Deep Water-Short and Long Questions by Aditya Singh

Deep Water-Short and Long Questions by Aditya Singh

Aditya Classes

Chapter-Deep Water

Class-12th

Short Questions

Q1.How did the incident at the YMCA pool affect Douglas?

Answer:Douglas, a ten year old boy, was standing alone at the YMCA pool when a big bully boy picked him up and tossed him into the deep end and at once he was at the bottom of the pool. Though he did manage to come up with extreme difficulty, he could never again go back to the pool. He started fearing and avoiding water. Whenever he went near water a haunting terror would seize him.

Q2.Why was Douglas keen to overcome his fear of water?

Answer:Douglas was determined to overcome his fear of water because this phobia had ruined his fishing trips. Moreover, he had also never been able to enjoy water sports like canoeing, boating, and swimming. He was determined to get an instructor and learn swimming to get over his fear of water.

Q3.When Douglas realised that he was sinking, how did he plan to save himself?

Answer:When Douglas realised he was sinking he was frightened out of his wits and it was then that he decided to make a big jump and come up to the surface. He thought of lying flat on water for some time and then to paddle to the edge of the pool.

Q4.What did Douglas experience as he went down to the bottom of the pool for the first time?

Answer:When Douglas is pushed into the pool, he at once goes to the bottom of the pool. The nine feet deep pool appears like ninety feet to him. He feels a sense of acute uneasiness and as if his lungs are ready to burst. Despite feeling absolutely suffocated he makes desperate efforts for survival.

Q5.Why was Douglas determined to get over his fear of water?

Q6.What efforts did Douglas make to get over his fear of water?

Answer:Douglas was determined to get over his fear of water. He engaged a professional instructor who understood the intensity of his fear and decided to not just teach him how to swim but ‘build’ a swimmer out of him slowly and steadily.

Q7.Which two frightening experiences did Douglas have in water in his childhood?

Answer:Douglas’ first frightening experience in water was when he was three or four years old. He was knocked down by waves while surfing at California beach. He had been terror-struck at that time. Years later, his experience at the YMCA pool revived unpleasant memories when an eighteen year old boy had hurled Douglas into the deep end of the pool. Both these experiences led Douglas to develop a fear of water.

Q8.What lesson did Douglas learn when he got rid of his fear of water?

Answer:After getting rid of his fear of water Douglas realized that ‘what one has to fear is fear itself’ and if he is able to overcome that fear he can achieve anything he wants.

Long Question

Q1.How did Douglas’s experience at the YMCA pool affect him and how did he overcome his fear of water?

Answer:The big bully of a boy found Douglas alone at the pool. He picked him up and tossed him into the deep end of the pool. Douglas was thrown at the bottom of the pool and feared that he would be drowned. This ‘misadventure’ caused Douglas a lot of trouble and agony. He developed an aversion to water as he experienced a series of fears and emotions. Icy horror grabbed his heart and made him panicky. This experience had a lasting effect on Douglas. It deprived him of the joys of boating and swimming. This fear of water ruined his fishing trips. He never went back to the pool. This fear of water stayed with him as the years rolled by.

Whenever he tried to enter water, he was seized by fear. Wherever he went his joys of fishing, boating and swimming were ruined. This fear of deep waters stayed with him for years and firmly held him in its grip. Douglas had to resort to professional assistance to overcome his fear of water. He employed an instructor to teach him how to swim. He practiced five days a week, an hour each day with the instructor and piece by piece the instructor built a swimmer out of Douglas.

Q2.How did Douglas develop an aversion to water?

Answer:When Douglas was three or four years old, his father had taken him to the beach in California. As he and his father had stood together in the surf, the waves had knocked him down and swept over him. He was buried in water. His breath was gone and he was frightened. Then, when he was about ten or eleven years old and had decided to learn to swim, he had gone to the YMCA pool. There an eighteen year old boy picked him up and tossed him into the deep end of the pool. After this incident he never went back to the pool. He developed a fear of water and avoided it whenever he could. Even when he went wading or boating in water the terror that had seized him during these experi¬ences would come back and take possession of him completely. His legs would become paralysed and icy horror would grab his heart.