Author: Jack

IntroStart: How many of you would take a performance enhancing drug if it guaranteed you success at the international level? would you still take this drug if I told you that you would die five years later? well a test was carried out by bob Goldman asking those very questions and 98% of the athletes said that they would take the drug on the first question and over 50% said that they would still take the drug if they were to die five years later. doping is becoming quite a serious problem in the game of sport with thousands of elite athletes each year using chemicals to enhance their performance. I believe that if we want to stop this problem then we have to start with younger generations. We can do this by testing all college athletes for performance enhancing drugs. During my speech I will try to convince you of this by talking about how drugs are visible across a wide array of sports, how dangerous they are and why they are unfair, why athletes use them, what is happening at the college level, and why it should be compulsory.

first topic: drugs are visible across a wide array of sports

doping is slowly but surely ruining the entire professional sports world, it is present in nearly all commonly played sports ranging from cycling, to rugby, and in almost all other professional sports. If it is not stopped soon sports as we know it will be full of chemically enhanced cheats that will cause sports as we know it to collapse in a burning heap. Some recent examples of doping in sports include the scandal involving Valerie adams in the 2010 world indoor champs and 2012 olympics in London got second to the Belarusian nadzeya ostapchuk who was later tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. She was later tested positive for performance enhancing drugs and stripped of all her titles. How many of you can remember the massive doping scandal of the rio 2016 olympic games where Russia had 111 athletes banned because of a state sponsored doping program. Another case of doping was found when the Washington university school of medicine carried out an investigation on 644 retired football players and found that an astounding 52% of them confessed to taking an opioid ( a pain relief drug ) to aid their performance and 71% of those users stated that they misused that drug extensively to enhance their performance illegally. From these examples we can see that ped use is visible across a wide array of sports and how it is becoming a very serious problem.

second topic: how dangerous they are and why it is unfair to use them.

performance enhancing drugs are not only extremely detrimental to your health but they are also starting to give sports such as road cycling the stereotypes of being cheaters. Performance enhancing drugs are commonly regarded as being unethical and unfair, and that is because they are. The athletes that are using them are injecting themselves with chemicals that have extremely dangerous side effects and being as far of ethical as you can get. And to put it into perspective would you inject yourself with an unknown chemical every day? There are many types of doping but the main types and methods that improve your performance and the dangers of taking them are EPO:  Epo or erythropoietin is a hormone injected into the body that increases the reproduction of red blood cells, this means that the amount of oxygen taken in by your body is increased. The side effects of epo are very serious and can lead to seizures and can also increase the chance of heart attacks and strokes. BLOOD DOPING: blood doping is the injection of oxygenated blood into your body to increase the amount of oxygen the person taking the drug is able to take in. Dangers. Risk of blood diseases such as AIDs and hepatitis, more susceptible to strokes and blood clots. Anabolic Steroids: Anabolic steroids are used to increase your muscle mass and to strengthen your muscles. These steroids tho have very detrimental side effects with problems such as liver failure, kidney damage, and an increase in the chances of strokes or heart attacks. From this information we can see how doping is extremely risky with the side effects and it makes me wonder is it even worth it, that little bit of an edge over your opponents compared to the deadly side effects  

third topic: why athletes do it

Athletes take performance enhancing drugs for many different reasons  but the main reason I believe is the competitive nature of sport. How many of you have on the playing field got upset because you lost a game? well that is your competitive nature and it is these elite athletes competitive nature that is leading them on the path of illegally doping. An example that leads on to competitive nature being the main reason that athletes dope is when 8 in ten ex footballers that were questioned in an interview by the Washington university school of medicine announced that they had used a masking agent to dull the pain in the affected area to deal with pain gained from an injury sustained from football. Of these ex players 68% said that reason was down to the NFL’s competitive culture. This fact shows the pressure that is put on the athlete from the competitive nature of sport and how it can force athletes to dope.  

fourth topic: what is happening at the college level:

doping at the college level has only come in to view in the last couple of years. And since then it has grown rapidly and if it is not stopped soon it could take over the entire college sporting world. For example the associated press analysed the weight records of 61000 college football players from all the 120 college football teams and found that over 4700 of them had rapidly put on mass of around 20-25 pounds thats over 11kgs but even more shockingly they found results that showed over 100 football players had gained weight of around 80 pounds that’s over 36 kgs in one year. Either that’s a whole load of junk food or these athletes are illegally taking banned steroids to enhance their performance on the football field. Another shocking study carried out by the Canadian centre for drug free sport estimated that 83000 children between the ages 11 and 18 have used a anabolic steroid in the last 12 months. That is over 10 times the population of Wanaka. From these facts that I personally found surprising at the least. we can see that doping is quickly becoming a problem at the college level and before it becomes out of hand. it needs to be stopped soon.   

fifth topic: why it needs to be compulsory:

Testing for performance enhancing drugs needs to be compulsory at a college level. doing this will mean that we will stop the problem before it will even get the chance to start. This is because we have higher levels of illegal doping at the college level than there is at the elite level. For example  2% of all elite athletes have emitted to having taken any banned substance on the wada or world anti doping agency  list over the last 5 years. However 6.6% of high school students have admitted to taking anabolic steroids in the last 8 years. This information shows how we have more athletes doping at the college level in this case than overall elite athletes. The reason these compulsory tests aren’t in place at the moment is because there is actually some sanctions in place for random drug tests to take place on the odd occasion at large sporting events. These tests are based off the placings and maybe one or two other random tests. The purpose of these is not to humiliate the users but to divert the users away from performance enhancing drugs. But don’t you think that it would be much more effective if it was compulsory for high level college athletes to be tested?   

conclusion:

Although it would be expensive and might not have the highest rate of results i’m sure most of you would rather your tax money was spent on this cause that would drastically decrease the number of not only college doppers but on the entire elite level of athletes. Improving the fairness and quality of the sport as we know it. Than some stupid government plan to change the flag. In my opinion I believe that we should place laws that makes it compulsory for college athletes to be tested for performance enhancing drugs. And after listening to my speech that covered how drugs are visible all around us, how dangerous they are and why they are unfair, why athletes use them, what is happening at the college level, and why it should be compulsory at the college level. I hope that you will agree with me. I believe that if we want to end doping in sport then we have to act now!      

 

symbolism is used vastly throughout this text to add additional meaning to the text and to act as motivation for the characters. Light has been used throughout the text as a symbol, but it hasn’t been as prominent as it is in this scenario. When Joe falls into the crevasse he loses all hope of getting out because he sees no possible way of escape, this is till he descends further into the crevasse and finds a beam of light coming through the crevasse. This beam of light is used as joes motivation to get out of the crevasse, it is also in a way was his connection to the real world outside the crevasse. This is shown by the quote on page 132″I was mesmerised by this beam of sunlight burning through the vaulted ceiling from the real world outside.” This quote explains how joe feels that he has been separated from the real world by this crevasse and the beam of light that is shining through is his connection to it. Joe also uses the beam of light as his motivation to get out of the glacier. This is shown by the quote on page 135 ” It had me now, and without the sunbeam I might have sat there numbed and defeated by its implacable stillness.” This quote shows that if it weren’t for the light joe wouldn’t have the energy or motivation to start the climb out of the crevasse.

The voice is used as another symbol in this part of the text. The voice is significant in his part of the text because considering Joes situation and current state it seems to guide him on his way telling him what to do in times of need. A prime example is after  joe climbs out of the crevasse and is trying to get back to camp and his mind is forcing him to think negative thoughts, the voice kicks in and helps him on his way ” The voice told me exactly how to go about it, and I obayed while my other mind jumped abstractedly from one idea to another.” This quote shows how the voice over ruled joe’s thoughts and told him how and what he should do to get down the mountain. This voice is crucial in this part of the text because without it Joe possibly wouldn’t have as good of a chance of getting off the mountain, because of all the negative thoughts that are going through his mind. For example ” The crevasse had only been a starter! How foolish to have thought that I had done it, that I was safe!” This quote shows how Joes mind is telling him that it is not over and that it will still be a hard slog to get off the mountain that his mind thinks that he can’t do it.

Mood and tone play a massive part in this section of the text. Mood refers to the atmosphere of the chosen text whereas tone refers to the author/narrator’s attitude in the specific piece of the text. In this part of the text the mood and tone is mostly negative with the characters both going through a challenging time to make it back to the campsite. This is portrayed by the quote ““I stared at the mountain rising over me. Empty. It was a pointless thing to have done – climb up it, across it, and down it. Stupid! It looked perfect; so clean and untouched, and we had changed nothing, It was beautiful, immaculate, but it left me empty. I had been on it too long, and it had taken everything.” Page 117. This part of the text has a particularly negative mood using negative words such as Empty, Stupid!, Everything. These words give the reader a negative feel putting them in a negative state of mind, this helps to draw them into the book. It is also has a negative feel by using many minor sentences, minor sentences are short sharp sentences that don’t fully make sense but are full of information. In this case Joe uses words that have negative moods to them in his minor sentences. For example, Empty.,Stupid!, these sentences also help the reader to discover the mood of this specific text. The tone of this part of the text is based off Joe questioning himself on the decisions that he made earlier in the text, and cursing himself on how and why he did the     

1. Contrast is used in this section of the text to show joes feelings, emotions and experiences and how they change to contrast his feelings later on in the text. This assists the reader in understanding how joe is feeling and the emotions that he is going through by showing how joes emotions and feelings are ever changing, This goes from Joe thinking that he would fall into the dark abyss below him and then being amazed that he had survived his previous fall into the void. An example of this is when Joe stated earlier in the book that he was certain that him and Simon had no chance of making it off the mountain alive, shown by the quote from Joe ” I accepted that I was to die. There was no alternative,” This quote explains how Joe thought that there was no way that him and Simon were going to survive because of their previous ordeal  But this lead to another quote later on in the book after Joe had fallen into the crevasse ” Simon… I couldn’t conceive of him dead, not now, not after I’ve survived ,” This quote explains how Joe has now survived a near death experience so it meant that Joe now thought that they had a fighting chance for survival and he hoped that him and simon would get off this mountain alive. These two quotes show contrast in joes feelings and emotions from skipping from dying to surviving. These quotes also assist in the readers understanding of the characters because it shows how unstable joe is at the present time with his emotions constantly changing
2. The rope in this part of the text acts as the connection between the two climbers and in this case the line of hope. As joe falls into the crevasse he doesn’t realise that the rope is cut and comes to the point that he could escape out of the crevasse using the rope, It is like the rope it the only hope Joe has of getting out of the crevasse. This is shown by the quote “I pulled steadily, and as I did so I became excited. This was my chance to escape.”  This quote explains that Joe built up all his hope for the rope to be connected to simon so he could escape, This made him excited and very hopeful. But as joe keeps pulling in the rope it falls over the lip and he realises that it is not connected to any thing and that it has been cut. This is shown by the quote from Joe “I saw the rope flick down, and my hopes sank.” This quote shows how Joe put all his hope in the rope and when he realised that it had been cut he lost all hope in getting out of the crevasse as he thought it was his only ticket out.

When Joe shatters his knee joint it is one of the most climactic parts of the text. Language features and writing style techniques are used in this specific piece of text to build up the tension to the climax, This draws the reader in engaging them to the book. One of the main language features used in this part of the text is emotive language. Emotive language is used in this part of the text to have an emotional effect on the reader by relating it to past experiences that the reader has had. This causes tension to build in the text. An example of emotive words used in this specific piece of text would be words like “pain, fierce burning flame, gasping.” these words also show how the character is feeling and what is happening inside his/her body. Another language feature the author used to draw the reader into the book and to build up the tension is foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is where the author gives away small hints in the text leading up to the problem. In this case Joe states in the book a few pages before the accident that “I knew it was going to be a good day.” This is foreshadowing for me because the reader now thinks that the characters are going to have a good day it makes the tension build even more as the reader starts to realise that today is not going to be a good day for the characters it comes as a surprise so the tension is built faster and to a higher level. Another piece of foreshadowing in the text is when the two characters joe and simon go through there morning ritual and discover that they have run out of gas “the gas was all used up in the breakfast routine.” This quote is also foreshadowing for me because it shows that the two climbers have run out of their resources meaning that if they get into trouble their situation will be serious because they have no means of making water.

The purpose of having simons perspective in this part of the text was to justify the reasons why he did what he did and to also give the readers another point of view in the text to agree/ disagree with. As this disaster plays out, Joe and simons relationship deteriorates to the relationship of every man for themselves every man for himself, this is shown by the quote” I couldn’t help him, and it occurred to me that he would fall to his death.” and also the quote “In a way I hoped he would fall.” these quotes show how joe was slowing down simon, meaning that simons chances of survival were dropping as he was with joe. It also shows that simon is aware of this and how he in a way would like to leave simon to ensure his survival. Foreshadowing also played a massive part in this text in predicting what simon may do in difficult situation

1. State your point/topic (first sentence): e.g Simons narration is significant in Disaster-chapter 5
2. Expand with relevant background detail: e.g Simons narration is told through Joes perspective, however Simon validated Joes account as ‘ fair and correct.” Simons voice reveals that he resented Joes injury and that he felt justified in distancing himself from Joe
3. Examples ( specific): e.g The text states ” quote….,”the reader is told” ……” it is revealed “………” words like “……..” the selected text “……….” tells us
4. Response (your response) : what does the reader learn?  what does the reader think/visualise/feel? what connections can the reader make to other experiences or contexts ? what is the overall purpose/message? can include a cross reference to a relevant situation,person, place, time e.g the reader understood from this narration that Simon is calculating the value of his life against Joes. he also treats the situation logically and considers the “odds” of their survival, if Joe is assisted down the mountain. This presents an interesting reality about human nature: should we risk our own life for others? when does our relationship or commitment to a person end? Is it excusable to relinquish responsibility when we are endangered ourselves?

Through the course of chapter six joe and simon are plagued with various problems to overcome. A prime example of one of the problems joe and simon faced while descending the mountain was frostbite. ” the blue thermal gloves stayed on my hand, ice frosted on to the fabric. Even through the gloves I could see hoe wooden my  fingers had become. They moved stiffly and all together, and refused to close into a ball.” This quote shows how Joe was facing a recurring problem of frostbite and how that meant that he was going through immense stages of pain when he tried to warm them up. This one problem could also lead to another problem because it means that the hands are completely useless from the blood being cut of by the frostbite. Another problem that joe and simon are hit with was spindrift avalanches, spindrift avalanches are small avalanches caused by lose powder and falling snow falling down the mountain, they can be dangerous but are mostly just small and short.  ” He reached me as another avalanche swept over us. We both ducked. ‘ bloody hell, that one before nearly knocked me off,” This quote explains how the weather is closing in on them and this is causing the spindrift avalanches to become bigger and bigger until they start to get dangerously large.

Joe recreates the tension when he is lowered over the fall by using the structural syntax or minor sentences. Minor sentences are used to create tension,  they do this by putting lots of them just before a climactic moment of the text to build up the tension. An example of a minor sentence is” nothing” and ” of course !” These quotes show how lots of small sentences can create tension by being very direct and informative but not yet quite making sense on its own

 

1. the pun ” on the edge,” is used effectively to summaries what happened in the chapter because it is a play on words meaning that someone or something is on a thin line and one step in the wrong direction could result in very bad consequences. In this case chapter 4 describes Joe and Simon as climbing along a ridge line where the wrong step could literally send both of them to their deaths. This can be seen by the quote ” There was a long section of tortured cornices and knife edged powder.” This quote shows how they were truly on the edge and how serious there situation was.
2. Imagery is used in this part of the text to create tension because it puts the reader in the characters shoes, it makes you feel what they’re feeling, see what they’re seeing, this means that when the character is in a stressful situation and under pressure it also makes you feel under pressure and have a sense of tension. This can be seen by the quote ” at that moment the snow wooshed away from under my feet and I dropped swiftly,” this quote puts you in the moment of the character and it makes you feel a rush of tension run through your body, It makes you feel as if you really were there and it actually happened to you

1. These lines are included in the text because it shows how Joe is always dreaming of what next to do/conquer after he has finished his his previous dream/goal. It also states that after he has completed a goal or dream he thinks up a different one , but this time it is a bit more dangerous and extreme than the last one, this keeps on going and going until he has found a dream that is unconquerable and may ultimately end in death. It also reveals the force that is acting upon the two climbers making them dream up more dangerous dreams, it is like the climbers are addicted to the mountains because they keep coming back for more.
2. These lines link in with the quote at the start of the book ” dangerous men,” by showing that the dreams of the day are normally uncontrollable and will be even more extreme than the last making these men dangerous because they are set now on doing something even more extreme.

1. The author doesn’t describe to the reader the technical jargon to the reader because of many reasons the first being the intended audience that is going to read this book. Because this book is based off an mountaineering disaster this books target audience( the people the author thinks will buy the most amount of books ) would be mountain climbers and adventurers, and they wouldn’t want to be reading descriptions and descriptions of technical jargon that they already know and understand. This means that the author has left it out for the reader to figure out themselves. But he has made it easier for readers who don’t understand the technical jargon by putting it in text that they can understand so they get a good idea of what it is.
2. ice screw: An ice screw is a long tubular threaded screw with a sharp end so it can be screwed deep into the ice, it also has a strong body as well as a hole on the end so you can thread a rope through to belay or anchor. The use of an ice screw is to help belay climbers and to also anchor them to the ice. Ice screws are important to this text because they greatly reduce the risk of death while climbing steep slopes and they help the characters lot along the way.

seracs: Seracs are massive ridges of pure ice on top of a glacier, they are very tricky to get over/around because they go hand in hand with crevasse. Seracs are important to this stage of the text because they become a serious obstacle to the characters

spindrift: A spindrift is a “wave of snow” that is present when a snowstorm hits, It is when the wind sweeps up the snow that has already fallen causing gusts of snow that can be very dangerous. This is important to the text at this stage because it is mentioned quite often and it is doing things such as covering their tracks.

rock pitton: A rock pitton is a peg that is hammered into a crack of a rock face, it can act as an anchor, as a fall protector, or as an aid for an aid climber. It has a pinhole at the end of the peg big enough to fit either a rope or a carabiner so rope can run through easily. Rock pittons are important in this text because they are a vital part of survival for the climbers because without them it would be near impossible to conquer the mountain.

bivi: A bivi Is a form of shelter that is very small and easy to put up, It is also is very good a keeping the weather out of your shelter. Bivis are important in this text because it is the climbers main way of having shelter.