Flamingo Deep Water - Test Papers

 CBSE TEST PAPER-01

Class 12 English Core (Deep Water)

General Instructions:-

  • All questions are compulsory.
  • Question No.1 to 7 carries 3 marks each.
  • Question No. 8 to 10 caries 6 marks each.
  1. What was the terror that set in his heart?
  2. How did the writer try to learn swimming?
  3. Did he perfect the art of swimming?
  4. The writer has quoted President Roosevelt. What’s it?
  5. Why did he say that the instructor was finished but he didn’t?
  6. How did he finally realize that he had conquered the terror of water?
  7. What is the “misadventure” that William Douglas speaks about?
  8. How did the instructor teach him swimming?
  9. What was the incident at the YMCA pool that the writer has quoted?
  10. How did Douglas overcome his fear of water?

CBSE TEST PAPER-01
Class 12 English Core (Deep Water)
Answers

  1. The terror that set in his heart was the terror of water. When he was knocked down by the wave and the water swept over him, he felt the overpowering force that the water possessed. He felt choked and this gave rise to the fear.
  2. The writer tried to learn swimming by going to the YMCA pool in Yakima wearing water wings and aping other children. He was initially very terrorized but slowly he gained confidence and started to learn.
  3. When at the YMCA pool he was unable to learn swimming as a misadventure happened. He almost drowned and this revived his childhood fear. However, he finally hired an instructor and learnt to swim.
  4. The writer has quoted President Roosevelt. It was about fear. The President had said that in our life ‘We should fear the fear’ i.e. we shouldn’t be afraid, but we should be afraid of fear itself so that it doesn’t overtake our mind.
  5. He said that the instructor was finished because the instructor taught him every trick that was required to swim and piece by piece built a swimmer in him. He said he wasn’t finished because the fear of water remained and whenever he went into water, the childhood fear i.e. the terror of water came back.
  6. To get to know that he had conquered the terror of water, at first opportunity he hurried west, went up to Warm Lake. The next morning, he stripped, dived into the lake, and swam across to the other shore and when the fear didn’t return, he knew that he had conquered the terror.
  7. William O.Douglas had just learnt swimming. One day, an eighteen year old big bruiser picked him up and tossed him into the nine feet deep end of the YMCA pool. He hit the water surface in a sitting position. He swallowed water and went at once to the bottom. He nearly died in this misadventure.
  8. The instructor taught him swimming piece by piece. The instructor put a belt around him. A rope attached to the belt went through a pulley that ran on an overhead cable. He held on to the end of the rope and went back and forth across the pool for many weeks. Then he taught him to put his face under water and exhale, and to raise his nose and inhale. Bit by bit he shed part of the panic that seized him. Next, he held him at the side of the pool and had him kick with his legs. For weeks he did just that. At first his legs refused to work. But finally, he could command them.
  9. The incident is of the swimming pool at YMCA where the writer was learning swimming. He was a novice and was learning swimming. He was sitting by the side of the pool and waiting for others to come for he was afraid to venture alone. Then a well build boy of about eighteen came and ducked the writer into the swimming pool at the deep end. Since the writer didn’t know swimming, he went down the water as he was dropped in sitting position. He however, used his wits and tried to bounce back but the force of water didn’t allow him to come to surface and he became unconscious.
  10. Douglas decided to take the help of an instructor to learn swimming. He underwent training from October to April, for three months he was taken across the pool with the help of a rope. He was terrified as he went under and his legs froze. The instructor taught him to exhale under water and raise his nose to inhale. He made him kick his legs to make them relax. Then he was asked to swim, he continued swimming from April to July. Still he was not free from terror. To get to know that he had conquered the terror of water, he went to Lake Wentworth and swam two miles. Terror returned only when he was in the middle of the lake. The old sensation of terror had returned but in a smaller size. He combated it with a laugh and swam on. When the fear didn’t return, he knew that he had conquered the terror of water.