NCERT Solutions for Class 9th English Chapter 5 Nine Gold Medals (poem) — Reflect and Respond

Book page 156 Updated on2026-09-08

Q1.

I. Work in pairs. Discuss the difference between Olympics, Special Olympics, and Paralympics.

Answer

The three are separate movements with different athletes, different aims and different symbols. They are constantly confused, so fix the distinction on one line each: the Olympics are for athletes without disability; the Paralympics are elite competition for athletes with physical, visual or intellectual impairments; the Special Olympics are for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, and are built around participation rather than the podium.

	Olympics	Paralympics	Special Olympics
Who competes	Athletes without disability	Athletes with locomotor, sensory or intellectual disabilities (page 138)	Children and adults with intellectual disabilities (page 168)
Origin	An ancient Greek festival celebrating Zeus; first Games in 776 BC (page 168)	1948, Sir Ludwig Guttmann, Stoke Mandeville, England; first held as the Games in Rome, 1960 (page 154)	A separate movement built on sports training and competition, with inclusion as its purpose (page 168)
Symbol	The five rings, produced in 1913, for the union of the five continents	The Agitos, from the Latin for “I move”	A radiating figure of joined human figures
Motto / aim	‘Citius-Altius-Fortius-Communiter’ — Faster-Higher-Stronger-Together	To showcase the participation of para-athletes in various sports	“to create a better world by fostering the acceptance and inclusion of all people”
Where held	Every four years, summer and winter editions	In the Olympic host city, shortly after the Olympics	World Games in its own cycle — for example Berlin, 2023 (page 167)

Why this matters for the poem you are about to read: ‘Nine Gold Medals’ is set at the Special Olympics — the poem says so itself in stanza 7, “a banner above that said (Special Olympics)”. That is what makes the ending possible. At the Paralympics or the Olympics, a race in which nine runners walk in holding hands would simply be abandoned. At the Special Olympics, where the stated aim is acceptance and inclusion, the poet can say the banner “Could not have been more on the mark.” If you mix up the three Games, you lose the point of the last two stanzas.

Did you know? Every Special Olympics athlete takes an oath: “Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.” Read stanza 6 again with that sentence in mind.

Q2.

II. Work in pairs to match the words ‘empathy’, ‘sympathy’, and ‘compassion’ to the sentences given in the table below. (a) I am so sorry for what is happening to you. It is sad, do you want something to eat? (b) I can imagine how you feel. I understand that you are upset and why. (c) I understand why you feel terribly low. I will spend some time with you, so that you don’t feel lonely.

Answer

Sentence	Word	The clue inside the sentence
(a) “I am so sorry for what is happening to you. It is sad, do you want something to eat?”	sympathy	“I am sorry for” — the speaker stands outside the other person’s trouble and feels sorry for them. She has not understood the feeling, only labelled it (“It is sad”), and offers food because she does not know what else to offer.
(b) “I can imagine how you feel. I understand that you are upset and why.”	empathy	“I can imagine how you feel” — the speaker enters the other person’s experience and understands both the feeling and its reason. Feeling with, not for.
(c) “I understand why you feel terribly low. I will spend some time with you, so that you don’t feel lonely.”	compassion	Understanding plus action — “I will spend some time with you”. Compassion is empathy that gets up and does something about it.

The distinction in one line each: Sympathy = I am sorry for you (from outside). Empathy = I feel with you (from inside). Compassion = I feel with you and I act. The three make a ladder, and the poem climbs it. The crowd in stanza 5 can only feel sympathy — they watch a boy fall and cry out. The eight runners in stanza 6 show compassion: they “turned round and went back to help him” and “brought the young boy to his feet.” They do not stand at the finish line feeling sorry; they walk back down the track.

Tip: in an examination, look for the verb. Sympathy sentences use feel sorry, poor thing, that’s so sad. Empathy sentences use I understand, I can imagine, I know what that is like. Compassion sentences contain a promise or an action — I will, let me, come with me.

Q3.

III. Work in pairs. List the words you associate with ‘empathy’. Share your responses with your classmates and teacher.

Answer

This is a word-association task, so there is no single right list. Build it by asking three questions: what does an empathetic person feel, what does she do, and what is the opposite?

Group	Words
What she feels	understanding, concern, warmth, sensitivity, fellow-feeling, tenderness
What she does	listening, noticing, comforting, supporting, including, helping, sharing, standing by
Qualities behind it	kindness, patience, humility, generosity, openness, imagination
Near neighbours (not the same word)	compassion, sympathy, consideration, solidarity
Opposites, worth listing too	indifference, coldness, judgement, mockery, self-absorption

Why ‘imagination’ belongs on the list — and this is worth saying in class. Empathy is not only a warm feeling; it is an act of imagining yourself into a situation you have not been in. That is exactly what the second sentence in exercise II says: “I can imagine how you feel.” It is also why literature is said to build empathy — a poem such as ‘Nine Gold Medals’ puts you, for a minute, inside the fall of a boy you have never met.

Sample answer (one pair’s word web, in the order they thought of it): understanding — listening — kindness — patience — putting yourself in someone’s shoes — noticing — including — comfort — support — imagination — respect.

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