Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. It is in the Himalayan Mountains between Nepal
and China, and it is 8 900 meters high. Sir Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay
from Nepal were the first people ever to climb Mount Everest. They climbed it in 1953. Men from
several different countries climbed it after that.
Jumko Tabei, a Japanese from Hokkaido, was the first woman to make this difficult climb. A
Tokyo newspaper television organized the climb in 1975. They chose fifteen women from
mountaineering (登山) clubs to go to Nepal. The group climbed for several days. Then there was an
avalanche (雪崩). The heavy ice and snow injured ten of the women. They had to stop climbing, the
other five women continued.
Only Ms. Tabei was able to climbing the last 70 meters. She was standing on the top of the world.
She was the first woman there.
Ms. Tabei was 35 years old at the time. She is 1 meter 50 centimeters and weighs 42 kilograms.
She says that she is an ordinary housewife. She started climbing mountains in 1960. She climbed
every mountain in Japan. Then she climbed Mount Annapurna, another high mountain in the Himalayas.
Finally she climbed the world's highest mountain.
When she reached the top, she thought, "I'm at the top and I'm glad that I'm at the top." Then she
climbed back down the mountain.
1.Ms. Tabei was great because _________.
A. she was the first one ever to climb Mount Everest
B. she had climbed every mountain in Japan
C. she was the first woman that climbed the world's highest mountain
D. she had climbed many mountains though she was small and young
2. "The heavy ice and snow injured ten of the women." The word "injured "means ________.
A. killed
B. hurt
C. buried
D. froze
3. Which of the following is true?
A.None of the group reached the top of Mount Everest.
B. Ms. Tabei was one of the other five women who reached the top of Mount Everest.
C. The other five women reached the top of Mount Everest but Ms. Tabei was the first one.
D. Ms. Tabei was the
only one of the group who reached the top of Mount Everest.
4. Ms. Tabei had practiced climbing for _________ years.
A. fifteen
B. twenty-two
C. thirteen
D. ten
