Class 10 - Synonyms - 3. Two Stories About Flying

Read the paragraph and write the synonym of the underlined words choosing from the words given in the brackets:

1. ( hopeless               looked         unable         stretch              hold                sincere)

The great expanse (a) of sea stretched down beneath and it was such a long way down – miles down. He felt certain that his wings would never support (b) 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 (c) to him so desperate. (d)

2. ( burning        rising          failed          faked        sleeping        falling )

The sun was now ascending (a) the sky, blazing (b) warmly 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 the ledge, and, standing on one leg with the other leg hidden under his wing, he closed one eye, then the other, and pretended (c) to be falling asleep. Still, they took no notice of him. He saw his two brothers and his sister lying on the plateau dozing, (d) with their heads sunk into their necks. 

 

3. ( grooming         attention      pulled       pushed       sleeping      rubbed )

Still, they took no notice (a) 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 (b) 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 (c) forward. Now and again, she tore at a piece of fish that lay at her feet, and then scraped (d) each side of her beak on the rock. 

4. (  mournfully        keenly      jeeringly     enraged        happily        relaxed )

The sight of the food maddened (a) him. How he loved to tear food that way, scraping his beak now and again to whet it!‘Ga, ga, ga,’ he cried, begging her to bring him over some food. ‘Gawl-ool-ah,’ she screamed back mockingly.(b)  But he kept calling plaintively, (c) and after a minute or so, he uttered a joyful scream. His mother had picked up a piece of fish and was flying across to him with it. He leaned out eagerly, (d) tapping the rock with his feet, trying to get nearer to her as she flew across.

 

5. (  started        finished        jumping        happily        loudly        calmly )

Then, he saw his two brothers and sister flying around him, curveting (a) and banking and soaring and diving. Then, he completely forgot that he had not always been able to fly, and commenced (b) to dive and soar, shrieking shrilly. (c) He was near the sea now, flying straight over it, facing out over the ocean. He saw a vast green sea beneath him, with little ridges moving over it; he turned his beak sideways and crowed amusedly. (d)

6. ( rotated           trust        abruptly        unfeasible        feasible        distrust )

 Inside the clouds, everything was suddenly (a) black. It was impossible (b) to see anything outside the aeroplane. The old aeroplane jumped and twisted (c) in the air. I looked at the compass. I couldn’t believe (d) my eyes: the compass was turning round and round and round.

7. ( scared        arrived        departed        unusually        sufficient        usually )

 After half an hour the strange black aeroplane was still there in front of me in the clouds. Now there was only enough (a) fuel in the old Dakota’s last tank to fly for five or ten minutes more. I was starting to feel frightened (b) again. But then he started to go down and I followed through the storm.

  I landed (c) and was not sorry to walk away from the old Dakota near the control tower. I went and asked a woman in the control centre where I was and who the other pilot was. I wanted to say ‘Thank you’. She looked at me very strangely, (d) and then laughed.