Deep water important question answer class 12

Deep water important question answer

Deep Water by William Douglas
Flamingo Book Class 12
Chapter – 3

Important MCQ Questions: Deep water important question answer

1 Who is the author of ‘Deep Water’?
a. Jane Austen
b. William Douglas
c. Alphonse Doudet
d. Bama

2 The misadventure took place when William Douglas was?
a. 5 years old
b. 8 years old
c. 9 years old
d. 11 years old

3 Author’s mother always warns for going to the               river.
a. Y.M.C.A
b. Yakima
c. Themes 
d. Ganga

4 How much deep was the Y.M.C.A. at the shallow end?
a. one or two feet
b. four feet
c. two or three feet
d. nine feet

5 Why did the author hate to walk naked into the pool?
a. because he was thin
b. because he was fat
c. because he was back 
d. None of these

6 What did the poet see when he opened his eyes in the water?
a. Fish
b. Snake
c. Crocodile
d. Nothing

7 The author was afraid of?
a. Air
b. Fire
c. Water
d. None of these

8 Who taught the author to swim?
a. his mother
b. his father
c. the instructor
d. his friend

9 “All we have to fear is fear itself.” who said?
a. Roosevelt
b. William Douglas
c. Robert frost
d. None of these

10 When the author decided to hire an instructor?
a. On June
b. On October
c. On November
d. On December


Ans: 1-b, 2-d, 3-b, 4-c, 5-a, 6-d, 7-c, 8-c, 9-a, 10-b


Fill in the blanks: Deep water important question answer

1 decided to hit feet on the bottom and return as a                             . (cork/rocket)

2 His aversion to                          began when he was three or four years old. (fire/water)

3 The instructor built a                          out of Douglas piece by piece. (player/ swimmer)

4 The author decided to learn                       at Y.M.C.A. pool, Yakima. (swimming/jumping)

5 The Yakima River was                            . (treacherous/safe)


Ans: 1-cork, 2-water, 3-swimmer, 4-swimming, 5-treacherous


Important questions and answers: Deep water important question answer

1. What is the “misadventure” that William Douglas speaks about?
Ans. One day, William Douglas went to the Y.M.C.A pool to learn swimming. He feared to learn swimming alone, so he was waiting for others sitting near the pool. Suddenly, a big burly boy came and picked him up and tossed him into the deep water. He did know how to swim. He was near to death, but someone saved his life. William Douglas speaks about this “misadventure”.

2. What did Douglas do to overcome his fear of water? Or how did Douglas overcome his fear of water?
Ans. According to “Roosevelt “, all you have to fear is fear itself”. Douglas learnt the deep meaning behind this quote later when he compared his experience with this quote. His inability or hindrance in routine life due to fear of water agitated him. He appointed an instructor who taught him how to swim. When he became an expert swimmer, he swam alone in the pool. Later, he went to lakes, rivers for swimming alone. By this he overcame his fear of water.

3. How does Douglas make sure that he conquered the old terror?
Ans. The instructor trained Douglas to swim, dive off and crawl stroke but small traces of terror would return to his mind. This went on from April to July. To remove all his doubts, Douglas went swimming in Lake Wentworth, dived at Triggs Island and swam two miles across the lake to Stamp Act Island. He boldly gave a farewell to terror. Then he hurried west and swam across the Warm lake and back. Now he was sure that he had conquered his fear of water.

4. How and why did Douglas develop an aversion to the water when he was in it?
Ans: William Douglas developed an aversion to the water at the age of three or four. His father took him to the beach in California. They stood together in the surf. The waves knocked him down and swept over him. He was almost buried in water. His breath was gone and he was frightened. So he developed an aversion to water.

5. How did the instructor make William Douglas a perfect swimmer?
Ans: William Douglas used to go to learn swimming five days a week. He practiced an hour each day. His instructor put a belt around Douglas. A rope was attached to the belt. The rope went through a pulley. He was made to go back and forth across the pool. Then the instructor taught him how to exhale and inhale. Hence, the instructor built Douglas a swimmer “step by step”.

6. What did Douglas do to overcome his fear of the water? Did he get any success?
Ans: William Douglas used every way to overcome his fear of water but with little success. It held him firmly in its grip. Finally, he decided to hire an instructor to learn swimming. The instructor made him a perfect swimmer. Douglas got success in his mission.

7. Why was Douglas determined to get over his fear of water?
Ans: The fear of water stayed with Douglas as the years rolled by. Whenever he tried to enter the water, the fear seized him. Such fear ruined his joy of boating, fishing and swimming. The fear held him firmly in grip. Finally, he was determined to get over his fear of water.

8. How did the instructor make Douglas a good swimmer?
Ans: The hunting fear of the water followed Douglas in his fishing trips, swimming, boating and canoeing. He used every way he knew to get rid of this fear but it held him firmly in its grip. So, he finally engaged an instructor to learn swimming.
The instructor made him practice five days a week, an hour each day. He held one end of the rope in his hand and the other end through a pulley overhead of Douglas was tied to the belt. Thus the instructor relaxing his hold on the rope made Douglas swim back and forth in the pool.
After three months of this much training, the instructor taught Douglas to put his face underwater and breathe out and to raise his nose and breathe in. He repeated this breathing out and breathing in exercise hundreds of times. Bit by bit, he got rid of part of the terror which gripped him. Next, the instructor held Douglas at the side of the pool and made him. After weeks of practice, he could command his own legs for swimming in water.
Thus piece by piece, the instructor built him a good swimmer. When he had perfected each piece, he put them into an integrated whole in the seventh month of the training.

9. Narrate in your words how William Douglas was nearly drowned in the Y.M.C.A pool.
Ans: Douglas wanted to learn swimming. Being afraid of water, he chose the Y.M.C.A. pool as it was safe. He bought water wings and went to the pool to practice swimming.
One day as he sat alone near its edge, a strong boy came there. He looked at skinny Douglas in scorn. He picked up Douglas and threw him right into the pool, out of fun.
Douglas hit the water in a sitting position. The water over there was nine feet deep. Douglas sank gradually. He planned to jump to the bottom of the pool and came to the top. He hoped he would float like a cork, and then he would swim to the edge. However, he actually jumped off the bottom, the movement upward was slow. He reached the surface but laid his hand on nothing. His legs became stiff and lifeless. He was again pulled to the bottom. Once again he jumped and had the same experience. He froze with terror. His heart throbbed. He tried calling for help but only swallowed water. The experience was repeated once again. Finally, he felt exhausted. No energy was left in him. He passed into oblivion with no fear.

10. What is the “misadventure” that William Douglas speaks about? How did this experience affect him?
Or,
How and why did Douglas develop an aversion to the water when he was in it?
Ans: William Douglas speaks about the “misadventure” that he experiences at the Y.M.C.A. swimming pool. He was yet to master the art of swimming. In the swimming pool, he was trying to practice swimming. He feared to go alone in deep water. Suddenly a big boy appeared before him and he picked him up and tossed him into the deep end of the pool. He went at once at the bottom and was almost drowned. He was getting up and down in the water. When Douglas went down a third time, all of his efforts ceased. He almost lost his senses. His legs felt limp. ‘Blackness’ swept over his face. Now he was beyond panic. It was quiet and peaceful. When he came to his senses, he found himself laying on his stomach beside the pool, vomiting.
This ‘misadventure’ had a lasting effect on Douglas. He never went back to the pool. He developed a ‘phobia’ towards the water. Whenever he tried swimming, the terror that had seized him in the pool would come back. This handicap stayed with Douglas for years. It ruined his fishing trips. He lost the joy of canoeing, boating and swimming.


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Deep water important question answer