Class 7 English Chapter 12: Conquering the Summit

A list of achievements, read the wrong way

The piece can be copied out as a run of dates and medals, and a pupil who does that has missed it. What the writing is actually about is the order of two decisions, and the dates are there to prove the order. Read it once for the awards and a second time for the gaps between them.

Before anything happened

In 2011 Arunima Sinha was 24 and a national-level volleyball player. She had a law degree and a post-graduate degree, and she meant to join the paramilitary forces so that she could keep playing and still earn.

The night of 11 April 2011

A train accident. One leg amputated. The hours that followed were harrowing, and the piece says plainly that she had not expected to live through the night. She did survive, and the chapter credits an extraordinary will to live rather than any medicine.

The first decision

It is made in a hospital bed. She has a prosthetic leg and is doing physiotherapy, and she reads an article about Mount Everest. She decides to climb the highest mountain on earth.

Why the setting of that decision matters

Because nothing about her circumstances made it reasonable. A reader who takes the story as a sporting achievement has the emphasis wrong: the achievement the piece is most interested in happened before any training.

What Bachendri Pal said

The first Indian woman to summit Everest told her that by deciding to climb it in those circumstances she had already conquered the Everest inside herself, and that the world would realise it later.

What that sentence is doing

It is naming the harder of the two mountains. One is in Nepal and takes 52 days; the other is in a hospital bed and takes an afternoon. Bachendri Pal is saying the second one was finished first.

Then the slow part

The Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, at Uttarkashi, for a basic course. Then eighteen months of rigorous training. There is nothing sudden anywhere in this story. She also went to find a teacher, which is the other thing people miss: Bachendri Pal was approached, not sent.

Why the piece gives you the dates

So that the climb cannot be read as luck or as a sudden burst of courage. April 2011 to May 2013 is two years, and the reader is meant to count them. Eight years pass before the Seven Summits are complete, which is a longer count and the same argument.

21 May 2013

She reaches the summit after 52 exhausting days. Standing there she feels pride, and relief, and an overwhelming sense of achievement. It is a careful list, because two of those three are about what is over.

What she left at the top

The Indian flag, planted. And a photograph of Swami Vivekananda, her idol, whose teachings had carried her through. She carried something up in order to leave it behind.

The awards

The Padma Shri in 2015, India’s fourth highest civilian award. The Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award. And the National Award for Best Female Mountaineer. All three came after the summit, which is worth noticing when a reader is tempted to put the medals at the front of the story.

The Seven Summits

The highest peak of every continent. By July 2016 she had six: Everest in Asia, and peaks in Europe, Africa, Australia, South America and North America.

And the seventh

Mount Vinson, in Antarctica, in January 2019. She became the first female amputee in the world to climb it, and the set was complete.

What the story is not only about

Physical endurance. The piece says so directly, and puts mental fortitude and a positive mindset beside it. Her own message is four words long: never give up, work hard.

Her definition of failure

Not falling short of a goal. Failure, she says, is not having goals worth having. That turns the word round, and it is the sentence of hers most worth remembering. By that test a person who aims high and misses has not failed, and a comfortable person who aims at nothing has.

The title of the book

Born Again on the Mountain, with a subtitle about losing everything and then finding it back. Both halves are literal. The accident took a leg and a career; the mountain is where a life came back.

And the two words in front of her name

Dr Arunima Sinha, by an honorary doctorate from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. A degree given for what she did rather than for what she studied, which is what honorary means in front of a doctorate.

Scenario:

Two pupils write up the same achievement for a school magazine. Ritika writes nine sentences, each one an award or a record: the Padma Shri, the Tenzing Norgay award, the Best Female Mountaineer award, the first female amputee on Vinson, the honorary doctorate. Every fact in it is correct. Sagar writes six sentences. Three are dates with the gaps worked out. One is about an article read in a hospital bed. One quotes Bachendri Pal, and the last gives Arunima’s own definition of failure. The editor prints Sagar’s and asks Ritika to try again. Ritika points out that nothing in hers is wrong.

Analysis:

Nothing in Ritika’s piece is wrong and nothing in it is an account. A list of awards tells a reader that somebody was honoured and not why, and it can be assembled by anybody with the same page open. Sagar did three things she did not. He worked out the gaps, so a reader can see that two years separate the accident from the summit and that nothing was sudden. He put the decision in the place where it actually happened, which is a hospital bed, so the reader meets the hard part before the famous part. And he quoted the two sentences in the piece that are arguments rather than facts: Bachendri Pal on the Everest within her, and Arunima on failure being the absence of a goal worth having. An award is the end of a story. A date, a decision and a definition are the story.

Activity:

Take any achievement you admire and write six sentences about it with no award in any of them. Then ask somebody which version tells them more.

Title:

Count the gaps

Safety:

None needed.

What You Notice:

The famous dates are close together and the gaps between them are full of training. The story a reader has usually heard is the shortest part of the timeline.

The Seven Summits are the highest mountains of the seven continents, and fewer than five hundred people are recorded as having climbed all of them.

Bachendri Pal became the first Indian woman to reach the summit of Everest in 1984, almost thirty years before Arunima Sinha did.

The Padma Shri is the fourth highest civilian award in India, and it was conferred on Arunima Sinha in 2015.

The sequence — Accident, article, course, training, summit — April 2011, then an article read in hospital, then the Nehru Institute course, then eighteen months, then 21 May 2013. Five steps and no shortcut among them.

The two Everests — The decision first, the mountain after — Bachendri Pal’s point. The Everest within her was conquered in a hospital bed, and the one in Nepal took another two years.

Seven continents, seven peaks

The Seven Summits are the highest mountain of each continent. Climbing all of them is a recognised feat, and Arunima Sinha finished the set in January 2019.

The ones most likely to be asked

Everest for Asia and Vinson for Antarctica. Those two carry her story: the first is the famous climb and the second is the one that completed the seven. Learn that pair first and the other five can be fitted round them.

The other five

Elbrus in Europe. Denali in North America. Aconcagua in South America. Kilimanjaro in Africa. Kosciuszko in Australia. Seven names and seven continents, and the matching is the whole of the question.

What the table hides

They are nothing like equally hard. Kosciuszko can be walked up in an afternoon, and Vinson is difficult mainly because reaching Antarctica at all is difficult. The list is a geography, not a ranking.

Now the five phrases

Heartfelt attempts, mental fortitude, exhausting days, a life-altering event, a beacon of hope. All five come out of this chapter, and all five are usable far away from it. That last point is the test of a phrase worth learning: if it only works in the chapter it came from, it is a quotation rather than a piece of vocabulary.

Why they are phrases and not words

Mental fortitude is not mental plus fortitude. It is one idea, strength of mind, and it travels into a sentence whole. Taking it apart gives you two words that are harder to use than the pair.

Heartfelt attempts

Genuine, sincere efforts. The phrase praises the trying rather than the result, which is why it fits somebody who failed at something and meant it.

Mental fortitude

Strength of mind, held over a long time. The chapter puts it beside physical endurance rather than underneath it, and that placing is the chapter’s argument in two words. Fortitude in particular means courage that lasts, which is why the phrase cannot be swapped for determination.

Exhausting days

A stretch of time filled with tiring, demanding activity. Not one bad afternoon: the phrase needs a run of them, as the 52 days on Everest were.

A life-altering event

An incident that changes a person’s life. The accident of April 2011 is the chapter’s own example, and the phrase is neutral: an event can alter a life in either direction.

A beacon of hope

A source of inspiration or encouragement. A beacon was once a fire lit on a hill, so the phrase carries the idea of something seen from a long way off, which is why a lighthouse is the usual example.

One idea, four shapes

A sentence leaves a slot, and the slot has a shape. Determination is the noun, determined the adjective, determine the verb, determinedly the adverb. The idea does not change; the shape does.

How to fill a slot

Read the sentence without the gap and ask what is missing. A thing wants a noun. A description of a thing wants an adjective. An action wants a verb. The way an action is done wants an adverb.

Why the table is worth building

Because a pupil who knows only the noun writes round the gap instead of filling it. With four forms in hand, the sentence can be written the way it wants to be written. A sentence bent round a missing word always says something slightly different from the one that was wanted.

The patterns that hold

Most adverbs are the adjective plus -ly: successful gives successfully, inspiring gives inspiringly. And most adjectives are the noun with an ending changed: resistance gives resistant. Those two patterns will carry a pupil through almost every row they are asked to complete, which is exactly why the exceptions need to be learnt by name.

And the ones that do not

The verb for success is succeed, which shares a syllable with the noun and not much else. Nothing in the spelling of success tells you that, and a pupil who assumes a pattern writes successed.

One more worth knowing

Relievedly exists, and almost nobody says it. A table can produce a real word that is never used, so the test of an adverb is whether you have heard it rather than whether the table allows it.

Why this half of the chapter matters

The seven peaks are a table and can be learnt in ten minutes. The phrases and the word forms are what a pupil will actually write with, in this chapter and in every one after it.

Scenario:

A school writes a notice for a mountaineering talk and sends a draft round. It reads: our speaker has shown great determine in her climbs, and her story is an inspire to us all. She faced her accident determination and succeeded a place in the record books. Every word in those two sentences is a real English word, and four of them are the wrong form of the right word. The teacher who corrects it says that the writer knew all four ideas and none of the four shapes.

Analysis:

Each error is the same error. The writer reached for an idea and took whichever form came to mind first. Great determine wants a noun, so determination. An inspire wants a noun too, so inspiration. Faced her accident determination wants a manner, so determinedly. And succeeded a place is the one worth dwelling on: succeed is not a verb that takes an object like that, so the sentence needs won a place or earned a place instead. Notice what diagnosing this needs. Not a bigger vocabulary, since the writer plainly has the words, but the habit of asking what SHAPE the slot is before filling it. A thing wants a noun, a description wants an adjective, an action wants a verb, and the way an action is done wants an adverb. Four questions, and they would have caught all four.

Activity:

Take any four nouns from this chapter and build the full row for each: noun, adjective, verb, adverb. Mark every form you have never heard anybody say.

Title:

Seven pairs, then five sentences

Safety:

None needed.

What You Notice:

The peaks come back faster than the phrases do, because a pair is easier to hold than an idea. The phrases only stick once they are in a sentence you made up.

Kosciuszko in Australia is the easiest of the Seven Summits by a long way, and can be walked up in an afternoon.

Mount Vinson in Antarctica is the hardest to reach rather than the hardest to climb, because getting to the continent at all is the problem.

A beacon was originally a fire lit on a hill to warn of danger, which is why the phrase beacon of hope carries the idea of something seen from far off.

The Seven Summits — Everest Asia, Vinson ice, Elbrus Europe — Learn those three first, since they are the ones a question is most likely to want. Then Denali and Aconcagua for the two Americas, Kilimanjaro for Africa and Kosciuszko for Australia.

A word-form table — Thing, describing, doing, how — Noun, adjective, verb, adverb, in that order: determination, determined, determine, determinedly. Ask which of the four the slot in the sentence wants.

Three small words

A, an and the are articles. A and an are indefinite, which means the reader does not yet know which one you mean. The is definite, which means they do. Three words, and between them they carry more errors in a Class 7 script than any tense does.

The rule everybody half knows

A before a consonant and an before a vowel. That is almost right, and the half that is missing is where the marks are lost. The rule is about SOUND and not about the letter on the page.

An hour

The h in hour is silent, so the word begins with the sound ow. That is a vowel sound, so the article is an. A hour is wrong, and it is wrong for a reason you can hear.

A uniform

Uniform begins with the letter u and with the sound yoo. Yoo is a consonant sound, so the article is a. An uniform is wrong, however vowel-like the letter looks.

Two more worth having

A one-rupee coin, because one is said wun. And an FIR, because the letter F is said eff. The second of those catches people out, since the written word begins with a consonant.

The test, in three words

Say it aloud. Every a-or-an question in this chapter, and in every chapter after it, is that one question. Nothing else is needed and nothing else will do. A pupil who writes the rule out as a before consonants has written down the half that fails.

Now the definite article

The is used when the reader already knows which one you mean. There are four common cases, and the exercise in the book tests all four.

One: the second mention

We planned a trip to a remote island. The island was known for its wildlife. The first mention cannot be the, because nobody knows which island yet. The second cannot be a, because now they do.

Two: only one of its kind

The sun, the North Star, the Ganga, the Himalayas. If there is only one of a thing, the is required. A North Star would suggest there were several and this was one of them. The test is quick: ask whether a reader could point to a second one.

Three: ordinals and superlatives

The second highest peak. The first day. The longest river in India. An ordinal or a superlative picks out exactly one thing, so the is the only article that fits.

Four: an adjective for a group

Challenges are faced by the brave. Brave is an adjective, and the turns it into a noun meaning brave people. The poor, the young and the elderly work the same way.

Where no article belongs

Before most plural and uncountable nouns used in general. We felt a connection with nature, not with the nature. Wildlife, courage, advice and music behave the same way.

Why articles are worth this much attention

They are the commonest error in a Class 7 script and the cheapest to repair. One question settles a and an, and four cases settle the. Twenty minutes buys marks in every piece of writing after it.

Now the letter

A formal letter is marked on its shape as much as on its sentences. Ten parts, and a marker looks for them in order, so a letter with the right words in the wrong places loses marks it need not.

The parts, in order

Sender’s address. Date. Receiver’s address. Subject. Salutation. Introduction. Statement of request. Expression of interest. Complimentary close. Signature line.

What each of the middle parts does

The introduction says who you are: a student of Grade 7-C. The expression of interest says why you are writing: an interest in trekking and climbing. The statement of request asks for the thing itself, in one sentence. Three parts, three questions, and a reader who has all three knows everything they need in order to answer.

Why the subject line earns its place

Because it tells a reader what the letter wants before they read a word of it. Request to join the Adventure Club, and the Principal already knows what the letter is for. One line, written once, and it saves everybody who ever handles the letter from reading it twice.

And why the shape is worth learning

A letter is read by somebody with thirty others to get through. Everything in the fixed order is where they expect it, and nothing has to be hunted for. That is the whole purpose of a format.

Scenario:

A pupil sends a letter asking to join the Adventure Club and it comes back twice. The first time, three article errors are marked. A hour of climbing. An uniform for the trek. And a Everest base camp trip. The second time the articles are right and the shape is wrong. There is no subject line. The date sits at the bottom, beside the signature. The request itself is in the last sentence of a long paragraph about the outdoors. The Principal writes that she cannot tell what he is asking for without reading the whole letter.

Analysis:

The two returns are two different lessons. The first is a sound problem and takes a minute to fix: hour begins with a silent h so it wants an, uniform begins with the sound yoo so it wants a, and Everest is one of a kind so it wants the. All three were decided by the letters on the page instead of by the ear. The second return is about a reader rather than about English. A marker, or a Principal, is reading one of thirty letters, and everything in the fixed order is where they expect it. The subject line exists so that the purpose is known before the first sentence; the date exists so that the letter can be filed; and the statement of request exists so that the ask is in one sentence of its own rather than buried at the end of an enthusiasm. His sentences were correct both times. Only the second version is usable.

Activity:

Write a letter asking to join any club you like, then cut it into its ten parts and shuffle them. Give the pieces to somebody and see whether they can rebuild it.

Title:

Ten headings down the margin

Safety:

None needed.

What You Notice:

Writing the headings first makes the letter shorter than one written straight through, and the request stops hiding. The article check takes about a minute and usually finds one error.

The h in hour has been silent in English for about seven hundred years, which is why the article in front of it is an.

The initials FIR and MLA take an, because the letters are said eff and emm, and both of those begin with vowel sounds.

Some languages have no articles at all, which is why a and the are among the last things a learner of English gets right.

A or an — Say it, do not spell it — The choice follows the first SOUND. An hour, because the h is silent. A uniform, because the u says yoo. Reading the word aloud settles every case.

The four uses of the — Mentioned, only one, ordinal, group — Something already mentioned; something there is only one of; an ordinal or superlative; and an adjective used for a group, as in the brave.