 Hello and welcome to a summary of all you need to know about one 27 hours between a rock and hard place which is an extract taken from the book with the same name written by Aaron Ralston. Now I'm going to be reading through and explaining the extract as it appears in the Pearson-Edexcel International GCSE anthology and I will explain the meaning related to this text as well as language devices that Aaron Ralston uses that you need to be aware of as well as other factors that you need to understand when and if you're writing an exam or a coursework piece related to this extract. So let's get started. Now of course remember that this is an extract and an excerpt from his actual novel with the same name and this novel is an autobiographical account taken from Aaron Ralston's life. So in this first-hand account he describes how a boulder essentially crushed his right hand whilst he was climbing and hiking in a canyon and he'd not really informed anyone of his hiking plan so there's a lot of tension. Now I will go through the extract however I'm going to go through it in sections. So I will begin by reading the first three paragraphs as you can see here and then I'll highlight important techniques that you need to be aware of and then I'll do so as we go through the extract. So let's begin. I came to another drop-off. This one is maybe 11 or 12 feet high, a foot higher and of a different geometry than the overhang I descended 10 minutes ago. Another refrigerator chockstone is wedged between the walls 10 feet downstream from and at the same height as the ledge. It gives a space below the drop-off, the claustrophobic feel of a short tunnel. Instead of the walls widening after the drop-off or opening into a wall at the bottom of the canyon, here the slot narrows to a consistent three feet across the lip of the drop-off and continues at that width for 50 feet down the canyon. Sometimes in narrow passages like this one it's possible for me to stem my body across the slot with my feet and back pushing out in the opposite directions against the walls. Controlling the counter pressure by switching my hands and feet on the opposing walls, I can move up or down the shoulder width crevice fairly easily as long as a friction contact stays solid between the walls and my hands feet and back. This technique is known as stemming or chimneying. You can imagine using it to come up the inside of a chimney. Just below the ledge where I'm standing is a chockstone, the size of a large bust higher, stuck fast in the channel between the walls. A few feet up from the lip. If I can step onto it then I'll have a nine foot high to descend, less than that or the first overhang. I'll dangle off the chockstone then take a short fall onto the rounded rocks piled on the canyon floor. So now how this extract opens is essentially describing in very minute details how he's basically inching his way across this massive canyon and of course across these different boulders and we're getting a lot of detail about this. So this extract begins with this simple sentence and essentially this sentence puts us right in the middle of the action. We are in this very stiff kind of cliff area with lots of boulders and essentially this really pricks up our interest as readers. Then this demonstrative pronoun this really engages us. We feel as if we're really there. We can see exactly what he's pointing to and of course what he's pointing to is really vast and this is quite intriguing for us especially for those of us who don't necessarily have an experience of climbing these very steep places which can be quite dangerous. Furthermore he highlights the refrigerator, chockstone, ledge and the drop-off and essentially the language that he uses belongs in the semantic field of mountaineering. Again as I've mentioned this is really interesting for those of us who don't necessarily mountaineer. However also this language really shows us that the author Raulston knows his stuff. He's an expert in this therefore he uses jargon related to mountaineering. Furthermore he uses alliteration to describe and to give us lots of detail about how close these chockstones are wedged and walls. Essentially this really emphasises the proximity. Furthermore he uses personification to really give a very detailed account of how the canyon looks. He describes the lip at the drop-off which again gives us a really good visual imagery especially for those of us who haven't actually climbed a canyon or been to a canyon. Furthermore he talks about stemming across the slot and so he uses language which is rich in sibilant sounds using the S sounds which show and reflect how deftly he himself is slithering through these different areas and it shows his agility. Furthermore the antonyms up and down this kind of shows how he has to really manoeuvre in a very complex way this place that he's in this canyon that he's really climbing through. Furthermore he uses the adjective shoulder width to show just how narrow these borders are. This is a really skilled kind of work and of course this is showing his talent as a mountaineer. Moreover he uses the rule of three hands feet and back to talk about how his body is adeptly moving and he's being very deft with his movement and his bodily language as he's going through this canyon. Also he uses a lot of jargon related to the field of mountaineering and of course the present continuous verb stemming and chiming which he explains as a technique ties in again to the work that he does and again what this does is it makes us realise that he knows what he's doing he's an expert in this. So we feel somewhat confident that he's going to really scale this canyon and he's going to do it in a really expert way. He then mentions how it's like climbing up the inside of a chimney. Now this is interesting because he's using domestic imagery relating to the house just a chimney but what this does is it shows that he is aware that there are some readers who don't necessarily mountaineer so he uses domestic imagery that's quite vivid and relatable to really describe the sensation of climbing this canyon. Also he uses a syndetine or a syndetic listing to really speed up the pace of the text and to show how he's really moving across quite deftly. He states just below the ledge where I'm standing as a chalkstone the size of a large bus tire stuck fast in the channel between the walls a few feet out from the lip so it's a syndetine now starts showing that he's really deftly moving. Furthermore again he's still using some relatable language a large bus tire so this again makes us have a clear image of what he can see before him. So let's carry on through the passage. Steaming across the canyon at the lip of the drop off with one foot and one hand on each of the walls I traverse out to the chalkstone. I press my back against the south wall and lock my left knee which pushes my foot tight against the north wall. With my right foot I kick at the boulder to test how stuck it is. It's jammed tightly enough to hold my weight. I lower myself from the chimney position and step onto the chalkstone. It supports me but teeters slightly. After confirming that I don't want to chimney down from the chalkstone's height I squat and grip the rear of the lodged boulder turning to face back up canyon. Sliding my belly over the front edge I can lower myself and hang from my fully exited arms akin to climbing down from the roof of a house. As I dangle I feel the stone responded to my adjusting grip with a scraping quake as my body's weight applies enough torque to disturb it from its position. Instantly I know this is trouble and instinctively I let go of the rotating border to land on the round rocks below. When I look up the backlit chalkstone falling toward my head consumes the sky. Fair shoots my hands up over my head. I can't move backward or I'll fall over on a small ledge. My only hope is to push off the falling rock and get my weight in my head out of its way. The next three seconds play out at a tenth of the normal speed. Time dilates as if I'm dreaming and my reactions decelerate. In slow motion the rock smashes my left hand against the south wall. My eyes register the collision and I yank my left arm back as the rock ricochets. The boulder then crushes my right hand and then snares my right arm at the wrist, palm and thumb up. Fingers extended, the rock slides another foot down there. So I'll stop there and then I'll carry on. So of course, essentially now this is a turning point of the text. So he's climbing, he's definitely moving, moving, moving, and then suddenly he makes a mistake and a boulder comes and essentially crushes his hands and he's trapped. So essentially in the paragraph between lines 20 to 28, as you can see here, he uses language related to the body parts hand, knee, foot, belly. And this is semantic field of body parts. Essentially what he's doing here by showing us each of his movements in every part of his body is it's giving us a very vivid image of his movement and how it's shifting around. Furthermore, when he states I press my back against the south wall and lock my left knee, which pushes my foot tight against the north wall, this declarative sentence initially reassures us we realize okay, he's really understanding how to go, you know, cross this boulder and he has a good grip. However, the verb and the adverb tita slightly starts to create some tension. At first we felt reassured but now we're not quite sure. Furthermore, he then personifies the stone which responds to his adjusting grip. Now this personification makes us feel a little bit afraid. The stone is not supposed to respond. It's not supposed to move when he's moving. It's supposed to stay still. So has he picked the wrong place? Furthermore, he then talks about how there's a scraping quake and this verb increases our sense of tension. We feel like something bad might happen. Moreover, the adverb instantly shifts completely the pace of the text. Arguably this is Volta, the turning point of the text because we now realize something bad is going to happen and then the declarative sentence this is trouble and of course this in trouble is alliteration. This makes us realize he is in danger. This is not another routine mountaineering exercise. Something bad is going to happen. Again, the adverb instinctively coupled with instantly shows us that he's moving really quickly. He's reacting really rapidly but this time he might not be lucky. Furthermore, his mention of the round rocks. This alliteration shows just how treacherous this place is. Also, when he talks when he looks up he sees the stone falling toward my head which consumes the sky. So now this complex sentence essentially slows down the pace of this bolder. It feels like everything is happening in slow motion as we read this and we can see this bolder and we're terrified to see what's going to happen next. Furthermore, the passive sentence fair shoots my hands over my head. So of course, fear is the thing that's been given the power. It shows just how instinctive his fear is and how it basically takes hold of his body. He doesn't necessarily have the practice movements that maybe his rational mindset would force him to do. So maybe there's a different way to respond to a falling bolder but actually now he's just acting on instinct and of course when you act on instinct sometimes that's when you make the worst mistakes. Also, he then uses temporal language. He mentions three seconds, a tenth, and what this does is it actually slows down the pace. Everything is happening but in slow motion and we're watching in horror wondering what's going to happen next and of course we're not only watching, we're reading this but we're feeling utter horror. Furthermore, when he mentions the idea of speed decelerate, decelerate meaning something slows down, this again slows down the pace. Furthermore, when he says time dilates, basically again this slow pace means that time feels like it's stretching as we're reading this. Everything is slowing down much like how he would probably feel that everything slowed down around him as the rock and the bolder is heading towards him. Then the simile, as if I'm dreaming, shows that he's almost now in like a trance-like state and we feel a lot of tension. We're wondering right now what's going to happen to him. Nobody knows where he is. Might he die? Also the violent verbs smashes and the yank basically shows just how this rock has really damaged his body. Furthermore, when he states the bolder then crushes my right hand and ensnares, basically the bolder is personified and it traps him so he is entrapped, he's ensnared. Also that when he states the wrist, palm in, thumbs up, fingers extended, this is a syndetic listing a syndetine and what this does is it really builds up a gruesome image. So let's carry on. The rock slides another foot down the wall with my arm and toe tearing the skin off the lateral side of my forearm. Then silence. My disbelief paralyzes me temporarily as I stare at the sight of my arm vanishing into an implausibly small gap between the fallen bolder and the canyon wall. Within moments my nervous system's pain response overcomes initial shock. Good god my hand. The flaring agony throws me into a panic, a grimace and growl. My mind commands my body. Get your hand out of there. I yank my arm three times in a naive attempt to pull it out but I'm stuck. Anxiety has my brain tweaking. Searing hot pain shoots from my wrist up my arm. I'm frantic and I cry out. My desperate brain conjures up a probably apocryphal story in which an adrenaline stoked mom lifts an overturned cart to free her baby. I'd give it even odds that it's made up but I do know for certain that right now while my body's chemicals are raging a full blood is the best chance I'll have to free myself of brute force. I shove against the bolt a large boulder, healing against it, pushing with my left hand, lifting with my knees pressed under the rock. I get good leverage with the aid of a 12 inch shelf in front of my feet. Standing on that I brace my thighs under the boulder and thrust upward repeatedly grunting. Come on move. Nothing. So when he states then silence. This is a minor sentence because a minor sentence is basically a sentence which doesn't have a verb. So of course in this case this sentence shows that everything in the world is freezing. So before this sentence everything was fast lower temporal shift as I've mentioned really slowed down the pace but now it's slowed down and it's frozen. Also when he states that his disbelief paralyzes him now this paralysis is a real contrast as early energetic activity as we were scaling the canyon going across the boulder and so on and then when he mentions how he watches the sight of my arm vanishing this seems almost like a magic conjuration. It's unreal that his arm which moments before was really powerful now has disappeared into the boulder. There's kind of this magic experience. It feels almost like he's having this outer body experience watching his body being stuck in this boulder. Also when he states good god my hand now essentially this internal monologue he he's almost using a mild expletive. Expeetive is like a swear word. It's when he says good god my hand this internal monologue shows that he's really shocked and he doesn't know what to do next. Also when he describes the agony as flaring it seems like a flame of pain which again makes us feel a lot of pain as readers. This is also coupled with when he uses alliteration grimace and growl and this also shows some animalistic language. Now he's only responding instinctively almost like an animal and this is now his animal instincts capturing him and he's trying his utmost to try and get out because really now it's a fight for his life. Also the adjective naive shows that he's in denial. He just wants to get free and he doesn't accept that he might be stuck. Furthermore the onomatopoeia cry makes us feel really desperately sorry for him. We realize that he's completely by himself and no one might hear his cries. Also he then uses more language that we associate with magic because he talks about his desperate brain how it conjures up a story and this language related to magic just shows how desperate and fanciful his wishes are to just escape. Furthermore he then uses colloquial language to talk about the adrenaline stoked mom basically comparing himself to images that he's read in the past of somebody whose child is stuck under a car and they heroically flip the car over and rescue their child so they're hoping that rather he's hoping that just like this individual he'll be able to just using just sheer force loosen his arm and come out from the boulder's grip. Also the italics right now shows just how frantic his thinking is and when he mentions that he wants to use brute force again he's reverting back to his instinct because this is essentially animalistic language he just is now simply thinking in terms of survival. Also there's an interesting contrast and pronouns he talks about I I show against the large boulder and then this contrast with heaving against it and essentially this contrast and pronoun I and it creates this David and Goliath scenario so he's the David and he's fighting against this vast Goliath force which is the boulder. Also he then speaks to it almost willing it to leave and the explanatory sentence come on move shows he's really pleading and willing the rock to move and of course the minor sentence nothing highlights how futile his attempts are so by this stage we as readers feel a lot of tension we're really terrified or wonder whether he's actually going to escape and we're really on tenterhooks as we're reading this that's all want to come to understanding this passage as it appears in the person at excel international gcc anthology if you found this video useful do make sure you visit our website which is www.firstreadcheaters.com there you will find plenty of revision resources to help you on your journey through learning english thank you so much for listening