The Summit Within - Worksheets

CBSE WorkSheet 01
The Summit Within
  1. What does the author mean the summit within? Answer in the context of The Summit Within.
  2. What has the experience as an Everester taught the narrator? Answer in the context of The Summit Within.
  3. Why do climbers feel like giving up the ascent sometimes and what keeps them going?
  4. What was it about Mount Everest that the author found irresistible? Answer in the context of The Summit Within.
  5. What does Ahluwalia say about the summit within?
  6. What were the symbols of reverence left by members of the team on the Everest?
  7. What problems do the climbers face as they climb a mountain?
  8. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:
    Listen, Chuni - I want to ask you something. You have a good memory, and you’ve been seeing me off and on for a long time. Just throw your mind back and tell me-did I go to Ranchi in’ 58?”
    1. Chuni was at the moment (towards Bepin Babu) seems
      (a) kind
      (b) helpful
      (c) angry
      (d) revengeful
    2. Chuni had been seeing the speaker for a long time because he was
      (a) an old acquaintance
      (b) an intimate friend
      (c) in need of his help
      (d) his old servant
    3. By this time the speaker had been to Ranchi
      (a) once
      (b) never
      (c) twice
      (d) thrice
CBSE WorkSheet 01
The Summit Within
Solution
  1. By ‘the summit within,’ the poet means the height of our mind.
  2. The experience as an Everester has taught the narrator to face life's ordeals resolutely.
  3. Climbers feel like giving up the climb as breathing gets difficult along with the climb. The help that they get from their companions is what keeps them going.
  4. The peak of Mount Everest attracted the author to itself because it is simply beautiful, lonely and the most powerful. So, its climbing could not be given up.
  5. Ahluwalia says that there is a summit within every man. It is the summit of the mind. It is no less formidable and not easier to climb.
    Each man has within himself his own mountain peak. No one else can climb it but the man himself. This summit may be called emotional or spiritual. A climb on this summit will certainly change the man. It will teach him much about the world and himself.
  6. The symbols of reverence left by members of the team on the Everest were: 
    1. a picture of Guru Nanak,
    2. a picture of Goddess Durga,
    3. a relic of the Buddha and
    4. a cross.
  7. Breathing at great height is difficult. The climber has to cut the steps in the hard ice and he has to strain every nerve as he takes every step. Sometimes he curses himself for undertaking such a task. There are moments when he feels like going back for relief. But there is something that does not let him give up the struggle.
  8. i. (d), ii. (c), iii. (b).