Class 6 English Chapter 12: Yoga — A Way of Life

What kind of practice it is

The passage opens by refusing to make yoga one thing. It works on the body, on the mind and on the spirit, and it began in ancient India. All three at once, and not one after another.

The name itself

Yoga comes from the Sanskrit root yuj. The sense it carries is joining, or bringing together, and that turns out to be the whole idea. The word was chosen well, or it grew to fit. Everything the passage says afterwards is a kind of joining. The word is not a label attached to the practice. It is a summary of it. Understand the name and you have most of the passage.

The first unity

Mind with body. These are usually treated as two separate things, and the passage says the practice brings them together. That is the joining nearest to home.

The second

Thought with action. What a person believes and what a person actually does are joined, which is a larger claim than it first sounds. Most of us keep those two some distance apart.

The third

Human beings with nature. Notice the direction of these three. They move outward, from inside one person to everything around them. The order is not an accident.

A whole approach

The passage calls this a holistic approach to health, meaning one that treats a person as a whole rather than as a set of separate parts. Not a body to be repaired one piece at a time.

Patanjali

Sage Patanjali set out this ancient tradition in an orderly way, in the work known as his Yoga Sutras. He gave a scattered practice a shape. The tradition was already ancient when he wrote.

His description of it

He described yoga as a means of making the mind quiet, and of freeing it from distractions. Distractions here simply means disturbances. Notice that his description is about the mind, not the body.

The benefits, in four groups

The passage then lists what yoga is said to do. It reads as a long list, and it is easier to hold in four groups. Sorting a list is half the work of learning it.

The body

Asanas, which are the postures, stretch and strengthen the muscles. They build flexibility, endurance and balance, and may ease pains such as lower back pain. This is the group everybody remembers.

The mind

Breathing techniques and meditation are said to calm the mind, reduce stress and worry, improve sleep, and increase concentration. Four benefits, and every one of them mental.

Heart and immunity

The passage says yoga has been shown to strengthen the immune system, and that it can help the heart by lowering blood pressure and improving circulation. The least visible of the four groups.

And weight

The fourth group is the shortest. Yoga can help with weight by burning calories, which also keeps a person in better health. One line, and the passage moves on.

Recognised everywhere

Because of all this, the benefits are recognised internationally. In June 2021 the World Health Organisation launched a free app to help people practise. A practice from one country, supported by the whole world.

The warning at the end

Here the passage becomes careful. You can begin at any moment, it says, but practising asanas is not simply stretching the body. Encouraging first, and then careful.

What makes it yoga

The mind must go with the body, which is why it should be done without distractions. When each stretch goes with the breath and with awareness, the practice becomes yogic. Both of those have to be there, not one.

Scenario:

A teacher asks three pupils to explain in one sentence what yoga is. Dev says it is a set of exercises that make you flexible. Lata says it is a practice from ancient India that works on the body, the mind and the spirit together. Sameer says it is a way of making the mind quiet, and mentions Patanjali. The teacher says all three sentences are true, and that only one of them is complete. She then asks the class which part of the passage each pupil has remembered, and which part each of them has left out.

Analysis:

Three true answers, and three different halves of the passage. Only one of them contains the joining the name itself describes.

Activity:

Write your own one-sentence answer to the same question, then check it against all three parts and see which you left out.

Title:

Four groups, from memory

What You Notice:

Most people recover the body column almost completely and lose half of the others, because the asanas are the part of yoga everybody has seen. The weight column is usually the one nobody remembers, since the passage gives it a single short line. Having four headings in front of you pulls back far more than trying to recall a list in order.

Seals from the Sindhu-Sarasvati Civilisation, dating back to about 2700 BC, suggest that yoga was already known in ancient India.

On 11 December 2014 the United Nations General Assembly, with all 193 members, agreed to mark 21 June as International Yoga Day.

The World Health Organisation released its free mYoga app on 20 June 2021, holding videos and audio files for anybody to use.

What yoga means — The name is the lesson — Yuj means to join. Body to mind, thought to action, people to nature. Every claim in the passage is a joining.

The four groups of benefit — BODY - MIND - HEART - WEIGHT — Strength and flexibility. Calm and sleep. Blood pressure and immunity. Calories burnt. Four groups instead of a list of twelve.

Two words that sound identical

Read these aloud. It takes a great deal of practice. I practise every morning. The two words sound exactly the same, and they are spelled differently. Nothing in the sound will ever tell them apart.

What the difference is

The spelling with a c is the noun. It names the thing: the practice, a practice, some practice. The spelling with an s is the verb, and it is the doing of it, repeatedly, in order to get better at something. The spelling with an s is the verb. It is the doing of it, repeatedly, in order to get better at something.

Try it in a sentence

Improving a skill takes practice. That is a thing, so it takes the c. I practise yoga every day. That is an action, so it takes the s. Two sentences, and the rule is visible in both.

A way to hold it

Practice ends in the letters ice, and ice is a thing you can point at. The c spelling is always the thing. One small trick, and the pair is settled for life.

Now the second pair

Advice and advise work in exactly the same way. Advice is the noun and advise is the verb. The rule does not change between the two pairs.

But something is different

Say them aloud, one after the other. Advice ends in a hissing sound. Advise ends in a buzzing one. They are not the same word twice. Anybody can hear the difference on a first try.

Why that matters enormously

Your ear can settle advice and advise without any rule at all. With practice and practise it cannot help you, because they sound identical. That is why this pair catches so many people out.

The trick

So use the pair you can hear to solve the pair you cannot. Put advice or advise into the sentence instead, and listen. You are borrowing an ear that works.

Doing it

It requires a lot of. Advice fits there, not advise. So the c spelling is correct, and it is practice. The ear did the whole job.

And the other way

I blank yoga every day. Advise fits there, not advice. So the s spelling is correct, and it is practise. The same test, and the opposite answer.

Why this works

Both pairs follow the same rule, and one of the two is audible. You are borrowing the ear you have for a pair where you have none. It works because the rule is shared.

More of the same pattern

Licence and license work this way too, and so do device and devise. The rule is worth learning once. One rule settles four pairs.

One thing to know

American English does not keep the distinction at all, and spells both as practice. You will see it written that way, and it is not a mistake there. Keep the distinction in your own writing all the same.

Now a different puzzle

The chapter also gives you a set of letters and asks how many words you can build from them. Longer words give richer sets.

The rule

There is one condition, and it is a severe one. Every word you make must contain the letter A. Check every find against it.

Why that changes everything

Without that rule you would collect words for an hour. With it, you have to check every find, and several obvious ones fall out before you start. A puzzle with no restriction is not a puzzle at all. The rule is not an obstacle put in your way. It is the only reason there is anything to find.

Scenario:

A teacher writes a sentence on the board with a gap in it: the coach said you can join the team, but it requires a lot of blank. Half the class writes practice and half writes practise, and everybody is quite sure. The teacher asks them all to read the sentence aloud, and they discover that both versions sound exactly the same. She then writes a second version of the sentence with advice in the gap, and asks them to read that aloud too. She writes a third with advise in it. This time the class agrees instantly about which one is right.

Analysis:

The same class could not settle one pair and settled the other in a second. The difference was not knowledge but sound.

Activity:

Write four sentences with gaps of your own, then swap with a partner and solve each other's using the advice test.

Title:

Mine the letters

What You Notice:

Most people lose several words at the crossing-out stage, and they are usually the short ones found in the first minute, before the rule was properly in mind. A rule you have been told and a rule you are actually applying are two different things. That gap is worth noticing, because it is the same gap that makes practice and practise so difficult.

American English drops the distinction and spells both the noun and the verb as practice, which is why you will see it written that way.

Licence and license, and device and devise, follow exactly the same rule as advice and advise.

Which spelling is which — ICE is a thing — Practice and advice both end in ice, and ice is a thing you can point at. Both of those spellings are nouns.

Deciding in a sentence — Swap in advice or advise — Your ear settles that pair instantly. Then use the same spelling, with c or with s, for practice.

The listening task

You hear a girl talking about practising yoga, and you are given seven statements. Four of them are true, and your job is to find which four. Knowing the number before you start is part of the task.

Knowing the number helps

That is already useful. If you have marked five as true, one of them is wrong, and you can go back before the recording ends. The count is a check on yourself.

How a false statement is built

Here is the part worth learning. A false statement is almost never obviously wrong, because that would be no test at all. It is built from things that were genuinely in the passage, moved very slightly, which is why it sounds familiar. It is built from things that were genuinely in the passage, moved very slightly. That is exactly why it sounds so familiar when you hear it.

The first kind

A number is taken from the passage and attached to the wrong thing. The grandfather began yoga at the age of sixteen, and a statement says he began sixteen years ago. The number is entirely real.

Why that one is dangerous

You definitely heard the number. Recognising it feels like recognising the fact, and the hand goes to true before the rest of the sentence is checked. This is the commonest error in the whole task.

The second kind

A real detail is swapped for one that sounds just as likely. The girl plans to learn asanas in the summer vacations, and a statement puts it at the weekend. Both are perfectly ordinary plans for a child.

Why that works

Nothing about a weekend is strange. A child could easily plan that, so nothing warns you, and only the actual words will settle it. Plausible is not the same as true.

The third kind

A fact is simply turned round. The grandfather eats a balanced diet regularly, and a statement says he is fit despite having untimely meals. The sense of the sentence has been turned round.

How to catch that one

This is the easiest of the three, because the reversal usually changes the sense of the whole sentence. Listen for words like even though. A contrast word where no contrast belongs.

The speaking task

Next you work in groups of four and share your thoughts about yoga. The instruction has two halves, and both are given. Take turns to speak, and listen to the others when they speak, because a group of four in which everybody speaks and nobody listens is not a discussion at all. Take turns to speak, and listen to the others when they speak. A group of four in which everybody speaks and nobody listens is not a discussion at all.

Nobody is left out

Notice the two sets of starters. One is for pupils who have tried yoga, and one for pupils who have not, so everybody has something to say. A beginner is not left sitting silent.

Then the writing

You write a short paragraph about what yoga does for people, and this time the shape of the paragraph is given to you. Three parts, named in order.

The opening line

It begins by saying what the paragraph is about. Yoga is important because, and then your reason. One sentence, doing the announcing.

The supporting ideas

The middle carries the evidence: a benefit that interests you, what yoga can help people do, a pose you know, and the point that it is not only physical. Four supporting ideas, and the longest part.

The concluding line

Then a deliberate ending. Finally, yoga can be one good way to, and then your closing thought written out.

Why the last part matters

A paragraph without one does not end. It simply stops, and the reader is left waiting. There is a real difference between stopping and ending. It is the part most often left out, and the part best remembered.

Scenario:

A teacher plays the listening passage and the class marks the seven statements. She reminds them that exactly four should be true. Ayesha finds she has ticked five, and goes back through her list. She is confident about the girl seeing people in the park, about the easy exercises with her grandfather, and about the breathing exercises for relaxing. That leaves two she is less sure of: one about his regular practice keeping him strong, and one about him beginning sixteen years ago. She remembers hearing the number sixteen quite distinctly, so she keeps that one and unticks the other. She has chosen wrongly.

Analysis:

She used the right method and the wrong evidence. Hearing a number is not the same as knowing what it was attached to.

Activity:

Write four statements about something you heard today, three true and one with a moved number, and try them on a partner.

Title:

Build a paragraph in three pieces

What You Notice:

Your partner will order the slips correctly almost every time, because the three parts sound different from one another even out of context. The interesting moment is the last step. Read without its ending, a paragraph does not feel short. It feels unfinished, and most people will pause and wait for another line that never comes.

The listening task tells you in advance that exactly four statements are true, which is itself a clue you can use.

The speaking starters come in two sets, so a pupil who has never tried yoga has just as much to say as one who practises daily.

The three kinds of false statement — MOVED - SWAPPED - REVERSED — A number moved to the wrong thing, a detail swapped for a likely one, or a fact turned round entirely.

Building the paragraph — OPEN - SUPPORT - CLOSE — Say what it is about, give your reasons, and finish deliberately rather than stopping.