Some Summer Ideas

Year 7

The sunlight on the garden

Hardens and grows cold,

We cannot cage the minute

Within its nets of gold,

When all is told

We cannot beg for pardon.

Our freedom as free lances

Advances towards its end;

The earth compels, upon it

Sonnets and birds descend;

And soon, my friend,

We shall have no time for dances.

The sky was good for flying

Defying the church bells

And every evil iron

Siren and what it tells:

The earth compels,

We are dying, Egypt, dying

And not expecting pardon,

Hardened in heart anew,

But glad to have sat under

Thunder and rain with you,

And grateful too

Louis MacNeice


The Somme: A Clear Day. View from the British trenches opposite La Boisselle, showing German front line and mine craters. This oil painting by the artist William Orpen depicts the Somme battlefield in summer 1917, one year after the start of the Battle of the Somme. Shell craters and patches of exposed white chalk soil are clearly visible in the grassy landscape.

It is very important that you have a good summer, but it is also a valuable time to do some good reading and thinking. In this booklet, you will find a few things I would like you to look at and be ready to discuss when you return in Year 8! Joe B has also produced a few puzzles for you to think about! Don’t forget to check your maths too!


First, read through the articles on Roger Federer and Andy Murray by Simon Barnes and Mathew Syed which were in the end-of-term mailing letter to your parents. You will be asked to discuss these on your return in your English enrichment classes with me. Make sure that you have looked up the words you do not know!

Now, don’t tell me your parents have lost it! The dog ate it? Your sister stole it; the postman is a thief.

Oh well, just for you, here is a copy!

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I am sorry not to be writing the story of Andy Murray’s first, but there is consolation. I can instead tell a tale that is rather more marvellous, if rather less surprising, and it is the one about Roger Federer’s seventeenth.

Yesterday he took Andy out in a match of murderous beauty and reclaimed his ranking as the world No 1.

Number one. That was so much a part of him, so much a part of his game that you thought he’d be unable to survive in tennis without it. The figure wasn’t so much his ranking as the core of his being. He used it as a weapon as potent as his forehand. But with the rise of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, the old mantle of indomitability vanished and he has been slumming it as a mere No 3.

Yesterday he was brilliant in turning the match away from Murray, shifting the momentum around as Murray threw himself into it with all the passion and commitment at his disposal. But Federer caused him to doubt for the first time in this tournament. And all that was remarkable enough, but then the rain came.

There are places were the rain is welcome. I have been in Zambia when the killing heat of what they call “the suicide months” is broken by that tumultuous, glorious rain. With the roof at first roaring like an express train with the sound of the downpour, Federer burst into new and resplendent life and beauty.

It was like old times: the master who wields beauty as if it were a razor, and Murray was overwhelmed. I have seen leopards hunt, moving as if every joint has been bathed in a gallon of oil and glowing as if lit from within: and that was Federer beneath the roof yesterday. He took control of time and place, and savaged his opponent with a remote and disinterested beauty.

No wonder poor Andy wept. He had given his all, and done so unstintingly, and there were even times when he was in there with a chance. But Rodger beneath the roof was too much for him — and would have been too much for anyone.

Sue Barker on Centre Court began her questions: “Genius tennis.” “Yes,” Roger said mildly, as if to compliment her on the accuracy of this assessment. No one could disagree. But there are two levels to his genius.

The first comes in hitting the ball: no one has ever struck a tennis ball better, no one can do as many things with a tennis racket. That is the wonder of it — the way that, by the end, he made Murray look not so much like an opponent as a co-conspirator, one whose sole ambition was to set off Federer’s skills.

But there’s more to genius than pretty shot-making. The best man at keepy-uppy is not necessarily the best footballer. Federer’s real genius comes in using these shots in confrontation, to construct points with beauty and finesse, to use them to snare, to bamboozle, to belabour.

Federer is a genius at playing shots; he is also a genius at playing matches and playing championships.

This is his seventh Wimbledon victory among his 17 grand-slam titles. I’ve seen a good few of them, and been awed by all of them. Few performers in any sport have given as much pleasure as Federer. That’s because every move he makes seems to tell us that there is more to victory than mere victory, as if the manner of winning were as important as the trophy.

The decline of Tiger Woods tells us that Woods is all about victory, that beyond the hard facts of winning, there is not much about him except an old grouch haunted by his own past.

But Federer shows us that sport can be played in a different way. Federer’s comparative decline has shown us that sport is something that matters to a great champion even without the comfort of constant victory. Federer showed us that sport can be something to do with the soul.

For Federer, sport is worth pursuing for its own sake, for the love of hitting tennis balls, making rallies, creating points and games and matches. In recent years Federer has preached us a complex and absorbing sermon about the place of soul in sport.

Federer, first as an unstoppable champion and then as a former champion desperately trying to play catch-up, has always played with soul. And that is why he is a champion again.

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Tricky Word
Tricky Phrase / Can you define it?
Maybe think of a synonym too! / Can you make another sentence with the word, thus showing that you REALLY know the meaning?
potent
mantle of indomitability
tumultuous
resplendent
disinterested beauty.
unstintingly
co-conspirator
finesse,
bamboozle
belabour.
awed
old grouch
comparative decline
complex and absorbing sermon
Tricky Word
Tricky Phrase / Can you Google and find a good definition and even image/picture/cartoon which helps show the meaning of the word?
1.  / potent
2.  / mantle of indomitability
3.  / tumultuous
4.  / resplendent
5.  / disinterested beauty.
6.  / unstintingly
7.  / co-conspirator
8.  / finesse,
9.  / bamboozle
10.  / belabour.
11.  / awed
12.  / old grouch
13.  / comparative decline
14.  / complex and absorbing sermon

If you are not sure what I mean, here is an example. Most of you have seen Johnny English Reborn: below is an exercise I did with some Year 7s. Look at it, fill in the gaps and then go back and do the same for the two articles on Federer and Murray.

Review of Johnny English The Guardian

Out in the cold ... Johnny English Reborn

Reheated, anyway. Rowan Atkinson's Clouseau-Bond spoof is given another go-around, a very broad comedy turn that, like his Mr Bean character, is designed to do well in foreign markets and territories. Atkinson is the notoriously incompetent agent Johnny English, who for years has been living in a Tibetan monastery, achieving comedy transcendental enlightenment and zen acceptance of his career catastrophe since messing up a job in Mozambique. But spy chief Pamela Thornton (Gillian Anderson) brings him in from the cold for a special mission, tackling a dastardly international conspiracy to assassinate the Chinese premier. English finds himself in contact with CIA man Titus Fisher (Richard Schiff), breezy Brit spy Simon Ambrose (Dominic West) and beautiful special agent Kate Sumner, played dead-straight by Rosamund Pike. Many of the gags are good, and it goes out on a head-banging high note. But some ideas are undeveloped, such as the voice-controlled Rolls-Royce that can follow its owner around on command. And some bits, particularly Johnny English zooming around the London streets in a souped-up wheelchair, are just slapstick for the sake of it. This goesfor a special poison drug that causes the victim to go into a "manic" phase – the excuse for some random, rubbery physical comedy from the man himself. One day we'll see a film that really harnesses Atkinson's mighty talent. This isn't it.

Reheated, anyway. Rowan Atkinson's Clouseau-Bond spoof is given another go-around, a very broad comedy turn that, like his Mr Bean character, is designed to do well in foreign markets and territories. Atkinson is the notoriously incompetent agent Johnny English, who for years has been living in a Tibetan monastery, achieving comedy transcendental enlightenment and zen acceptance of his career catastrophe since messing up a job in Mozambique. But spy chief Pamela Thornton (Gillian Anderson) brings him in from the cold for a special mission, tackling a dastardly international conspiracy to assassinate the Chinese premier. English finds himself in contact with CIA man Titus Fisher (Richard Schiff), breezy Brit spy Simon Ambrose (Dominic West) and beautiful special agent Kate Sumner, played dead-straight by Rosamund Pike. Many of the gags are good, and it goes out on a head-banging high note. But some ideas are undeveloped, such as the voice-controlled Rolls-Royce that can follow its owner around on command. And some bits, particularly Johnny English zooming around the London streets in a souped-up wheelchair, are just slapstick for the sake of it. This goesfor a special poison drug that causes the victim to go into a "manic" phase – the excuse for some random, rubbery physical comedy from the man himself. One day we'll see a film that really harnesses Atkinson's mighty talent. This isn't it.

Tricky Word / Definition / Images?
incompetent / Adjective:
Not having the necessary skills to do something successfully.
Noun
An incompetent person.
Synonyms:
Incapable, unfit - unable - inefficient - unqualified
conspiracy / Noun
1. A secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.
2. The action of plotting or conspiring.
Synonyms:
Plot, cabal, scheme, intrigue collusion
harnesses / ?????
dastardly
dastardly
transcendental enlightenment
zen
Tricky Word / Can you give the opposite word: the antonym.
1.  / potent
2.  / indomitable
3.  / tumultuous
4.  / resplendent
5.  / disinterested
6.  / unstinting
7.  / finesse,
8.  / belabour.
9.  / awed
10.  / decline
11.  / complex
12.  / absorbing


Matthew Syed Commentary

Last updated at 12:00AM, July 9 2012

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Pretty much every year around this time, the annual debate begins. What does the serial failure at Wimbledon say about the state of the nation? Are we a country of losers? Have left-leaning local authorities sucked the competitive instinct out of our children?

I once took part in a radio debate where a contributor attempted to draw a connection between the disappointments at SW19 and the deep-rooted neuroses caused by the end of Empire. It was difficult to know how to react.

The defeats of Tim Henman fitted rather neatly into this analysis, of course. Many pundits loved to lampoon his upper-middle-class diffidence, one newspaper once running a story condemning the lack of aggression in his fist pump. “Why can’t you grit your teeth more menacingly” was the gist of the analysis.

I always found the whole thing a little tenuous. The idea that one man’s failings are supposed to represent some wider cultural malaise always lacked logical justification, particularly when we are talking about an invented game. Besides, was it such a terrible failure for Henman to get to four semi-finals at Wimbledon? I always thought, given his abilities and the quality of his opponents, he played rather well.

And yet Andy Murray, the latest British challenger, has had to carry this oppressive baggage ever since he looked like someone who might one day win a grand-slam tournament. I once asked him how it felt to be walking around with such a large monkey on his back. He instantly knew my meaning. “We have had to wait a long time for a grand-slam winner,” he said. “And I know that the nation reads a great deal into what I am able to do on a tennis court.”

Too right. Four defeats in grand-slam finals have certainly added to the burden. In the first three attempts we can probably agree that the weight of expectation, the sense of having the responsibility to script a new national story, was a little too much. In Australia twice, and at the US Open, he failed to win a set. He was inclined to bristle when asked about these defeats in interviews.

But to judge from the evidence at Wimbledon yesterday, he has learnt a lot. His tennis was, at times, sublime. He started fast, got quicker, and was reeled in only when his opponent started reaching levels of genius rarely seen on Centre Court. When Roger Federer said in his post-match interview that Murray would eventually win a grand-slam, he meant it (either that, or he was acting rather well).

What seems certain is that a victory for Murray would not only change his bank balance, but would also transform the story line that so singularly attaches itself to tennis at Wimbledon. The very notion of an archetypal British loser or a plucky also-ran would disappear from the national conversation in late June and early July. Instead of reading apocalyptic portents into a misplaced backhand after a rain delay, we might see it for what it is. A mistimed backhand.