NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 4 Conquering the Summit — Let us do these activities before we read

Book page 166 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.

Identify the activities represented by the icons given below. Share your answers with your classmates and the teacher.

Answer

Four adventure sports are pictured on page 166. From left to right:

Icon	What you can see	Activity
1	A person in a helmet hanging below a large yellow-and-orange triangular wing in the sky	Hang gliding (gliding through the air on a wing; paragliding is its close cousin)
2	A cyclist in a red jersey and helmet riding a bicycle over rough brown ground	Mountain biking / off-road cycling
3	A girl in a helmet and harness, roped to a rock face, reaching for a hold with a rucksack on her back	Rock climbing
4	Eight people in helmets and orange life jackets paddling an inflatable raft through white water	River rafting (white-water rafting)

Look at the safety gear in each picture — helmet, harness, rope, life jacket. Every one of these sports is exciting because the equipment makes the risk manageable. That is the point Speaker (iii) will make in the listening task later in this piece.

Q2.

Work in pairs and discuss the following questions. 1. Why do you think people undertake the activities identified above?

Answer

Give several reasons rather than one:

Thrill — the rush of doing something the body reads as dangerous while it is actually controlled.
To test themselves — to find out how far they can push their limits, as Speaker (ii) puts it: “it's about pushing your limits and experiencing something new.”
To overcome fear — many people take up rock climbing precisely because heights frighten them.
To be outdoors — these sports take you to rivers, cliffs and hills that no bus route reaches.
Fitness — all four demand strength, balance and stamina.
Teamwork — a raft cannot be steered by one person; a climber depends on the partner holding the rope.
Confidence — succeeding at something hard changes how you see yourself, which is exactly what happened to Arunima Sinha.

Q3.

2. How would they prepare for these activities?

Answer

Kind of preparation	What it involves
Physical training	Running, swimming, cycling and strength work for months beforehand; stamina matters more than raw strength.
A proper course	Training under certified instructors — Arunima did a basic mountaineering course at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi.
Equipment	Checking helmets, ropes, harnesses, life jackets and boots before every session.
Knowledge	Learning the weather, the river's grade, the rock, the route; knowing when not to go.
Safety drill	First aid, rescue signals, what to do if you fall or the raft flips.
Mental preparation	Visualising the route and learning to stay calm — the “mental fortitude” the text speaks of.

The key idea: Adventure sports are not about being fearless. They are about training so thoroughly that fear no longer decides what you do.

Q4.

3. Which one of them do you find the most exciting? Why? Share your answers with the teacher.

Answer

Choose one and give a reason connected to you — what you enjoy, what you are afraid of, what you would like to be able to do.

Sample answer: I find river rafting the most exciting. In the other three you are mostly on your own, but in a raft eight people must paddle to the same count or the boat spins. I like the idea of a sport where you cannot succeed alone and where the river, not an opponent, is what you are answering to.

A second sample: I would choose rock climbing, because I am afraid of heights. Watching that girl in the picture reach for the next hold, I want to know whether I could make myself do it. That would feel like a bigger victory than winning a race.

Q5.

Work in pairs to complete the word web given below. Share the answers with the teacher. [Qualities of a mountaineer — six blank bubbles]

Answer

Fill the six bubbles with qualities, and be ready to justify each one. Here is a full set:

Quality	Why a mountaineer needs it
Courage	To keep going into thin air, cold and danger.
Determination / perseverance	Arunima took 52 exhausting days on Everest and eighteen months of training before that.
Physical fitness and endurance	Climbing for weeks at altitude with a heavy pack.
Patience and discipline	Waiting out bad weather, following the acclimatisation schedule, never rushing.
Presence of mind	Judging a crevasse, a rope, a storm — a wrong decision cannot be undone at 8,000 metres.
Teamwork and trust	Your life is literally tied to your partner's rope; Arunima also needed a mentor, Bachendri Pal.

Other good words for the bubbles: self-belief, humility (before the mountain), mental fortitude, willingness to learn, respect for nature.

Do this before you read: As you read Conquering the Summit, tick off each quality on your web when you find it in Arunima Sinha's story. You will find that almost every one of them is there.

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