Class 9 English Chapter 8: Follow That Dream

To reach world-class standard in any field, one must pursue the subject singularly and intensively for at least ten years. The letter offers it as a fact to be planned around, not a warning.

Reckoning the years of effort, the financial investment and the sacrifice before committing. It is placed between the conviction and the plunge — the last point at which stopping is still possible.

Kept afloat. On an uphill road the only support is often the knowledge that one is doing what one loves best and the right thing.

The group of people who stand by one person's dream. The letter's evidence is the Academy Awards, where a single winner immediately thanks a host of others.

A world of dreams. The letter says that in a dream taken up later in life, the participants in your dreamscape are many more.

Ming must have written to her mother about a dream she was considering — some ambition she wanted to pursue and was seeking a view on, since the whole letter is a reply to it. The position of the line matters because the permission is granted before any argument is made. Everything that follows — the ten years, the costs, the people whose dreams were lost — could easily have been read as discouragement had it come first. Placed after the permission, it cannot be: the letter has already said yes, so the rest is advice to somebody who is going rather than persuasion of somebody hesitating.

A passion for a particular interest; the conviction that it is imperative to realise it; counting the cost in years of effort, financial investment and sacrifice; and then plunging, if it is still burning in one's blood. Counting the cost is placed third because of what the other positions would do. Placed first, it would weigh ten years of sacrifice against an interest that has not yet become a passion, and kill it. Placed last, after the plunge, it would arrive too late to be of any use. Third, it is the last point at which a person can still stop — so the decision remains reversible up to the final step and irreversible after it.

First, by pursuing the subject singularly and intensively for at least ten years — singularly meaning exclusively, so what is required is not ten years of interest but ten years of near single-mindedness. Second, by investing effort and sacrifice, since the letter says that what differentiates greatness from the ordinary is precisely how much of both people put into realising their dream. The claim is deliberately not about talent or luck, both of which lie outside a reader's control.

The dreamers never get beyond the wish. Everyone at some time has wistfully said to themselves that they wish they could be this or the other, and most go no further than that wishful thinking. The achievers have a dream and pursue it until it comes true, investing effort and sacrifice over years. But the letter is careful not to make this the whole story: some people traded their dream for security, which is a choice rather than a failure, and for others circumstances — a war, a family to support — changed their lives altogether.

The encouragement comes first and is unconditional: by all means follow that dream, and at the end a wish that at least one of Ming's dreams comes true. The caution is set between them and is specific rather than general — ten years of singular pursuit, a cost to be counted in effort, money and sacrifice, a road uphill most of the way, and three sober reasons why most dreams stay dreams. She states outright that she is not going to put a wet blanket on the dreams, but asks Ming to consider the years. And she returns to encouragement: if after all the obstacles the conviction is still there, go ahead.

Because everything before it is a mother advising a daughter, which a teenager may discount as the sort of thing mothers say. The last paragraph changes the writer's position entirely: publishing this book is a dream she has chased for ten years, and it was not the dream of her youth. She is therefore not describing the ten-year rule from outside it but is nine or ten years into it herself, and she is an instance of her own claim that a later dream is no less than the original. The book the reader is holding is the evidence.

The permission comes first. By all means follow that dream — before a single argument, condition or warning. The arrangement decides how everything after it reads.

Then the claim. What makes great men and women great is that they hold on to a dream and pursue it till it comes true, and greatness is marked off from the ordinary by the sheer work and sacrifice they invest. The variable named is not talent, luck or the scale of the ambition, but the investment — the one thing a reader controls.

Then the figure. Getting to world class in anything means chasing that one subject with nothing else in view and at full stretch for a decade or more. Singularly means exclusively. A young reader given this can count forward and see what she is agreeing to.

Then the four stages. Passion for a particular interest; the conviction that realising it is imperative; counting the cost in years of effort, financial investment and sacrifice; and then, if it is still burning in your blood, plunging. The field may be any — sports, science, arts, business or design.

The placing of the third stage is the letter's most careful move. First, it would kill a passion not yet formed; last, it would arrive after the cost was spent. Third, it is the last point at which stopping is still possible, and the condition on the fourth stage is a feeling rather than a sum: the counting is meant to be survived, not passed.

Then what carries a person. The road may be uphill most of the way, and one is buoyed up — kept afloat — only by the knowledge that one is doing what one loves best. The word only concedes how thin that support is. And when stamina runs out, the prospect of success keeps one on track: love of the work for the ordinary stretches, hope of arriving for the exhaustion.

And then who else is there. At the Academy Awards the winner always thanks a host of people who formed the support network — so for one winner there is a group who stood by. The example is chosen precisely because an awards ceremony is the purest celebration of the individual there is, and the individual's first act is to name everybody else.

Three reasons, and they are not the same kind of thing.

The first is wishful thinking. Everyone at one time or other has wistfully said to themselves, I wish I could be this or the other, and never got beyond it. That is a failure of nerve, and it is the only one of the three that is.

The second is a trade. They could have preferred to trade their dream for security. The verb is worth reading closely, because a trade is a transaction in which something is received. The letter does not say the dream was lost or abandoned; it says something safer was wanted more, which is a choice, and it is recorded without contempt.

The third is circumstance, and the two examples are specific. There were those who had hoped for a place at what was then Raffles College and is now the National University of Singapore, and whose destiny was changed forever by the Japanese invasion during World War II. And there were people who wished to finish secondary school and went out to work instead, so as to keep their brothers and sisters at school.

Why that separation matters. A war is nobody's failure of will, and neither is a family that has to be fed. Had the letter treated all three as the same thing, it would have been telling a fifteen-year-old that anybody whose dream failed simply wanted it less — which is both untrue and easy to dismiss. By distinguishing them, the writer earns the right to the one reason that is a reproach.

Then the turn. He has no intention of throwing a wet blanket over what you hope for, she writes, but you will also have to consider the years. And if after all the obstacles the burning conviction is still coursing through your veins, go ahead and do something about it.

And the claim that follows. Life itself may change a person's dreams, and these hopes are no less than the original dream of younger days. Such a dream must negotiate a maze of hurdles, takes much longer, and draws many more participants into your dreamscape.

Finally the proof. Publishing this book is a dream she has chased for ten years, and it was not the dream of her youth. She is not describing the rule but living inside it, and the book the reader holds is the evidence.

An ending meaning a view or scene of. Attached to a noun it makes a compound naming a whole prospect: land, sea, city, mind or dream.

An expression whose meaning cannot be worked out from its parts. All six in this exercise are lifted from the letter, so each has been met doing a job before it is defined.

Used for real or possible situations in the future. The if-clause states the condition; the main clause normally uses will plus a verb.

Instead of predicting what the listener will do, the sentence tells them to do it. If X happens, you will do Y becomes If X happens, do Y.

Learning through experience, action and reflection. The passage set for tense completion describes it — the same idea as the letter's instruction to plunge.

The suffix means a view or scene of. So it converts a thing into a view of that thing: land is ground, and a landscape is land as somebody looks at it. The family includes landscape, a stretch of countryside as it is seen; seascape, a view of the sea; cityscape, a view of a city; and mindscape, the inner world of a person's thoughts. The letter's own word needed the ending because a dream is a single ambition while a dreamscape is the whole territory of a person's hopes — which is precisely why the letter can say that the participants in it would be many more.

To burn in her blood is to have a passionate desire. An uphill task is a tough challenge. To be buoyed up is to be lifted in spirit. Wishful thinking is a hopeful belief that is unlikely to be true. A wet blanket is a spoil-sport. And coursing through her veins means flowing through her body. All six are taken from the letter itself.

It matters because an idiom's meaning cannot be worked out from its parts — nothing about a damp blanket suggests a person who spoils enjoyment. A student meeting the phrase first in a multiple-choice question has only those unhelpful words. A student who has read it in the letter has already seen it doing a job in a sentence whose sense was clear, so the exercise checks a half-formed meaning rather than supplying one from nothing. The second half is harder because writing one's own sentence requires knowing what situation the idiom fits, which is a later skill than recognising it.

The first conditional is used for real or possible situations in the future, with if plus the present tense and, normally, will plus a verb in the main clause. When an imperative replaces will, the sentence stops predicting and starts instructing. If X happens, you will do Y tells the listener what is going to happen to them and takes the decision out of their hands; if X happens, do Y names the action and leaves them to take it or not. The change is therefore one of relationship rather than of grammar alone.

Once every obstacle has been weighed, if the conviction is still burning in you, then act on it. The imperative is right there because the sentence comes after a page of warnings — ten years, the cost, the people whose dreams were lost — and it is the moment at which the choice has to be returned to Ming. Writing you will go ahead would have been a prediction about a teenager's behaviour. That is both less respectful and less honest, since the mother does not in fact know what her daughter will decide.

It could be in any field shows possibility. I wish I could be this or the other shows an unreal or hypothetical situation. They could have preferred to trade their dream for security shows past possibility or speculation. And so that they could support their siblings through school shows past ability or purpose. What determines the function is entirely the surrounding words: I wish makes it hypothetical, have makes it speculation about the past, and so that makes it purpose. Nothing in the word itself settles anything.

The compounds. The letter's word dreamscape is a compound in which -scape means a view or scene of, so a dreamscape is a world of dreams. The exercise sends students to a dictionary for four more: mindscape, seascape, landscape and cityscape.

What the suffix does is worth stating exactly, because it is easy to miss. It converts a thing into a view of that thing. Land is ground underfoot; a landscape is land as somebody looks at it. That is why the letter needed the word it chose: a dream is one ambition, but a dreamscape is the entire territory of a person's hopes — which is the only reason the sentence can go on to say that the participants in it would be many more.

Mindscape is the most interesting of the four, since a mind has no physical existence to be looked at. The suffix carries across from geography into thought without any difficulty, which is how endings of this kind spread through a language.

The dialogue then puts four of them to work. Sneha admires a dreamy seascape; Kiran says it beat their usual cityscape; Kiran craves a quiet landscape of forests and hills; and Sneha observes that nature clears the mindscape. Every one of the four is used for somewhere the speakers would rather be.

The idioms. Six expressions, each in a sentence, each with four possible meanings offered: to burn in her blood is to have a passionate desire. An uphill task is a tough challenge. To be buoyed up is to be lifted in spirit. Wishful thinking is a hopeful belief unlikely to be true. A wet blanket is a spoil-sport. And coursing through her veins means flowing through her body.

All six occur in the letter, and that is the design rather than a coincidence. An idiom cannot be reasoned out from its parts — nothing about a damp blanket suggests a person who spoils other people's enjoyment. A student who meets the phrase first in a multiple-choice question has only those useless words to work from. A student who has read He has no intention of throwing a wet blanket over what you hope for has seen the phrase doing a job in a sentence whose sense was obvious from its surroundings, and the exercise is then checking a meaning that is already half-formed.

Each must finally be used in a sentence of the student's own, which is the harder half. Recognising an idiom proves only that it has been seen before; placing it requires knowing what sort of situation it fits.

The first conditional. The sentence from the text is: once every obstacle has been weighed, if the conviction is still burning in you, then act on it.

The rule is given plainly. The first conditional covers what may genuinely happen later on, and instead of will plus a verb in the main clause, an imperative — a command or a piece of advice — may be used.

What that substitution does is more than grammatical. If X happens, you will do Y predicts the listener's behaviour and so takes the decision out of their hands. If X happens, do Y names the action and leaves them to take it or not. The first describes a future; the second offers one.

Which is exactly why the letter uses it where it does. The sentence arrives after a page of warnings — the ten years, the costs, the dreams that came to nothing — and it is the moment at which the choice has to be handed back. You will go ahead would have been a prediction about a teenager's future conduct, which is both less respectful and, in fact, less honest, since the mother cannot know what Ming will decide.

The five sentences to be completed carry very different conditions: enthusiasm, alarm, difficulty, concern and spare time. One grammatical shape has to produce encouragement, warning, comfort, a call to act and a practical suggestion — which is the real work of the exercise.

The modal. Four sentences from the letter, four functions. It could be in any field is possibility. I wish I could be this or the other is an unreal or hypothetical situation. They could have preferred to trade their dream for security is past possibility or speculation. And so that they could support their siblings through school is past ability or purpose. The follow-up exercise adds a fifth, Could you repeat the question?, which is a formal or polite request with no ability and no past tense in it at all.

The teaching underneath is that one word performs five unrelated jobs and never says which. The surroundings settle everything: I wish makes it hypothetical, have makes it speculation, so that makes it purpose, and a question makes it polite. A student who has learnt only that could is the past of can has learnt one of the five — and not the commonest.

A course teaching a practical, employable skill rather than an academic subject. The announcement lists seven, from Graphic Design to Entrepreneurship Skills.

The listening instruction: fill each blank with one to three words actually heard. A correct paraphrase scores nothing, because the task tests hearing rather than understanding.

An alternative held in reserve. The friend in the role play asks for one — supportively, which is why the question is hard to dismiss.

The block above the message: From, To, Cc, Bcc and Subject. The subject line is read before the message and decides whether the message is read at all.

A visual representation of goals, dreams and inspirations, made of pictures, words or symbols, to keep a person focused and motivated.

Pupils of Grades 9 to 12 who wish to join may pick up a registration form at the school office from Monday 04 April, and the last date to submit completed forms is Friday 08 April. Only one course a pupil, and places go to whoever applies first. The courses themselves are conducted by trained professionals, and the aim is to equip students with practical skills useful in both higher education and future careers.

Because the task is not testing whether the announcement was understood but whether particular words survived the hearing. A student who writes useful abilities where the announcement said practical skills has grasped the meaning entirely and has still failed the exercise. The design reflects what an announcement actually demands in life: a date, a place, a deadline and a limit have to be carried away as they were said, since nobody can submit a form by an approximate Friday or collect it from an approximately correct office.

The Dreamer, who wants to be a trekking guide; a Parent, worried about financial stability; a Mentor or Teacher, offering balanced advice; and a Friend or Sibling, neutral or supportive. None is a villain because the cues are written carefully. The parent is worried rather than opposed — I only want what's best for you — which is far harder to argue with than hostility. The mentor neither encourages nor discourages but plans, converting a wish into a project. And the friend, having already said don't give up now, asks what the backup plan is, so the doubt arrives from somebody plainly on the dreamer's side.

They must answer three different kinds of doubt: a practical fear about money, a demand for a plan, and a request for an alternative should the dream fail. Only the first is even slightly hostile. The wording of their prompts shows that the role has been written for somebody who already knows the objections, since every one begins with a concession — I know this might sound challenging, but; I understand it's not a usual path. But I believe; it's an uphill journey, but I'm ready for it because. That is the difference between defending a dream and merely announcing one.

The components are a header of sender, receiver, date and subject; a message consisting of an introduction, the request and a conclusion; the complimentary close Yours sincerely; and the sender's name, designation and contact details. The language must be formal and must avoid abbreviations. The subject line matters because it is the only part read before the reader decides whether to open the message at all. A subject reading merely Enquiry tells the Director of the institute nothing about what is wanted or why it concerns them, and an email that is never opened has failed however carefully its body was composed.

My Dreams records what you wish to become. I Want to Try lists new experiences for this year. Goals holds specific achievements such as reading ten books. Places I Will Go names destinations that may be real or imaginary. And Inspiration names a person or a quotation that gives you strength. The five are different because they ask for an identity, an experiment, a measurable target, a destination and something outside yourself. A single question about your dreams would let a student with only one kind of ambition answer comfortably. Five questions of five kinds leave an empty box on the page for anybody who has a career in mind but nothing to try, or many things to try and nothing measurable.

The listening task. A school announcement introduces a new set of vocational courses for the academic year, and six blanks must be filled with one to three exact words heard.

The announcement gives the aim — equipping students with practical skills useful in both higher education and future careers — and lists the options: Basic Coding, Graphic Design, Artificial Intelligence, Web Application, Data Science, Multimedia and Entrepreneurship Skills. Each course is conducted by trained professionals. Pupils of Grades 9 to 12 may pick up a registration form at the school office from Monday 04 April, and the last date to submit is Friday 08 April. Each student may choose only one course, and seats are allotted to early applicants.

What it trains is exactness. A paraphrase, however accurate, scores nothing — a student who writes useful abilities for practical skills has understood everything and answered wrongly. That looks harsh until one notices what the blanks ask for: dates, a place, a grade range, a limit and a rule about allotment. Every one is something a student would need in order to apply, and none of them survives being approximately remembered. The exercise is therefore not artificial; it is the ordinary demand an announcement makes.

The speaking task. Groups of four, each member taking one role: the Dreamer, who wants to be a trekking guide; a Parent, worried about financial stability; a Mentor or Teacher, offering balanced advice; and a Friend or Sibling, neutral or supportive.

What it trains is the handling of reasonable objection, and the cues are built so that no easy target exists. The parent is not obstructive: I know you're passionate, but…, I only want what's best for you, what if it doesn't…? Not one of those is a refusal, and worry from somebody on your side is much harder to answer than opposition. The mentor neither pushes nor resists but plans — dreams need planning, let's look at the long-term view, are you ready to…? And the friend delivers the hardest line in the exercise, asking what the backup plan is immediately after saying don't give up now, so the doubt cannot be dismissed.

The dreamer therefore faces three unlike doubts — money, planning and an alternative — and the prompts written for that role all begin with a concession. Somebody who already knows the objections is defending a dream; somebody who does not is only announcing one.

The email. The writer is passionate about pursuing a course in designing and has come across a summer workshop run by a reputed design institute. The task is to write to the Director enquiring about the details and expressing interest in joining. An email is defined as a way of writing, sending, keeping and picking up messages across an electronic system, and the components are fixed: a header of sender, receiver, date and subject, the printed format also showing Cc and Bcc. A message made of an introduction, the seeking of information, and a conclusion. The complimentary close Yours sincerely. And the sender's name, designation and contact details. The language must be formal, and abbreviations avoided. That second rule is the one students break, and the reason is instructive: email is the single form of writing in which shortening is normal everywhere else, so the habit is imported from every message the student has ever sent. The instruction exists because the medium is the same and the reader is not — this one goes to the Director of an institute who has never heard of the writer. The subject line deserves separating out, since it is the only part of an email read before the reader decides whether to read the message. A subject saying merely Enquiry conveys nothing, and an unopened email has failed however well its body was written. The vision board. A visual representation of goals, dreams and inspirations, using pictures, words or symbols, to help a person focus and stay motivated. Its five sections are My Dreams, for what you wish to become; I Want to Try, for new experiences this year; Goals, for specific achievements such as reading ten books; Places I Will Go, real or imaginary; and Inspiration, for a person or a quotation. The five ask five different kinds of question — an identity, an experiment, a measurable target, a destination and something outside yourself — and the effect is to expose a student who has only one kind of ambition. The two mothers. Jijabai, mother of Chhatrapati Shivaji, instilled a strong sense of dharma, patriotism and justice through tales from the Ramayana and Mahabharata, shaping his leadership ideals and bravery. Queen Madalasa, wife of King Ritudhwaja, nurtured in her children an understanding of the soul and detachment from material desires, leading her sons to seek spiritual liberation. Their placing makes a quiet argument. The lesson is itself a mother writing to a child about what to become, so the letter joins two examples from history — and the two are deliberately unlike, since one shaped a son for the world and the other turned her children away from it.

Ming must have written to her mother about a dream she was considering — some ambition she wanted to pursue and was seeking a view on, since the whole letter is a reply to it. The position of the line matters because the permission is granted before any argument is made. Everything that follows — the ten years, the costs, the people whose dreams were lost — could easily have been read as discouragement had it come first. Placed after the permission, it cannot be: the letter has already said yes, so the rest is advice to somebody who is going rather than persuasion of somebody hesitating.

A passion for a particular interest; the conviction that it is imperative to realise it; counting the cost in years of effort, financial investment and sacrifice; and then plunging, if it is still burning in one's blood. Counting the cost is placed third because of what the other positions would do. Placed first, it would weigh ten years of sacrifice against an interest that has not yet become a passion, and kill it. Placed last, after the plunge, it would arrive too late to be of any use. Third, it is the last point at which a person can still stop — so the decision remains reversible up to the final step and irreversible after it.

First, by pursuing the subject singularly and intensively for at least ten years — singularly meaning exclusively, so what is required is not ten years of interest but ten years of near single-mindedness. Second, by investing effort and sacrifice, since the letter says that what differentiates greatness from the ordinary is precisely how much of both people put into realising their dream. The claim is deliberately not about talent or luck, both of which lie outside a reader's control.

The suffix means a view or scene of. So it converts a thing into a view of that thing: land is ground, and a landscape is land as somebody looks at it. The family includes landscape, a stretch of countryside as it is seen; seascape, a view of the sea; cityscape, a view of a city; and mindscape, the inner world of a person's thoughts. The letter's own word needed the ending because a dream is a single ambition while a dreamscape is the whole territory of a person's hopes — which is precisely why the letter can say that the participants in it would be many more.

To burn in her blood is to have a passionate desire. An uphill task is a tough challenge. To be buoyed up is to be lifted in spirit. Wishful thinking is a hopeful belief that is unlikely to be true. A wet blanket is a spoil-sport. And coursing through her veins means flowing through her body. All six are taken from the letter itself.

It matters because an idiom's meaning cannot be worked out from its parts — nothing about a damp blanket suggests a person who spoils enjoyment. A student meeting the phrase first in a multiple-choice question has only those unhelpful words. A student who has read it in the letter has already seen it doing a job in a sentence whose sense was clear, so the exercise checks a half-formed meaning rather than supplying one from nothing. The second half is harder because writing one's own sentence requires knowing what situation the idiom fits, which is a later skill than recognising it.

Pupils of Grades 9 to 12 who wish to join may pick up a registration form at the school office from Monday 04 April, and the last date to submit completed forms is Friday 08 April. Only one course a pupil, and places go to whoever applies first. The courses themselves are conducted by trained professionals, and the aim is to equip students with practical skills useful in both higher education and future careers.

Because the task is not testing whether the announcement was understood but whether particular words survived the hearing. A student who writes useful abilities where the announcement said practical skills has grasped the meaning entirely and has still failed the exercise. The design reflects what an announcement actually demands in life: a date, a place, a deadline and a limit have to be carried away as they were said, since nobody can submit a form by an approximate Friday or collect it from an approximately correct office.

The Dreamer, who wants to be a trekking guide; a Parent, worried about financial stability; a Mentor or Teacher, offering balanced advice; and a Friend or Sibling, neutral or supportive. None is a villain because the cues are written carefully. The parent is worried rather than opposed — I only want what's best for you — which is far harder to argue with than hostility. The mentor neither encourages nor discourages but plans, converting a wish into a project. And the friend, having already said don't give up now, asks what the backup plan is, so the doubt arrives from somebody plainly on the dreamer's side.