Take the Plunge

                          By Gloria Emerson             

‘Take the Plunge’ is a beautiful essay written by a

world famous authoress, Gloria Emerson.
She was basically a journalist. But she wanted to do
something extraordinary in her life. At
last she decided to jump through a plane with the help
of a parachute.

When she told her decision to her friends and

colleague, they made fun of her.She was weak
physically.She had a bad back and uncertain ankles.
But mentally, she was a determines and strong
woman.

She joined a training center and got necessary

training. After that she wore the kit and
boarded Cessna -180 plane with her companion who
also was to jump with her.
When the plane reached the height of 20,000
thousand feet, they were  asked to jump.Her
companion jumped first, but when her turn came she
got nervous.

She clung  to the iron rod of the plane. She wanted to
go to the washroom. Her heart started throbbing
rapidly . She wanted to remove the heavy kit . Her
instructor yelled and said, Go”. At last she jumped
from the plane. First she heard the loud noise of the
plane and the fast moving  gusts of wind. Her
nose and eyes were discharging water.. She was
totally terrified.

But all of a sudden, her parachute opened with a jerk.

The noise of the plane and air
vanished. Parachute became a toy in her hands. The
blue sky was looking very beautiful.
There was utter peace and comfort.
The earth looked beautiful and colorful to her. Now,
she wanted to stay in the air for a long time. But she
was getting nearer and nearer to her destination.  At
last , she landed on a sandpit. At the same time she
was taken to see James Gavin. Now everybody was
happy and surprised at her bold act.

It is proved that women are equal to men in all

respects.. Emerson was the least suitable
person for a parachute jumping. But s he did that and
made every one surprise. She was a
bold lady a courageous woman. No doubt that during
all her venture, she could not focus on her feelings
but over all she enjoyed it.
Important Questions:
1.What are Emerson s' feelings after and before the
jump?
2.What is the message of the essay?
Did her feelings changed constantly throughout the
essay or it remain constant?

Points to Remember:
1.By profession ,she was a journalist but she wanted
to perform some daring deed.
2.She decided to jump from a plane with parachute
because it was the most self satisfying sport in
respect of proving some one as daring man or
woman.
3.When her colleagues came to know of her
decision,they made fun of her as she was the least
suitable person for this job.
4.At the invitation of Jacques Istel who had opened a
parachute jumping center,she went to
Orange,Massachusetts.
5.It was the slogan of that center that parachute
jumping is as safe as swimming.
5.In that center,she got the necessary training.She
was boarded in a Cessna-180 plane with a male
companion and she had to jump from the height of
twenty thousands feet.
6.Her male companion jumped but she got
nervous,she jumped unwillingly.
7.The parachute opened and she began to enjoy the
scene and she was no more nervous now.
8.She wished to stay long in the sky but she was
landed on a sandpit.
9.She was successful in her mission and proved , "If
one is determined,one can do any impossible task."
10.She was taken to see General James Gavin who
praised her act of courage

                    WHISTLING OF BIRDS
                                           D.H. Lawrence
D.H Lawrence is  a famous English poet, novelist and
critic. He is known for his love for
nature. He was also a great moralist.

In ‘Whistling of Birds’ , he expresses his natural

feelings as well as  his fascination for
nature. The essay is  a vivid description of the change
from winter to spring. The writer
describes first the cold and dull winter. Winter is a dull
season as it kills the beauty of
nature. It is the season of death and destruction and
is also the season of
inactivity.

Everything turns yellow and brown in the harsh winter.

The birds start dying in
this season. It  stops the whistling of birds. Death
rules everywhere.
The transformation from winter into spring had hardly
started to occur. The birds were
also responding to this change instinctively.
  They had stated singing and their songs were itself
giving a message of the approach of the spring..
Although the torn remains of the birds could be seen
scattered everywhere yet the whistling birds had
forgotten the past and they were inclined only to
herald spring season which was now setting in.  The
death is unable to stop the onrush of life as winter
was unable to stop the onrush of spring.

The writer is of the view that this change is a natural

phenomenon and it is beyond our
control. We can neither prolong winter nor hold back
the spring. In the presence of winter,
spring is absent as in the presence of life death flees
away .They cannot co-exist. The same
is the case with human life. We are also either happy
or sad but we cannot be happy and
sad together.

Whistling of Birds” shows writer s’ love for nature-

discuss?
Lawrence very successfully describes the change of
nature in this essay. Change of seasons
is a phenomenon of nature. Nature goes on
completing it life cycle round the year. Winter
and  spring are totally incompatible to each other.

 When there is winter, there is no sign of

the spring season and when there is spring , there is
no sign of winter. This journey of
nature is going on parallel  but in the two directions.
Winter gives forth spring and spring
gives forth winter.

Points to Remember:
1.It is a highly symbolic essay:the writer has used
many symbols of nature,expressing his deep love for
the elements of nature,he has very successfully
expressed the cycle of life and death.
2.Summer,spring symbolize life whereas winter and
autumn symbolize death and destruction.
3.Death like life is as inevitable as autumn and spring
are inevitable.Both are opposite but are necessary in
this life cycle.
4.Death cannot stop the onrush of life,likewise life
cannot stop the onrush of death.
5. With complete incompatibility,these both factors go
side by side.
6. Autumn causes death of the birds while spring
causes whistle of the birds.
7.Life give forth to death and death give forth to life.
8. In the presence of death life flies away and in the
presence of life death flies away

THE ECLIPSE
                                    Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf was a famous English
novelist, critic and essayist. She was the
daughter of a prominent Victorian critic,
Sir Leslie Stephen. This essay, The Eclipse
reveals her vivid observation and artistic
description of details. This is her one of
representative essays which shows her
qualities and attitudes as a writer.
The essay in hand describes the scene of
solar eclipse that lasted for twenty four
second. It also projects the excitement of
the people of England who  were very
eager to see the solar eclipse. It was a
night in the month of June, when large
number of people was travelling to the
North. All of them wanted to reach
Yorkshire by the early morning so that
they could see the solar eclipse clearly.

 People had reached at the Euston

Railway station from the different parts of
the country. Everybody was up at that
night. There was no fixity, no sleep in
England at that night..They felt
themselves related to the whole world
.The crowd went on increasing as the
people on the way were joining them.
Finally they reached the meeting place on
a high fell. The ground was soft
moorland .They sat down on the ground
and some of them started eating while
others were moving about. They looked
like statue standing prominent at the
ridge of the world.None of them had good
appearance. Gradually the sun started
rising and threw its golden grays on the
ground. The sky was cloudy somewhat.
Soon the sun started shining in full glory.

 And the snow began to melt.But in no

time the clouds covered the sun. A game
of hide and seek began between the sun
and the clouds and it created suspense
among the viewers.It appeared that the
clouds tried to obstruct the path of the
sun whereas the sun dashed forward to
reach its goal.
The sun appeared again. Now the sacred
twenty four seconds of eclipse had
started. The sun had disappeared behind
the moon and only a hollow sun was seen
until the sun completely blotted out.
There was then extreme chill and
darkness everywhere. It seemed to be the
end of the world. This horrified the
viewers.
Soon, however, the eclipse was over and
the sun repapered again filling the world
with life and cooler. This observation
gave the people a feeling that all the
colours and beauty of the earth is owing
to the sun. Without the existence of the
sun, there would be no colour, no activity
and no life on the earth.
What is the message of the essay, The
Eclipse?
It is a beautiful descriptive easy written
by world  famous writer , Virginia Woolf.
The message of the essay is quite simple
and straightforward. The sun is the pivot
of the solar system. Without the existence
of the sun , all the colours of the world
vanish and  the worlds looks like a
withered leaf. The world is dead without
a the sun.
This is proved buy the people of England
who are going to Yorkshire , in the foot  of
a hill, to see the solar eclipse that would
be of twenty four seconds only. There was
great thrill and excitement over England.
Everybody was up that night and the
people  were travelling to the North. They
had reached the Euston railway station 
from there they would reach their final
destination.
At last they reached the appointed place
by the morning. Their appearance was
not good. They waited impatiently for the
rise of the sun. The sky was cloudy. This
created suspense among them. At last ,
the sun rose , it threw its golden rays on
the earth. A game of hide and seek began
between the sun the clouds. Before the
eclipse the world was looking very
beautiful. The colors of the world were
visible.
Now the sacred twenty four seconds
began. The sun started disappearing
behind the moon; only a hollow sun was
looking. All the faces lost pleasures. The
colors of the world disappeared. Darkness
prevailed everywhere. The cold grew. The
life lost its meaning .The world looked
like a dead d leaf.
But then the sun regained its brightness
and  world was again full of colors and
vigor.

Points to remember:
1.In this modern essay,Virginia Woolf
tells us the importance of the sun for our
Earth and existence of life on it.
2.The humans' joys,pleasures,life and the
colours of the world are due to the Sun,if
there is no Sun,all the pleasures ,joys and
colours vanish.
3. On a beautiful June morning, the people
were moving towards a hilly area in
Northern England.
4.They gathered at the foot of a hill and
the purpose of there gathering was to
witness a total solar eclipse.
4.The villagers were amazed to see a large
crowd and a country squire also joined
the gathering with his four hunting dogs.
5. All the people were so keen to go as if
they had some appointment to keep.
6.The Sun rose and spread its golden rays
all over the valley making everything
colourful and beautiful.
7. The weather was somewhat
cloudy,there started a game of hide and
seek between the sun and the clouds.
8.The sacred twenty four seconds started
and the people witnessed a complete
solar eclipse.Darkness prevailed every
where.
9. The world seemed to be dead during
the solar eclipse.
10. From this incident,the writer drew a
conclusion: the colours of the world are
not permanent.

Question:
Why has the writer used the reference
of  "Stone-Henge".What is her purpose
behind it?
Answer:
Here in this essay the writer has given a
pre-historic reference of Stone Henge.
All over the world it is a famous historic
site.Stone Henge is basically a circular
setting of large standing stones.It was a
place where the worshipers of the Sun
stood together and worshiped the
Sun.They believed in the 'Sol' the god of
the Sun.
Here in this essay "The Eclipse" the writer wants to give a religious
touch by giving the reference of Stone Henge. In this essay , the people
stood in circular shape to witness the solar eclipse.They seemed as if
they were ancient people who stood in the same position on the Stone
Henge to worship the Sun

But in this essay, it is very clear that here the gathering of the people
means only to observe the solar eclipse and not to worship the Sun.

Hosts and Guests

By Max Beerbohm

Max Beerbohm is regarded as the best essayist

parodist and cartoonist of his age. He was educated
at Merton College, Oxford and was a popular figure in
London s’ artistic and fashionable circles.
‘Host and Guests’ is a humorous essay in which
Beerbohm describes the qualities of the hosts and the
guests. He thinks that mankind can be divided
generally into two categories: hosts and guests. The
difference the between the two is not only
circumstantial and particular but also temperamental
and general. Every human being has either the
positive and active instinct of being a host or the
negative and passive instinct of being a guest. Hosts
are those who have the natural instinct to serve
others and guests are those who want to be served.
The quality of hospitality is exclusively a human
quality and it has developed slowly with the
development of the civilization. The cavemen did not
entertain others because they were afraid of being
killed by the hosts in their caves. The quality of
hospitality developed slowly as human beings were
organized into groups. However the history of
hospitality is full of painful incidents, the writer tells us
that though the Israelites were considered to be the
salt of the world, yet the treachery of the Jael was
condemnable.
In the same way the Greeks cultured but Odysseus
killed his guests under his own room. The Romans
were at the peak of civilization in the fifteenth century,
but Borgias concealed poison in their cellars for their
guests. Yet the Scotch s’ hospitality is proverbial. It
was Scotland that first formed hospitality with the
basic principal that the guest must be honored and
protected at all cost.
Discussing hospitality in the present world, the writer
says that it is conventional for the rich to give and for
the poor to take as a result of which the rich usually
become hosts and the poor usually become the
guests. But this cannot be regarded as a rule because
neither all the poor are guests nor all the rich are
always the hosts. Most of the time it is simply the
matter of one’s’ temperament. However, a host as a
guest is far worse than the guest as a host. 

The writer says that like other boys he himself was a

guest by nature but he often entertained his friends at
the restaurant and was always afraid of the shortage
of the money in his pocket. The writer feels that the
guests must be obliged to their hosts but many times
it is not so. Many guests like Dante are often
ungrateful to their hosts.

Difficult words with Urdu Meaning

English Urdu
Parodist ‫ نقالی کرنے واال‬ ‫مزاحیہ انداز میں‬
Circumstantia ‫حاالت پر منحصر ہونا‬
l
Instinct ‫پیدائشی عادت‬,  ‫فطری جبلت‬
Hospitality ‫مہمان نوازی‬
Civilization ‫تہذیب‬
Entertained ‫مہمان کی خاطر مدارت کرنا‬
Israelites ‫اسرائیلی‬
Jael (Yeal) ‫ دھوکے سے قتل‬ ‫ایک عورت جس نے سزرا کو‬
‫کیا تھا‬
Condemnable ‫ مزمت‬ ‫قابل‬ ِ
Borgia ‫اندر ایک خاندان جو سیاسی اور مذہبی‬  ‫سپین کے‬
‫قوت بن کر ابھرے تھے لیکن وہ اپنے مہمانوں کو‬
‫زہر دے کر قتل کر دیتے تھے‬
‫‪Concealed‬‬ ‫چھپا دینا‬
‫‪Proverbial‬‬ ‫ایسی چیز جو مثالی ہو‬
‫‪Ungrateful‬‬ ‫نا شکر گزار ہونا‬
‫‪Temperament‬‬ ‫مزاج‬
‫‪Dante‬‬ ‫اٹلی کا ایک مشہور شاعر تھا‬

‫مفہوم‬

‫اس مضمون کے اندر مصنف بڑے مزاحیہ انداز سے انسانوں کی فطری‬

‫جبلت‪  ‬مہمان یا میزبان ہونے کی کو پیش کرتا ہے ۔ وہ انسانوں کو دو‬
‫گرہوں میں تقسیم کرتا ہے ۔ ایک گروہ وہ ہے جو پیدائشی میزبان ہوتے‬
‫ہیں اور دوسرا گروہ وہ ہے جو پیداِشی مہمان ہوتے ہیں۔ مہمان نوازی کی‬
‫عادت انسان کی مثبت خصوصیت ہے جو آہستہ آہستہ تہذیب کی ترقی کے‬
‫ساتھ ساتھ پیدا ہوئی۔ لیکن مہمان نوازی کی تاریخ کافی کرب ناک ہے۔‬
‫وقت کی ترقی کے ساتھ ساتھ مہمان نوازی‪  ‬کےطریقے بھی بدل گئے‬
‫ہیں۔ آج کے دور میں امیروں کو مہمان‪  ‬نواز سمجھا جاتا ہے اور غریبوں‬
‫کو اچھا‪  ‬مہمان سمجھا جاتا ہے حالنکہ ہر امیر مہمان دار‪  ‬نہیں ہوتا اور‬
‫‪ ‬ہر غریب مہمان نہیں‬
‫‪ ‬ہوتا‪ ،  ‬حاالت اس کے برعکس‪  ‬بھی ہو سکتے ہیں‬
Summary
Alpha of the Plough is the pen name of Alfred GeorgeGardiner,
an English journalist, biographer and essayist. He is a
world famous personality in literature.
Good manners are valuable in life. Bad manners are
not a legal offence. Small words of courtesy make the
wheel of life greasy. While bad manners make the life
repulsive and difficult to live on. Bad manners are not
a legal offence, law does not permit us to hit back if
we are the victim of bad manners. Bad as well as
good manners create a chain of reactions.
The lift man while observing the bad manners also
retaliated the same. He threw the man out of the lift
 because he said only top not as ‘Top Please’.
Discourtesy should never be responded with
discourtesy. Otherwise the life would become difficult
to live on.
If a burglar breaks into ones’ house, the law compels
the house owner to knock him down. If one is
assaulted physically, one can retaliate accordingly.
But what is of misconduct and bad manners. In the
both cases the pain is equal but law does not allow us
to box the ears of the persons who bears bad
manners. Because bad manners are not put in the
category of legal offence.
Bad as well as good manners are infectious. They
create a chain of reactions. Once the writer had a
chance to travel in a bus. Unfortunately he was with
zero money in his pocket. He thought that the
conductor might throw him out off the bus. The
conductor gave him the ticket and requested the
author to pay the money later on. All the way long, the
conductor amused the passengers with his jolly mood
and words of courtesy.

 That was the reason the people waited for his bus to
board on.
One day sitting on the top of the bus the author was
reading a book. Suddenly his sensitive part of the toe
was trampled on rather heavily. The writer looked up,
it was his friend conductor who was already humbled
with his sense of sorry. Although the author was hurt
badly but good behavior of man healed his pain.

Important questions
1.  “If bad manners are infectious, so also are good
manners.” Elaborate.
2.  What is the importance of saying, ‘Please’?
  
   Important Points
   1. Good manners are key to success in life
   2. Bad manners are not a legal offence.
   3. No law allows us to kick back the person who
misbehaves with us.
   4. Good manners and bad manners are like
infection,create a chain of reactions.
   5. If any burglar beaks into house,one is allowed to hit
him but if any one injures the
       feelings of any one,law is silent.
   6. The attitude of the lift man is not appreciable
because he retaliates bad manners 
       with bad manners.
   7. The bus conductor has made his life easy by
showing good manners.
   8. Everybody waits for his bus and loves to travel with
him 
  
  Summary in points
1. A lift man shows bad manners and throws a man
out of the lift,the reason was that the man did not
added 'please' with the word 'Top'
2. There is no law against bad manners,law is unable
to force anyone to show good manners,though the
damages caused by discourtesy are great.
3. A  sword wounds heals soon but injury to any one
s' feelings cannot be forgotten.
4. Bad manners and good manners both are
infectious and create a chain of reactions.
5. The author also gives the example of a bus
conductors who shows good manners and keeps his
passengers happy.

6. Once the writer forgot his purse at home but the

conductor gave him ticket happily with a smiling face.
6. The good conductor was always helpful and he
eased his passengers.So, he made his job easier for
himself.
7. If we are behaved well,we behave nicely with
others,but if we are misbehaved, our attitude
becomes rough with others.
8.This is why wars had a negative impact on human
history.

To Err Is Human
                                                               by Lewis
Thomas
About a serious and sober problem, it is a light essay.
The human have a positive capability of 'erring' ...
making mistakes. This is the only capability due to
which all the human beings have progressed. If they
lack this ability, they would not be able to make even
a slight progress.
On the other hands, animals do not have this
capability. The animals such as dogs and cats do not
have the capability of making mistakes, so they have
not changed their living conditions.
Man has made machines and these man made
machines are liable to make mistakes. Computers do
certain mistakes. The mistakes committed by
computers are not the mistakes of computers. These
mistakes are the mistakes of the man. So by these
mistakes man has learnt a lot and there is a revolution
in every field.
It is put into the nature of  the man. So this capability
and capacity of making mistakes has been gifted to
the man by nature.God has bestowed this capability
only on man. So this man is making progress and
inventing newer and newer things by 'trial and error.
In life we have more alternatives and choices before
us.It becomes difficult to choose the best one on the
very outset. So this process continues and we make
and invent or discover many things in the field of
science.
If we were unable to make any mistake, we would
never have made any progress and might have been
living like animals even now.But thanks to this
capability of making errors due to which we have got
elevation in life.
If man gives free hand to computers, they can make
us know of more and more mistakes and we can
progress more than past.
The main objective of this essay is to tell others that
humans learn through their mistakes.All the progress
of the world owe to this faculty.If humans did not have
this quality,the progress made by them would not
have been possible.
Animals do not have this quality.This is why ,there is
no betterment in their living style.A sparrow lived in a
nest thousands years ago and is doing so even today.
Questions:
1.what quality differentiate man from animals?
2.what is the outcome of making mistakes?