DEEP WATER - William Douglas
NCERT CLASS 12 'FLAMINGO' PRACTICE QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
edubeatsworld.com
12/17/2024
[Acknowledgment: The questions and answers provided in this section are inspired by the themes and content of the NCERT English textbooks. For further reference, please consult the NCERT materials.]
When did William Douglas drown?
Answer: William Douglas drowned when he was ten or eleven years old.
Contrast the Y.M.C.A. pool and Yakima River OR Why did William Douglas choose the Y.M.C.A. pool instead of the Yakima River?
Answer: The Y.M.C.A. River was treacherous, and his mother had constantly reminded him of the details surrounding each drowning that had occurred there. In contrast, the Y.M.C.A. pool was safe. The shallow end was only two or three feet deep, while the deep end reached nine feet, featuring a gradual slope.
How did William Douglas develop an aversion to water?
Answer: When William Douglas was three or four years old, his father took him to the beach in California, where they stood together in the surf. Douglas clung to his father as the waves knocked him down and swept over him. He was submerged in water, his breath was gone, and he was frightened, but his father laughed. Yet, there was terror in his heart due to the overpowering force of the waves.
Initially, before he drowned at the Y.M.C.A. pool, how did William Douglas gain confidence?
Answer: As Douglas gradually gained confidence, he practiced paddling with his new water wings. He watched the other boys and tried to learn by mimicking their movements. He went through this process two or three times over several days and was starting to feel more at ease in the water.
What shows that William Douglas was timid?
Answer: William Douglas went to the pool when no one else was there. The place was quiet, the water was still, and the tiled bottom was as white and clean as a bathtub. He felt timid about going in alone, so he sat on the edge of the pool to wait for others.
Describe the boy who tossed William Douglas in the Y.M.C.A. pool.
Answer: He was a big bruiser of a boy, probably eighteen years old. He had thick hair on his chest and was a beautiful physical specimen with legs and arms that showed rippling muscles.
How did William Douglas land in the Y.M.C.A pool?
Answer: William Douglas landed in a sitting position, swallowed water, and went straight to the bottom of the pool.
What did William Douglas plan on his way to the pool?
Answer: William Douglas, while heading down to the pool, planned that when his feet hit the bottom, he would make a big jump, come to the surface, lie flat on the water, and paddle to the edge of the pool.
How does William Douglas describe the drowning experience?
Answer: When Douglas went down the water with a yellow glow it was a nightmarish experience for him. His legs were almost paralyzed, his lungs were aching and his head was throbbing. He felt the thumping of his heart and the pounding in his head and these made him realize that he was still alive.
What happened when all effort ceased as William Douglas went down to the swimming pool the third time?
Answer: When all effort ceased, William Douglas felt relaxed. His legs became limp, and a blackness swept over his mind, erasing his fear. He felt quiet and peaceful, no longer afraid. Drowsiness enveloped him as he drifted off to sleep, feeling as though he were being gently carried in tender arms, reminiscent of his mother's embrace.
How did the drowning experience make William Douglas wobbly in the knees?
Answer: Several hours after the drowning experience, Douglas walked home feeling weak and trembling. He shook and cried as he lay on his bed, unable to eat that night. The slightest exertion left him wobbly in the knees and sick to his stomach.
Mention the rivers and lakes that William Douglas came to know few years later.
Answer: William Douglas came to know about the waters of the Cascades, Tieton River, Bumping River, and Warm Lake a few years later.
What shows us that William Douglas was interested in fishing?
Answer: William Douglas went fishing for landlocked salmon in Maine lakes, bass fishing in New Hampshire, trout fishing on the Deschutes and Metolius rivers in Oregon, and fishing for salmon on the Columbia at Bumping Lake in the Cascades.
What did the haunting fear of water ruin of William Douglas?
Answer: The haunting fear of water followed him; it ruined his fishing trips and deprived him of the joy of canoeing, boating, and swimming.
How did William Douglas overcome the fear of water?
Answer: William Douglas decided to hire an instructor to learn how to swim.
How did the instructor teach William Douglas to swim?
Answer: The instructor placed a belt around William Douglas's waist, attaching a rope to it that ran through a pulley connected to an overhead cable. He held on to the end of the rope as they moved back and forth across the pool for several days. Each time the instructor loosened his grip on the rope, old fears resurfaced, causing Douglas’s legs to freeze in panic. It took three months before the tension began to ease. Eventually, the instructor taught Douglas how to put his face underwater, exhale, then raise his nose to inhale. He repeated these exercises hundreds of times. The instructor also taught Douglas how to kick his legs effectively. Piece by piece, he taught William Douglas how to swim.
What did the instructor say to William Douglas after he had taught him to swim?
Answer: After the instructor had taught William Douglas how to swim, in April, he said, "Now you can swim! Dive off and swim the length of the pool using the crawl stroke."
Why did William Douglas claim he was not finished even though the instructor had completed his swim lessons? OR How would William Douglas confront the terror while swimming alone in the pool, river, or lake?
Answer: Douglas was not finished; he still wondered if he would feel terrified when he was alone in the pool. He decided to test himself by swimming back and forth. Although tiny vestiges of his old fear would resurface, he would frown and say to that fear, “Trying to scare me, eh? Well, here's to you!” And off he would go for another length of the pool.
William Douglas was not satisfied with swimming alone in the pool, so where did he choose to go next?
Answer: William Douglas was still not satisfied; he wasn't sure if all his terror had truly left him. So, he decided to go to Lake Wentworth in New Hampshire. He dived off a dock at Triggs Island and swam two miles across the lake to Stamp Act Island. Only once did the fear return—when he was in the middle of the lake. He put his face underwater and saw nothing but bottomless water. The old sensation returned, but he laughed and said, "Well, Mr. Terror, what do you think you can do to me now?" With that, the terror fled, and he continued swimming on.
Mention the strokes William Douglas utilized while swimming in Lake Wentworth.
Answer: William Douglas swam using the crawl, breaststroke, sidestroke, and backstroke.
How did William Douglas prepare himself to swim in the Warm Lake?
Answer: William Douglas hurried west, traveling up the Tieton River to Conrad Meadows via the Conrad Creek Trail. He set up camp in the high meadow beside Warm Lake. The next morning, he stripped off his clothes and dived into the lake. He swam across to the other shore and back, shouting with joy as he realized he had conquered his fear of water.
What did William Douglas learn from his experience of drowning?
Answer: The experience of nearly drowning had a profound impact on William Douglas. Only those who have faced intense fear and triumphed over it can truly understand its significance. He had felt the sensation of dying and the overwhelming terror that accompanies the fear of death. However, at that moment, the will to live grew in intensity within him.