3.

DEEP WATER
Q.1 What is the misadventure that william Douglas speaks about?
Or
What accident took place with the author at the YMCA pool?
Or
What had happened when William Douglas was ten or eleven years old?
Ans. William Douglas speaks about the misadventure that he experiences at the swimming pool.
A big bully of a boy found him alone at the pool.He picked Douglas up and tossed him into the
deep end of the pool.
Q.2 What did the author think when he was drowning in deep water ?
Or
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 ?
Ans. Douglas was alone at the pool. He was tossed into deep end of the pool by a bully boy. He
realized that he was sinking. He planned that when his feet hit the bottom. He would make a big
jump and came to the surface.
Q.3 Why was Douglas determined to get over his fear of water?
Ans Douglas was determined to get over his fear of water because it ruined his joy of boating ,
fishing and swimming.
Q.4 How did the instructor’ build a swimmer’ out of Douglas?
Or
How did the instructor make william Douglas a perfect swimmer?
Or
What special methods did the instructor use to teach Douglas to swim?
Ans. The instructor made serious efforts to build a swimmer out of Douglas. He put a belt around
him. A rope attached to the belt went through a pulley. Thus, he was made to go back and forth
across the pool hour after hour. Then he was taught how to exhale and inhale. In this way,he
built a swimmer out of Douglas.
Q.5 How did Douglas make sure that he conquered the old terror.?
Or
How did William Douglas finally overcome his fear of water?
Ans. Douglas felt that when he was alone in the pool, Tiny vestiges of old fear would return to make
sure that he had get rid of his fear of water. He went to lake wentworth in New Hampshire
dived off a dock at Triggs Island and swan two miles across to lake to stamp act Island, after he
become confident that he had conquered his long fear of water.
Q.6 What efforts did Douglas make before he began to go down for the second time?
Ans. He beat at the surface of the water swallowed and choked.His legs hung as dead weights,
paralyesd and rigid. He could not bring them up.A great force pulled him down . He screamed
but no one heard him .

7
Q.7 Why did Douglas go to lake wentworth in New Hampshire? What did he do there?
Ans. Douglas was not sure that all the terror of water had left him. So he went to lake wentworth in
New Hampshire and swam two miles across to lake to Stamp Act Island. He swam, the crawl,
breast stroke ,back stroke.
Q.8. How did this experience affect him ?
Ans. This experience has a lasting effect on the author. He feared water . He avoided it whenever he
could. Fear kept haunting him day and night. The fear ruined his fishing trips and derpived him
of the joy of canoeing, boating and swimming.
Q.9. How did Douglas overcome his fear of water?
Ans. After his misadventure in 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 boating were over. He tried his best
to overcome it but the haunting of the water followed him everywhere. Finally he decided to
engage an instructor to learn to swim and overcome his fear. He went to the pool and practiced
five days a week, an hour each day. The instructor put a belt around him and a rope was attached
to the belt. The rope went through a pulley that ran an overhead cable. Douglas held one end of
the rope and went back and forth across the pool. On each trip some of the terror would seize
him up. After three months, the tension began to decrease.
Piece by piece he shed the panic. He taught him to put his face under water and exhale. He also
learnt how to raise his nose and inhale.
This exercise was repeated hundreds of times. Now he was able to shed part of the fear that
seized him under water. He went to lake Wentworth Triggs island and Slamp act island. He
swam two miles across the lake. Now he was determined and he swam on. He shouted with joy
and he had conquered his fear of water.