Deep Water questions and answers: Ncert Solutions for Class 12 English flamingo Chapter 3 Deep Water
| Textbook | Ncert |
| Class | Class 12 |
| Subject | English flamingo |
| Chapter | Chapter 3 |
| Chapter Name | Deep Water ncert solutions |
| Category | Ncert Solutions |
| Medium | English |
Are you looking for Class 12 English flamingo Chapter 3 Deep Water question answer? Now you can download Deep Water questions and answers pdf from here.
Deep Water Think As you Read:
Question 1: What is the “misadventure” that William Douglas speaks about?
Answer 1: 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 Y.M.C.A. 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.
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 frightened out of his wits. While sinking down he made a plan. He would make a big jump when his feet hit the bottom. He would come 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: This experience revived his aversion to water. He shook and cried when he lay on his bed. He couldn’t eat that night. For many days, there was a haunting fear in his heart. The slightest exertion upset him, making him wobbly in the knees and sick to his stomach. He never went back to the pool. He feared water and avoided it whenever he could.
Deep Water Think As you Read:
Question 1: Why was Douglas determined to get over his fear of water?
Answer 1: His fear of water ruined his fishing trips. It deprived him of the joy of canoeing, boating, and swimming. Douglas used every way he knew to overcome this fear he had developed ’since childhood. Even as an adult, it held him firmly in its grip. He determined to get an instructor and learn swimming to get over this fear of water.
Question 2: How did the instructor “build a swimmer” out of Douglas?
Answer 2: The instructor built a swimmer out of Douglas piece by piece. For three months he held him high on a rope attached to his belt. He went back and forth across the pool. Panic seized the author every time. The instructor taught Douglas to put his face under water and exhale and to raise his nose and inhale. Then Douglas had to kick with his legs for many weeks till these relaxed. After seven months the instructor told him to swim the length of the pool.
Question 3: How did Douglas make sure that he conquered the old terror?
Answer 3: Douglas still felt terror-stricken when he was alone in the pool. The remnants of the old terror would return, but he would rebuke it and go for another length of the pool. He was still not satisfied. So, he went to Lake Wentworth in New Hampshire, dived off a dock at Triggs Island and swam two miles across the lake. He had his residual doubts. So, he went to Meade Glacier, dived into Warm Lake and swam across to the other shore and back. Thus, he made sure that he had conquered the old terror.
Deep Water 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: Douglas vividly describes the overwhelming panic he experienced during a near-drowning incident at the Y.M.C.A. pool. While learning to swim, he faced a terrifying “misadventure” when a strong boy threw him into the pool. Despite his fear, Douglas initially felt confident that he would manage to escape the water. He planned to make a powerful jump as soon as his feet touched the bottom, expecting to rise to the surface and swim to safety. Although the pool was only 9 feet deep, Douglas perceived it as 90 feet deep due to his panic.
When his feet finally hit the bottom, Douglas attempted to push off and leap towards the surface, but his efforts were futile. Surrounded by murky yellowish water, he searched desperately for a rope, a ladder, or water wings, but found nothing. Choking and struggling to breathe, he tried to scream but was unable to make any sound. His head emerged briefly from the water, but his mouth remained submerged.
Desperate and flailing, Douglas felt his legs stiffen and become paralyzed, dragging him back towards the bottom of the pool. His lungs and legs throbbed with pain, and dizziness began to set in. Immobilized by fear and unable to call for help, Douglas was engulfed by a sense of helplessness as he fought to keep himself afloat.
Question 2: How did Douglas overcome his fear of water?
Answer 2: Douglas was determined to overcome his fear of water because it was preventing him from enjoying the pleasures of boating, fishing, and canoeing. For months, he attended swimming lessons. The instructor required him to put in a lot of practice time. He learned a variety of swimming techniques. Every day, he practised for hours. After taking those swimming lessons, he felt a little less afraid. Douglas hadn’t finished his swimming lessons yet. He went to various lakes to practise his swimming skills. He swam from one shore to the other without assistance.
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 this experience?
Answer 3: As an adult, Douglas reflects on a harrowing childhood experience and his eventual victory over it, emphasizing the profound personal significance it holds for him. He recounts a terrifying ordeal from his youth in which he faced near-drowning, an experience that left a lasting impact on him. Emerging from this ordeal, Douglas derives a deeper understanding of fear and courage.
The larger meaning Douglas extracts from this experience is the realization that fear often stems from the fear of death itself. Echoing Roosevelt’s famous assertion that “all we have to fear is the fear itself,” Douglas acknowledges that the terror he felt was rooted in the prospect of death. By confronting and surviving his fear, Douglas’s desire to live and his appreciation for life became even more pronounced. This transformative experience not only allowed him to overcome his initial terror but also instilled in him a profound sense of resilience and a renewed commitment to embracing life fully.
Deep Water 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 meaning for all of us. It implies that we fear from fear. Those who have undergone this experience of fear, they can only appreciate its worth. William O. Douglas has faced it twice in life. He had a terrible fear of water. He could not go for swimming, canoeing, boating and rafting etc. He realised that it would ruin his career since it was following and haunting him wherever he went. Fear is our hard core enemy. We must get rid of it at the earliest like Douglas. I too had a terrible experience in my life.
A small tributary flows near our village. During the summer vacation, we used to go there for swimming and bathing. Very often, we were made cautious by the villagers not to bathe in it since there is a deeper hole inside the stream. Being children, we never bothered . One day we took out our clothes and plunged into it. By chance, the water was overflowing the bank and the current was fast. While diving, two among us got stuck into the hole.
We cried and cried out. We were going deeper and deeper. We thought that it was the end of our life. One of the boys came outside and saw the villagers. He cried and cried. They came and brought us out of the water. But this enabled us to challenge the fears of life and we can take adventurous life.
Question 2: Find and narrate other stories about conquest of fear and what people have said about courage. For example, you can recall Nelson Mandela’s struggle for freedom, his perseverance to achieve his mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor as depicted in his autobiography. The story We’re Not Afraid To Die, which you have read in Class XI, is an apt example of how courage and optimism helped a family survive under the direst stress.
Answer 2: In his autobiography ‘Long Walk to Freedom’, Nelson Mandela tells the extraordinary story of his life. He brings vividly to life the escalating political warfare in the fifties between the African National Congress and the government, culminating in his dramatic escapades as an underground leader and the notorious Rivonia Trial of 1964, at which he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
He recounts the surprisingly eventful twenty-seven years in prison and the complex, delicate negotiations that led both to his freedom and to the beginning of the end of apartheid. Mandela also struggled against the exploitation of labour and on the segregation of the universities.
He persevered to achieve his mission and to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor. In 1990, he was freed from prison. The apartheid laws were relaxed. Mandela became the champion for human rights and racial equality. He also became the first non-white president of the Republic of South Africa.