4. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
On 29th May, 1953, two men reached the top of Everest, the highest mountain in the world. One was
Edmund Hillary, a New Zealander, and the other was Tenzing, who is a Sherpa, a native to the Himalayan
mountains. These two men of different races shared the honour of the historic climb. But that climb, in itself, is
not the only reason why I have put Tenzing in this book. I have put him in because he is the only man I can think
of, in modern times, who was born in a poor and primitive tribe, far away from civilization, and yet was won
worldwide fame. Tenzing’s mother and father were the very simplest of peasant farmers. He never went to school.
When he was a small boy his job was to help to look after his father’s animals, which were sheep, goats and yaks,
and he never had time to learn to read or write. Yet now, the name of Tenzing is known all over the world; and
he has won his fame not just through luck, but because of his own skill and character, and because when he was
a boy he had a single great ambition and has stuck to it all his life. His ambition was to climb the mountains round
his home; and his home was near Everest and Everest was the highest mountain he could see, so his special
ambition was to climb to the top of that mountain.
When Tenzing was a very small boy, his father used to send him out with the herds of yak while they were
grazing. In summer, the yak went high up the mountain sides above the flowering forests, to crop the grass which
grows just below the snow and glaciers and the vast rock walls of the high peaks. Many of Tenzing’s people
believed that the mountain peaks were the homes of gods and demons, and Tenzing was half-afraid of them; yet
even then, out alone with the herds, he used to dream day-dreams, and imagine that one day he would climb to
the highest summits and see what was on the other side, and perhaps even visit the holy cities of Tibet, which his
parents had told him lay beyond the mountains. The whole of Tenzing’s life is the story of how he made this
dream come true…
He was forty when he got to the top of Everest, and after the age of forty-five his climbing days were over,
but he still loved the mountains more than anything, and the Indian Government made him the head of a
mountaineering school where he could teach young Indians to love the mountains too. Perhaps he has even more
than that to teach them, and to teach other people all over the world. For the boy who herded yaks has gone a long
way, and any one can learn this lesson from his life: that, if you have one great ambition and never lose sight of
it, you are well on the way to achieving it in the end.a. Give the meaning of each word/phrases as used in the passage. 3
i. historic climb ii. single iii. summits
b. Answer the following questions in your own words.
i. State three reasons why, despite hardships, Tenzing achieved fame 2
ii. When Tenzing was a small boy what particular task was he asked to undertake?
Where, as a result, had he to go? 2
iii. State in your own words the two day-dreams which Tenzing had in spite of
his fear. 2
iv. After the age of 45 years, why were Tenzing’s climbing days over?
How did the Indian Government honour him? 2
c. In not more than 60 words of your own summarise the life history of Tenzing. 7
d. Give a heading to your summary in 3(c) and justify your choic
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in the oven off at your gorgeous face hypocritical banana
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His ambition was to climb the mountains round his home so his special ambition was to climb to the top of that mountain.
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