was taunting the young seagull for his cowardice.
Q3: Find the word which can be replaced by ‘consume’ in the passage? 
Ans: The word is ‘devour’.
Q4: The word ‘bravery’ is an antonym of ___________.
Ans: The word is ‘cowardice’. 

3. Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:
He stepped slowly out to the brink of the 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 that lay at her feet and then scrapped each side of her beak on the rock. 

Q1: What did the young seagull do out on the ledge? 
Ans: The young seagull pretended to be falling asleep and watched his brothers and sister lying on the plateau.
Q2: What was seagull’s father doing?
Ans: The seagull’s father was preening the feathers on his white back.
Q3: Find out the word in the passage which means the same as ‘to sharpen’. 
Ans: The word is ‘preening’.

Q4: What does plateau mean? 
Ans: A plateau is an area of land that is higher than the land around it. 

4. Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:
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 arid 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 curving and banking and soaring and diving.

Q1: What did the young seagull feel the next moment? 
Ans: The next moment the young seagull felt his wings spread outwards.
Q2: What did the young seagull’s mother do? 
Ans: The young seagull’s mother swooped past him and made a loud noise with her wings.
Q3: Find out the word from the passage that means the same as ‘fly high in the air’. 
Ans: The word is ‘soaring’.
Q4: Find out from the passage a word that means ‘to grab’.
Ans: The word is ‘seized’.

5. Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:
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 farther. He was floating on it, and around him his family was screaming, praising him and their beaks were offering him scraps of dog-fish. 

Q1: What does the phrase, ‘this green flooring’ refer to? 
Ans: ‘The green flooring’ refers to the green surface of the sea.
Q2: What made the young seagull tired? 
Ans: The young seagull was tired because he was weak with hunger and he made a successful attempt for his first flight.
Q3: Find out the word that means the same as ‘inviting’.
Ans: Beckoning.
Q4: The word _________ means a small piece/amount of something.
Ans: Scrap.