Chapter 5: Deep Water

English
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Chapter 3: Deep Water

Class: XII

Exercise number – 1

 

Question 1

Notice these words and expressions in the text. Infer their meaning from the context.

Answer 1

 

Expressions	Meaning
Treacherous	Unpredictable danger; not dependable or trustworthy
Subdued my prid	To lower or restrain the intensity of self-respect and confidence
Flailed at the surface	To strike or lash out vigorously at the surface of the water while trying to come out
Fishing for landlocked salmon	To go fishing for a specific variety of salmon available in certain lakes
Misadventure	An incident that turns out to be a disaster/mishap
Bob to the surface like a cork	To float or show the characteristics of buoyancy as a cork in water
Curtain of life fell	To indicate that life has ended or a deadly experience
Back and forth across the pool	To swim across the swimming pool from one side to the Other

 

 

 

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Think As you Read

Question 1

What is the "misadventure" that William Douglas speaks about?

Answer 1

William Douglas had simply learnt swimming. One day, an eighteen year old strong
aggressive boy picked him up and tossed him into the nine feet deep finish of the Y.M.C.A.
pool. He hit the water surface in a sitting position. He enclosed water and went quickly to
the bottom. He had nearly died during this misadventure.

Question 2

What were the series of emotions and fears that Douglas experienced when he was

thrown into the pool? What plans did he make to come to the surface?

Answer 2

Douglas was frightened when he was thrown into the pool. However, he was not
so frightened as to die. Whereas sinking down he created an idea. He would create a big jump when his feet hit the bottom. He would return to the surface like a cork, lie flat on it, and paddle to the edge of the pool.

Question 3

How did this experience affect him?

Answer 3

The fatal expertise of drowning had a very robust impact on his psychology. He
was deeply flustered and agitated by the full expertise. A haunting fear of water took
control of his physical strength and emotional balance for several years. As he couldn’t bear
being enclosed by water, he was deprived of enjoying any water-related activity.

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Question 1

Why was Douglas determined to get over his fear of water?

Answer 1

Douglas regretted being deprived of enjoying water activities like canoeing,
boating, swimming, fishing, etc. The wish to get pleasure from them and therefore the desire to regain his lost confidence, whereas being in water, created him attempt each attainable way to get eliminate his fear. He was finally able to overcome this mental handicap by obtaining himself a swimming educator and more ensuring that no residual fear was left.

Question 2

How did the instructor "build a swimmer" out of Douglas?

Answer 2

The instructor designed a swimmer out of Douglas piece by piece. For three months he
held him high on a rope connected to his belt. He went back and forth across the pool. Panic
seized the author on every occasion. The trainer tutored Douglas to place his face underneath water and exhale and to boost his nose and inhale. Then Douglas had to kick together with his legs for several weeks until these relaxed. Once seven months the trainer told him to swim the length of the pool on his own and he might do thus. 

 

Question 3

How did Douglas make sure that he conquered the old terror?

Answer 3

The swimming coaching was over, but Douglas wasn't assured concerning his
swimming. He was troubled concerning the way to overcome the fear. He was determined to
completely get eliminate it forever. He swam alone in the pool. He visited Lake Wentworth to
dive. There, he tried each possible stroke he had learnt. He fought back the small traces of
terror that gripped him in middle of the lake. Finally throughout his diving expedition within the Warm Lake, he realised that he had really conquered his old terror.

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Understanding the Text

Question 1

How does Douglas make clear to the reader the sense of panic that gripped him as he

almost drowned? Describe the details that have made the description vivid.

Answer 1

Once Douglas was sitting alone at the Y.M.C.A pool awaiting others to return. Then
there came a powerful aggressive boy. He tossed him up and threw him into the deep finish of the pool. Douglas went deep and swallowed water. He was at the sitting position at the bottom. He was frightened but wasn't so much as to die. On the way down, he had a technique in his mind. Once his feet touched the bottom, he would create a good spring upward. 
Then he would paddle to the sting of the pool, however he came up slowly. He opened his eyes and saw dirty water. He was deeply frightened. His legs appeared paralyzed. A great force was pulling him down. A stark power swamped him. He scream within the water however only the water detected him. When feeling the tiles below his feet, he jumped with all his may however it created no difference. His lungs ached and heart throbbed. Stark terror took him in its grip. His legs and arms couldn't move. He once more tried for the third time. He looked for air however swallowed water. He felt drowsy and ceased all efforts. He started forgetting everything around him. It seemed he was on the point of leave this world and he lay unconscious.

Question 2

How did Douglas overcome his fear of water?

Answer 2

After the misadventure of Douglas within the pool at the Y.M.C.A, Douglas was amidst the fear of the water. He realised that his fishing trips, canoeing, swimming and seafaring were over. He tried his best to beat it however the fear of drowning followed him everywhere. Finally he decided to have interaction a tutor to be told swimming and to beat his fear. He visited the pool and practiced five days per week, an hour day by day. The trainer place a belt around him and a rope was connected to the belt. The rope went through a block that ran an overhead cable. The instructor control one end of the rope and Douglas went back and forth across the pool. On every trip a number of the phobia would seize him up. Once three months, the stress began to decrease.
Piece by piece he shed the panic. The trainer instructed him to place his face below water and exhale. He additionally learnt a way to raise his nose and inhale.
This exercise was repeated many times. Currently he was able to shed a part of the fear that
seized him below water. He visited Lake Wentworth Triggs Island and Stamp Act Island. He
swam two miles across the lake. Now he was determined and he swam on. He yelled with
joy .He had conquered his fear of water.

Question 3

Why does Douglas as an adult recount a childhood experience of terror and his

Conquering of it? What larger meaning does he draw from his experience?

Answer 3

Douglas had two childhood experiences of terror. One at the California beach once
the waves knocked him down and swept over him. He was terror stricken. At the other
occasion he was thrown into the deep end of the Y.M.C.A pool by a strong aggressive boy. A
stark terror overcome and gripped him. It followed and haunted him where he went.
He accomplished that his joys of fishing, canoeing, seafaring and swimming had ruined. Keeping in view its severe consequences, he engaged a tutor who trained him in swimming and
Douglas was ready to conquer his fear.
This expertise had a deeper which means for Douglas. As he had skilled both the
sensation of dying and also the terror that the fear of it will turn out, he learnt the desire to live with nice intensity. This expertise will only be completed by people who have faced to
conquer it. This specifically happened with Douglas. He knew: "In death, there's peace, there is terror only within the fear of death.’’ so what matters most is that the will to live. As Roosevelt said

‘‘All we have to worry is worry itself.’’ 

Therefore one should not quit .One should face the
challenges. The will to live is nice and it will take man to the touch the highest peaks of life.

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Talking about the text

Question 1

"All we have to fear is fear itself". Have you ever had a fear that you have now

overcome? Share your experience with your partner.

Answer 1

Roosevelt has appropriately said ‘‘All we have to fear is fear itself.’’ These words
have a deeper which means for all people. It implies that we are afraid of fear itself. Those who have undergone this experience of fear, they will only appreciate its value. William O.
Douglas had faced it double in life. He had a terrible fear of water. He couldn't go for
swimming, canoeing, yachting and rafting. He realised that it might ruin his career since it
was following and haunting him wherever he went. So he took training in swimming and got
rid of the fear of water.
Like Douglas, I too had a terrible experience in my life.
A small tributary flows close to our village. Throughout the summer vacation, we used to go there for swimming and bathing. Very often, we were made cautious by the villagers to not bathe in it since there's a deeper hole within the stream. However we tend to ne'er bothered. One day we tend to took out our garments and plunged into it. By chance, the water was overflowing the bank and also the current was fast. While diving, two among us got stuck into the hole. We cried out for help.
We were going deeper and deeper. We thought that it absolutely was the end of our life. However, one of the boys was able to come back on the surface of the water and was seen by the villagers. They came and helped us to come back out of the water. However this enabled us to challenge the fears of life and we felt armed against all the mishaps.

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Talking about Language

Question 1

If someone else had narrated Douglas’ experience, how would it have differed from

this account? Write out a sample paragraph or paragraphs from this text from the

point of view of a third person or observer to find out which style of narration would

you consider to be more effective? Why?

Answer 1

If a third person had narrated Douglas’ experience, the impact of the story would
have lost the reader’s deep connection with the most protagonist and his fear of water. The
narrator then would be passively telling the story from the perspectival of an observer. The incident of drowning within the water might ne'er have with success communicated the sensation of the "stark terror" that Douglas underwent.
In third person narrative, the eighth and ninth paragraph of the story would be as follows:
"He flailed at the surface of the water, enclosed and clogged. He tried to bring his legs up
but they hung as dead weights, paralytic and rigid. A great force was pulling him below. He
screamed, however only the water heard him. He had started on the long journey back to the
bottom of the pool."
"He struck at the water as he went down; spending his strength collectively during a nightmare fights an irresistible force. He had lost all his breath. His lungs ached. His head throbbed. He was getting dizzy. However he remembered the strategy – he would spring from the bottom of the pool and come sort of a cork to the surface. He would lie flat on the water, strike out along with his arms, and thrash along with his legs. Then he would get to the edge of the pool and be safe."
So, it's only the first person narrative that keeps the reader gripped to the story. It makes the
experience additional relevant and tangible for the reader. It engages him by creating him go
through the expertise beside the protagonist. The desperation and helplessness of
being in water, which had almost become fatal, the mental and physical agony of attempting to survive the crisis, the long struggle of overcoming the concern stepwise and therefore the jubilation of conquering it at the end; all create the reader feel a part of the expertise. The first person narrative makes the story a fast and urgent reading for the readers. All this is able to have been lost had it been a third person narrative or from the point of view of an observer.

 

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Writing

Question 1

Doing well in any activity, for example a sport, music, dance or painting, riding a motorcycle or a car, involves a great deal of struggle. Most of us are very nervous to begin with until gradually we overcome our fears and perform well. Write an essay of about five paragraphs recounting such an experience. Try to recollect minute details of what caused the fear, your feelings, the encouragement you got from others or the criticism. You could begin with the last sentence of the essay you have just read — "At last I felt released — free to walk the trails and climb the peaks and to brush aside fear."

Answer 1

At last I felt released—free to steer the paths and climb the peaks and to brush off fear. Over time, I got over a paralysing fear of flying to really get pleasure from the experience. My initial flight was in 1999, once my Family and that I cosmopolitan to Egypt. I do not bear in mind a lot of concerning the flight, except for the actual fact that I despised it. I did not fly once more till 2003, and since then I've made over fifteen flights of varied lengths. My most up-to-date flight was over 9 hours, and it absolutely was the foremost relaxed travel experience I've had in a very long term. It absolutely was a standard problem—I had nightmares about planes crashing that usually led to me awakening in a very physiological state. My explanation told me that there's a way larger probability of being killed in a very car accident, however the fear of being killed on a flight looks to be much larger. It’d be as a result of plane crashes are invariably given a high media profile, or as a result of they are usually much larger than a road accident. I believe the most worry comes from the shortage of management individuals have once they are flying. I used a way I learnt from lucid dreaming, referred to as a 'reality check'. The concept is that whenever you perform a standard action, you consciously raise yourself if you are dreaming. So, whenever I saw a plane, I might perform a reality check. This enabled me to vary the result to one thing more pleasant. It takes follow and discipline, however this very helped with the dangerous dreams. I created an acutely aware effort to prevent myself whenever those thoughts came up, and to have faith in an additional peaceful state of affairs. For instance, I modified these visions so rather than the plane plummeting into the bottom, it'd set down and everybody would build off it uninjured. Rather than seeing myself paralysed with terror, I remodelled the image of myself into somebody calm who offered facilitate to the opposite passengers. It sounds easy, however it created an enormous distinction to my general perspective concerning flying. To place my mind relaxed, I looked around to find out about the protection checks that are performed, and the way safe varied airliners are. These pieces of data created an enormous impact, as a result of they appealed to the logical side of my brain. Flying is safe. I've found that obtaining a bench makes the flight rather more pleasant. A number of the views will be completely exciting, particularly around take-off and landing. Take it slow to mirror on however wonderful it's, and it'll assist you relax.

Question 2

Write a short letter to someone you know about your having learnt to do something new.

New Delhi       February 2, 2018      dear Riya    I have learnt to drive! I also learnt that the lot of you know regarding driving the lot of fascinating driving becomes. It takes regarding an hour to find out the fundamentals of beginning, stopping, and turning however it all depends on however smart a driver you wish to be. My instructor told me that it takes between 25-50 hours of behind-the-wheel expertise for the typical novice driver to get enough skills to Junction in basic traffic situations. Initially, I used to be apprehensive however presently complete that driving could be a combination of hand-eye coordination skills, vehicle-handling skills and traffic knowledge. Advanced driving is, over anything, a mix of decision making and management skills. Driving is extremely a lot of a decision-making task, and smart choices rely on good information. 90 % of that information comes through the eyes. In different words, you cannot be a professional driver while not AN understanding of however vision and perception works. The great news is that anyone will learn this art, though the time period could vary.    

Best wishes     Ravi