CBSE Class 12 English Deep Water Assignment Set 03

Multiple Choice Questions

Question. He decided to learn swimming in the pool at
(a) the local club
(b) his school
(c) Y.M.C.A
(d) Country Club

Answer: C

Question. The misadventure at the Y.M.C.A pool happened when
(a) Douglas was accompanied by friends
(b) he was with his father
(c) he was alone
(d) he was with his mother

Answer: C

Question. Douglas was seized by
(a) the lifeguard
(b) stark terror
(c) his friend
(d) the boy who had thrown him

Answer: B

Question. William Douglas was a friend and adviser of
(a) President Kennedy
(b) President Cleveland
(c) President Roosevelt
(d) President Clinton

Answer: C

Question. His mother warned him against swimming in the Yakima River because it had
(a) strong currents
(b) it was meant only for boating
(c) many people had drowned there
(d) it had no lifeguards around

Answer: C

Question. Douglas imagined that on hitting the bottom, he would
(a) bob to the surface like a cork
(b) would come up to grab his water wings
(c) would lie flat and float up
(d) shout for help

Answer: A

Question. ‘All we have to fear is fear itself’. Who said these words?
(a) Douglas
(b) his instructor
(c) his father
(d) President Roosevelt

Answer: D

Question. At the shallow end, the Y.M.C.A pool was
(a) One foot deep
(b) four feet deep
(c) two or three feet deep
(d) five feet deep

Answer: C

Question. The most appropriate justification for the title of the chapter ‘Deep Water’ is that
(a) it’s about the dangerous depth of the swimming pool.
(b) it reveals the author’s lack of surety about overcoming his fear of swimming.
(c) it underlines the author’s fear of water and how he overcame it.
(d) it includes the methods of the author’s coach to overcome the fear of deep water

Answer: C

Question. The author hated to walk naked to the pool as he had
(a) skinny arms
(b) bony chest
(c) skinny legs
(d) hairy legs

Answer: C

Question. Douglas went down towards the bottom
(a) only once
(b) twice
(c) thrice
(d) five times

Answer: C

Question. The introduction to the Y.M.C.A swimming pool revived for Douglas
(a) childhood fear of water
(b) memories of holiday at the beach
(c) memories of father and son companionship
(d) a terrible accident

Answer: A

Question. When his feet would hit the bottom Douglas planned to
(a) make a big jump
(b) lie down
(c) start his strokes
(d) float

Answer: A

Question. A rope was attached to
(a) Douglas’ legs
(b) Douglas’ arms
(c) Douglas’ belt
(d) Douglas’ swimming trunks

Answer: C

Question. Douglas calls him a
(a) nasty human being
(b) a brute
(c) a beautiful physical specimen
(d) a big bully

Answer: C

Question. As Douglas tried to bring his legs up, they hung as
(a) dead branches
(b) dead weights
(c) dead sticks
(d) dead bodies

Answer: B

Question. After swimming across to the other shore of Warm Lake, Douglas shouted with joy and his voice was returned as an echo by
(a) Gilbert peak
(b) Everest peak
(c) Alps
(d) Blue Mountain

Answer: A

Question. When Douglas tried to yell
(a) everyone came to his rescue
(b) no sound came out
(c) his father arrived
(d) the lifeguard dived to save him

Answer: B

Question. He tossed Douglas into the pool towards its
(a) shallow end
(b) middle
(c) edge
(d) deep end

Answer: D

Question. The writer decided to learn to swim when he was about
(a) ten or eleven years old
(b) fifteen or sixteen years old
(c) twenty years old
(d) eighteen years old

Answer: A

Question. He practised in the pool
(a) ten times a week
(b) five days a week
(c) twice a week
(d) thrice a week

Answer: B

Question. The nine feet seemed to Douglas like
(a) hundred feet
(b) ninety feet
(c) fifty feet
(d) twenty-five feet

Answer: B

Question. With his hard work, Douglas had
(a) conquered his fear of water
(b) conquered Mount Everest
(c) got a good job
(d) got a promotion

Answer: A

Question. The water in the pool had a
(a) dirty yellow tinge
(b) a blue reflection
(c) green colour
(d) no colour

Answer: A

Question. Whenever terror struck again, Douglas would start
(a) shouting
(b) laughing
(c) crying
(d) talking to terror

Answer: D

Question. After the third unsuccessful attempt to spring up, Douglas thought that he was
(a) floating in space
(b) floating in the River Yakima
(c) floating in air
(d) floating in a rubber-tube

Answer: A

Question. Though Douglas was frightened, he was not
(a) afraid to die
(b) going to survive
(c) out of his wits
(d) able to shout for help

Answer: C

Question. Douglas swam the lake to Stamp Act Island covering a distance of
(a) five miles
(b) seven miles
(c) two miles
(d) one mile

Answer: C

Question. In the essay, William Douglas talks about his fear of
(a) fire
(b) lizards
(c) snake
(d) water

Answer: D

Question. Douglas’ tension started slackening after
(a) four months
(b) three months
(c) five months
(d) one month

Answer: B

Question. The pool’s depth at the deep end was
(a) twenty feet
(b) nine feet
(c) six feet
(d) eight feet

Answer: B

Question. ‘Now you can swim’. These words were spoken by
(a) Douglas’ father
(b) teacher in school
(c) uncle
(d) instructor

Answer: D

Question. ‘What do you think you can do to me?’ These words were spoken by Douglas to
(a) a shark
(b) to his enemy
(c) to the boy who pushed him
(d) to terror

Answer: D

Question. When he regained consciousness, he
(a) laughed at his experience
(b) had 104° F fever
(c) shook and cried and didn’t eat anything
(d) told his mother about his misadventure

Answer: C

Question. At the end of the experience, Douglas felt
(a) happy
(b) released
(c) sad
(d) victorious

Answer: B

Question. After being haunted by fear for many years Douglas decided to learn to swim. He took the help of
(a) his mother
(b) his father
(c) a friend
(d) an instructor

Answer: D

Question. The boy who threw Douglas into the pool was about
(a) twenty years old
(b) eighteen years old
(c) twenty-one years old
(d) fifteen years old

Answer: B

Question. The chap that threw me in was saying,
“But I was only fooling.” Choose the option mentioning the personality traits of this ‘chap’. 
1. persuasive
2. irresponsible
3. domineering
4. manipulative
5. callous
(a) 1,2,3
(b) 2,4,5
(c) 2,3,5
(d) 1,3,5

Answer: C

Question. His fear of water
(a) ruined his trips
(b) made him extremely guilty
(c) was not liked by friends
(d) made him weak

Answer: A

Question. Every time Douglas attempted to go inside water, his legs would
(a) be shaky
(b) make him run
(c) help him keep afloat
(d) be paralyzed

Answer: D

Question. The incident in childhood had taken place at the beach in
(a) Florida
(b) Washington
(c) New York
(d) California

Answer: D

Question. Douglas had to repeat exhaling and inhaling exercises
(a) hundred times
(b) forty times
(c) fifty times
(d) ten times

Answer: A

Read the extracts given below and attempt the questions that follow:

1. Then all effort ceased. I relaxed. Even my legs
felt limp; and a blackness swept over my brain.
It wiped out fear; it wiped out terror. There was no more panic.
It was quiet and peaceful. Nothing to be afraid of.
This is nice... to be drowsy... to go 
to sleep... no need to jump... too tired to jump...
it’s nice to be carried gently... to float along in
space... tender arms around me... tender arms
like Mother’s... now I must go to sleep... I crossed
to oblivion, and the curtain of life fell.

Questions

(i) Choose the correct option with reference to the two statements given below:
Statement 1: The author tried his best to jump out of water.
Statement 2: After a while, the author was not anxious in water.
(a) If Statement 1 is the cause, Statement 2 is the effect.
(b) If Statement 1 is the effect, Statement 2 is the cause.
(c) Both the statements are the effects of a common cause.
(d) Both the statements are the effects of independent causes.

Answer: A

(ii) The ‘curtain of life fell’ corresponds to an aspect of ............ .
(a) geometry
(b) history
(c) sports
(d) drama

Answer: D

(iii) The purpose of using “…” in the above passage is to ............ .
(a) show omission
(b) indicate pauses
(c) shorten a dialogue
(d) replace an idea

Answer: B

(iv) Which option indicates that the poet lost consciousness?
(a) ‘It was quiet and peaceful.’
(b) ‘I crossed into oblivion.’
(c) ‘Tender arms like Mother’s.’
(d) ‘It wiped out fear.’

Answer: B

(v) What lesson does the author teach us in this lesson?
Answer: In this lesson, the author conveys a message of facing some panicking situation courageously.

(vi) What could be the immediate result of the incident on the writer?
(a) he could not breathe
(b) he could not walk
(c) he kept on coughing
(d) he could not sleep or eat that night

Answer: A

2. “Yet I had residual doubts. At my first opportunity
I hurried west, went up the Tieton to Conrad
Meadows, up the Conrad Creek Trail to Meade
Glacier, and camped in the high meadow by the side of Warm Lake.
The next morning, I stripped,
dived into the lake, and swam across to the other
shore and back — just as Doug Corpron used to do.
I shouted with joy, and Gilbert Peak returned
the echo. I had conquered my fear of water.”

Questions

(i) What residual doubts Douglas is talking about?
(a) Whether he has learnt swimming.
(b) Whether he has conquered his fear of water.
(c) Whether he can participate in competitions.
(d) Whether he can swim to the length of the pool.

Answer: B

(ii) Where did he go to clear his doubt?
(a) California
(b) Warm Lake
(c) Conrad Meadows
(d) To the North

Answer: B

(iii) What did he do there?
(a) Camped there
(b) Did fishing there
(c) Did boating there
(d) Swam across to the other shore and back

Answer: D

(iv) Who was Doug Corpron?
(a) Trainer
(b) Life guard
(c) Swimmer
(d) Friend

Answer: C

(v) What did the author do before jumping into Warm lake ?
Answer: He stripped himself.

(vi) The writer shouted with joy because ............
(a) he loved swimming
(b) he had caught a fish
(c) he could go canoeing
(d) he could swim without fear

Answer: D

3. Thus, piece by piece, he built a swimmer.
And when he had perfected each piece,
he put them together into an integrated whole.
In April he said, “Now you can swim.
Dive off and swim the length of the pool, crawl stroke.” I did.
The instructor was finished.
But I was not finished. I still wondered if I would
be terror-stricken when I was alone in the pool.
I tried it. I swam the length up and down.
Tiny vestiges of the old terror would return.
But now I could frown and say to that terror,
“Trying to scare me, eh? Well, here’s to you! Look!” And off
I’d go for another length of the pool.

Questions

(i) What led the narrator to believe that he was ‘not finished’?
Answer: His insecurity over his ability to overcome fear led him to believe so.

(ii) Which of these BEST describes the narrator’s relationship with his fear?
(a) hostile
(b) evasive
(c) indifferent
(d) repressive

Answer: A

(iii) Which of these BEST describes the contrast in the focus of the swimming instructor and the narrator when it came to swimming?
(a) While the former focused on the mechanics, the latter focused on the creativity involved.
(b) While the former focused on the physical, the latter was more focused on the psychological.
(c) While the former focused on the practical, the latter was more focused on the theoretical aspects.
(d) While the former focused on casual learning, the latter focused on learning how to do it competitively.

Answer: B

(iv) The narrator mentions his conversations with fear in this story to emphasize the __________.
(a) gaps in his skills as a swimmer
(b) grip that fear of water still has on his life
(c) improvement in his assurance as a swimmer
(d) ease with which he forgot about his fear of swimming

Answer: B

(v) The swimming instructor helped the narrator to regain his __________.
(a) strength
(b) prosperity
(c) innocence
(d) confidence

Answer: D

(vi) “Trying to scare me, eh? Well, here’s to you! Look!” Here, ‘you’ refers to
(a) the instructor
(b) the boxer boy
(c) terror
(d) the pool

Answer: C