Take the Plunge By Gloria Emerson – BA Modern English Essays
Here we are uploading questions and answers notes of “Take the Plunge” by Gloria Emerson – BA Modern English Essays for BA and ADP students. These notes are for Punjab University (PU). Sargodha University (UOS) and all other universities in Pakistan. If you want to download complete notes of BA English Part-1 and Part-2, click the links given below and download them in PDF format for free.
- A Selection of Modern English Essays
- A New Anthology of English Poetry
- A Selection of Short Stories and One-Act Plays
- The Old Man and the Sea
Question Answers Notes of The Eclipse by Virginia
Why did Gloria Emerson make the parachute jump?
Ans. Gloria Emerson was a journalist working in a women’s news section. She wanted to do something brave, something exciting instead of writing little silly stories about women’s shoes or skirts.
She confesses that she was neither daring nor confident; she had a bad back, uncertain ankle, and defective vision. Still, she wanted to do something daring, something unusual. But she seemed to have no skill, no talent for anything.
Then somebody told her that jumping from a plane required no special talent or extraordinary physical strength. Skydiving caught her imagination. It was, she was told “the world’s most stimulating and soul-satisfying sport” and “as safe as swimming.” So, in a reckless moment in May, she decided to take the plunge. She wanted to experience the thrill and excitement of drifting through space with a parachute above her. She had no time to think that if wind grew stormy, she might fall on the high-tension wires, or hang on a tree.
Q. Describe Gloria Emerson’s experience of parachute jumping.
Ans. Gloria Emerson wanted to do something unusual and brave but seemed to have no special talent for anything. She was told that skydiving required no extraordinary skill or endurance. The idea of jumping from a plane and drifting through space caught her imagination. She joined Istel’s training center. After a brief period of training, she made her jump.
One lovely morning she boarded a Cessna 180. She felt in her jumpsuit and other equipment. The plane rose and at 23 hundred feet, r companion went to the door and jumped. Suddenly she became nervous and shouted at the drillmaster that she did not want to jump. He could not hear and took her to the doorway. She had no choice but to jump She closed her eyes and plunged forward. She began to fall like a stone. Then the parachute opened with a plop, and she opened eyes. Her eyes and nose were leaking.
Suddenly the noise of the plane and the wind slopped. Then she saw the strange colours and scenes or the endless sky and earth that she had neither seen nor 
read about. The parachute became a toy. She could play with it as she liked. Drifting through space became an e8citing experience, a feverish pleasure that took hold of her whole being.
