At the Top
Adapted from On Top of the World by Frances Bacon
When you retell, you use your own words to tell about what you have
read. As you retell, you synthesize by selecting the information that is
important to you. You tell about what you need to know and remember in
a way that makes sense to you.
Read the article about Mt. Everest. Think about the information you would
choose to retell it.
Conquering the Mountain
Mt. Everest is the highest mountain in the world. It is located in
the Himalayas in Nepal, a country between China and India. The top
of the mountain, or summit, reaches more than five miles into the
sky. Nothing grows in the freezing temperatures at the top of this
mountain. No birds can fly in the high winds around the summit.
Since 1921, mountain climbers from all over the world had been
competing to see who would be the first to make it to the summit of
Mt. Everest. Thirty-two years passed before two climbers finally
reached the top of the world.
In 1953, a team of 11 mountain climbers on a British expedition
to Mt. Everest attempted to reach the top of the mountain. Colonel
John Hunt, the expedition’s leader, managed each stage of the climb.
First the climbers walked for 124 miles through forests and up steep
mountain slopes to reach Everest Base Camp. This took one month.
Then during the next seven weeks, the team moved slowly up the mountain from one
camp to another. With the climbers were 30 guides from the Nepal area. There were also
350 men hired to carry all the expedition’s gear, including food, equipment, and oxygen tanks.
The expedition made their last camp, Camp 9, in a pass below the summit. The first
pair of climbers started their climb to the summit and made it to within 300 feet of the
mountain top before turning back. Then Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, both expert
mountaineers, were chosen to try for the summit.
Hillary and Norgay left Camp 9 at 6:30 a.m. on May 29. They each wore eight layers
of clothing and three pairs of gloves. Their backpacks weighed 40 pounds each. The pair
inched their way up the final ridge, finally reaching the summit at 11:30 a.m.
The highest mountain had been conquered. Both men looked around and could see for
at least a hundred miles in every direction. Hillary took Norgay’s photograph on the summit.
Then after only 15 minutes on top of the world, they began their climb back to Camp 9.
Their oxygen was running out. It then took them three days to climb all the way down to
Everest Base Camp.
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Objective: Use retelling, synthesizing, and monitoring
comprehension (Scanning) as comprehension strategies.
Read a student’s retelling of the article about Mt. Everest. Use the
information from the article to fill in the blanks in the retelling.
The highest mountain in the world is 1 ■ . It is in the
country of 2 ■, which is between China and 3 ■ .
Mountain climbers from all over the world tried for 32 years
to get to the 4 ■, or top, of Mt . Everest . Finally on
5 ■, two men made it to the top . Their names were
Edmund Hillary and 6 ■ .
There were 7 ■ in the expedition that attempted to
reach the top of Mt. Everest in 1953. It took the men 8 ■
just to walk to their base camp . Then it took another 9 ■
to climb up the mountain to a pass just below the summit .
There were •• ■ to help the climbers go up the
mountain. There were also 350 men who carried all the
equipment and food from camp to camp . The climbers had
to take oxygen tanks with them, too .
When you look for
specific information,
try scanning. Look
for key words and
phrases instead of
rereading the entire
article. This is one
way to monitor your
comprehension.
Two other climbers tried to reach the summit before
Hillary and Norgay . They failed . It took Hillary and Norgay
•• ■ to climb from Camp 9 to the summit . Then they
could only stay for 15 minutes because they were running out
of oxygen . •• ■ took his climbing partner’s picture before
they climbed down .
Edmund
Hillary
Nepal
summit
Mt . Everest
India
five hours
Tenzing
Norgay
30 days
30 guides
11 mountain
climbers
May 29,
1953
49 days
Reflect/Apply: Explain why you think the mountain climbers had to take oxygen
tanks with them . Tell how you used retelling and synthesizing to
help you connect things you already knew to your explanation .
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