Chapter 3: Two Stories about Flying (Two Stories about Flying)

He is very hungry, and his mother holds a piece of fish just out of his reach. Driven by hunger he dives at the fish, falls into the air, and finds that his wings can carry him. His fear disappears as he learns to fly.

Yes, he arrives safely. A mysterious black aeroplane with no lights, flown by a pilot nobody else can see, guides him through the storm to an airport.

The young seagull was afraid because the sea below looked miles down, and he felt certain that his wings would never support him. Even his brothers and sister, whose wings were shorter, had flown, but he could not find the courage to take the plunge.

No, not all young birds are equally afraid. Some are bolder and some more timid, just as children differ. A human baby also finds the first steps a challenge. It is afraid of falling, but with encouragement from the family it keeps trying until it can walk.

It suggests that he was extremely hungry, so hungry that he could think of nothing else. He had not eaten since the previous nightfall. His mother tempted him by holding a piece of fish near him but just out of reach. Maddened by hunger, he dived at the fish, and this forced him to fly.

His parents knew that a bird must learn to fly to survive, to find food and to live with the flock. They had taught the others to skim the waves and dive for fish. So they scolded and threatened him to let him starve, and then coaxed and tempted him with food, to push him to overcome his fear and try.

Sample answer (open-ended): I was afraid to ride a bicycle without side wheels. My father held the seat and ran behind me, telling me to keep pedalling. After many wobbles he let go without telling me, and I found I was riding on my own. I was scared at first, but later I felt proud and happy.

Sample answer (open-ended): My success was not guaranteed. I fell down several times and hurt my knees while learning to ride. But it was important to try, because without trying I would never have learned. Fear of failure stops us from learning; courage to try gives us the chance to succeed.

Open-ended project. Guidance:

• Airplanes: begin with the first powered flight by the Wright brothers (1903), then show biplanes, monoplanes, propeller airliners, jet planes and modern passenger jets, with a picture and a line about each.
• Motorcars: begin with early steam and petrol cars, then the mass-produced Ford Model T, family cars, and finally modern electric and hybrid cars.
• Birds and wing span: compare a small bird such as a hummingbird with large birds such as the albatross, eagle and vulture, using a chart of wing spans.
• Migratory birds: choose birds such as the Siberian crane or Arctic tern, mark their routes on a map, and say why they migrate (food, weather and breeding).

Divide the work: one member collects information, one draws or finds pictures, one makes the chart, and one presents.

Sample composition (open-ended):

My first swimming lesson was a comedy show. The coach said, 'Just relax and float.' I relaxed so much that I sank like a stone. When I came up spluttering, I had swallowed half the pool and my goggles were on the back of my head. On the second day I held on to the wall so tightly that the coach had to pull me off, finger by finger. Everyone laughed, and so did I. After a week I could float, after a month I could swim a whole length, and now nobody can get me out of the water. The pool still remembers my first splash, though.

The risk is flying the old Dakota straight into the huge storm clouds, where he could not see, might lose his way, and might crash. He takes it because he did not have enough fuel to go around the clouds and he did not want to go back to Paris. He was eager to reach home in England, to meet his family and to have a good big English breakfast.

Inside the clouds everything was suddenly black and it was impossible to see anything outside. The old aeroplane jumped and twisted in the air. The compass turned round and round and was dead, the other instruments stopped working, and the radio did not answer. The narrator was lost in the storm, without a radio, a compass or any means to see where he was, and he felt frightened.

The flight had been terrifying. The old Dakota had almost failed him in the storm, with its dead compass and instruments, and its tank nearly empty. When he landed safely he was relieved and glad to leave the aeroplane behind him.

The pilot asked her about 'the other pilot' who had guided him in the storm. She told him that no other aeroplane had been flying that night and that his was the only one she could see on the radar. So his story of a second aeroplane seemed very strange to her.

Sample answer (open-ended): I think the black aeroplane was a mysterious, ghostly helper, perhaps the spirit of a pilot who protected the narrator. My reasons are: the black aeroplane had no lights, it appeared when his instruments had died, it led him exactly to the runway just before his fuel ran out, it vanished the moment he was safe, and the radar showed no other aeroplane. Another view is that the stress of the storm made him imagine it, but this does not explain how he found the airport without any instruments.

Here 'black' means very dirty, covered with dirt.

very dirty

Here 'black' means angry or disapproving. The driver looked at Ratan with anger.

angry, disapproving

Here 'blackest' means the most evil, wicked and shameful.

most wicked

Here 'black comedy' means a comedy that treats dark, grim or painful subjects such as death in a humorous way.

dark, grim humour

To 'sell in black' means to sell illegally, at a higher price and secretly, in the black market, without records or tax.

illegally, in the black market

To be beaten 'black and blue' means to be beaten so badly that the body is covered with bruises.

covered with bruises

The words that mean the same or nearly the same as 'fly' (to move through the air) are:

swoop, flit, flutter, ascend, descend, hover, glide, soar, dart, skim, sail, flap.

The words that do not belong are: paddle, ride, sink, shoot, spring, stay, fall. ('Float' is mainly used for water, but is also accepted by some keys for something drifting in the air.)

swoop, flit, flutter, ascend, descend, hover, glide, soar, dart, skim, sail, flap

Sample paragraph (open-ended):

Last monsoon I was returning from my tuition class when the sky suddenly turned black. Within minutes there was lightning, loud thunder and heavy rain. The street lights went out, and I was alone and frightened. I took shelter under a shop's awning and counted the seconds between the flash and the thunder to calm myself. After half an hour my father arrived with an umbrella. I was wet and shivering, but I was happy to see him. Since that day I always carry a raincoat in the monsoon.

Not exactly, as the word 'dying' is normally said 'DYE-ing'. But if we drop the 'g' and say 'dyin'' quickly as 'DYE-un', it rhymes with 'lion' (LYE-un).

He says that a large tawny beast that advances towards you and roars at you is the Asian lion, and a wild beast with black stripes on a yellow ground is the Bengal tiger. The humour is that you can tell them only when it is too late, that is, when the lion roars at you 'as you're dyin'' and when the tiger actually eats you.

No, the correct spellings are 'leapt' and 'leap'. The poet spells them as 'lept' and 'lep' to suit the sound and rhythm of the poem, to match the way the word sounds in 'Leopard', and for fun. The funny spelling also suggests the quick, sudden jumps of the leopard.

Sample answer (open-ended). In Hindi there are similar sayings: 'magarmachh ke aansoo' means crocodile tears, or false grief; 'geedar bhabki' means an empty threat; 'sher ki tarah dahadna' means to roar like a lion; 'lomdi ki tarah chalak' means as cunning as a fox; and 'bagula bhagat' means a person who pretends to be good, like a crane standing very still.

Correctly it would be 'A novice might be nonplussed' (since 'nonplus' is usually used in the passive). The poet's line is better because it is shorter, keeps the rhythm of the stanza, and rhymes with 'thus' in the line 'Tell from the Hyena thus'. The odd grammar also adds to the humour.

Sample answer (open-ended): Lewis Carroll's poem 'Jabberwocky' uses invented words like 'slithy toves' and 'brillig'. E. E. Cummings breaks the usual rules of spelling and punctuation. In Hindi, poets such as Kaka Hathrasi wrote humorous poems (hasya kavita), twisting words and spellings for fun.

Sample answer (open-ended): I like the lines 'If when you're walking round your yard / You meet a creature there, / Who hugs you very, very hard, / Be sure it is a Bear.' The humour is in the idea: a 'hug' is a friendly thing, but a bear's hug is dangerous. The repeated 'very, very' makes the hug sound even tighter. I also like the last stanza, where the chameleon is identified by the fact that 'there is nothing on the tree', because a chameleon changes colour and cannot be seen.

The boy is deeply and privately grieved, so the poet does not want to enter a situation where he is not welcome. He does not offer money because 'a dime, another ball, is worthless': money cannot replace the lost ball or what it meant to the boy. The boy must learn to deal with the loss on his own.

Yes, he seems to have had the ball for a long time. The words 'all his young days' suggest that the ball was part of his childhood, so it holds the memories of the days when he played with it. That is why its loss causes such 'shaking grief'.

It means the world in which people own and value material things such as toys, money and property. In this world things can be lost or taken, and one has to learn to take responsibility for them.

The words 'Now / He senses first responsibility' suggest that this is probably the first time the boy has lost something and felt responsible for it, so he has not lost anything important before. (The poem does not say this clearly, so other views based on the text are also acceptable.)

The poet says the boy is learning 'the epistemology of loss', that is, understanding what loss means. He learns that things are lost, that money cannot buy back what we truly value, and that grief must be faced. Above all he learns 'how to stand up', that is, to bear the loss bravely and go on, as every man must do one day.

Sample paragraph (open-ended):

I once lost a pen that my grandfather had given me. I searched my bag and the classroom, but it was gone. I felt empty and sad, and I could not eat properly that day. My mother did not buy me a new one at once; she said that the pen's value was in the memory and that I should keep the memory safe. Slowly I accepted the loss. I learned to be more careful with my things, and now I treasure my grandfather's blessings more than the pen.