Revised Syllabus - Class IX & X - English Language and Literature - Code No. 184 (2020-21) CBSE

Class XII - English - Flamingo - Deep Water - Notes

Introduction | Complete Text | Questions and Answers

William Douglas (1898-1980)

About the author

William Douglas (1898-1980) was born in Maine, Minnesota. After graduating with a Bachelors of Arts in English and Economics, he spent two years teaching high school in Yakima. However, he got tired of this and decided to pursue a legal career. He met Franklin D. Roosevelt at Yale and became an adviser and friend to the President. Douglas was a leading advocate of individual rights. He retired in 1975 with a term lasting thirty-six years and remains the longest-serving Justice in the history of the court. The following excerpt is taken from Of Men and Mountains by William O. Douglas. It reveals how as a young boy William Douglas nearly drowned in a swimming pool. In this essay he talks about his fear of water and thereafter, how he finally overcame it. Notice how the autobiographical part of  the selection is used to support his discussion of fear.

Complete Text

It had happened when I was ten or eleven years old. I had decided to learn to swim. There was a pool at the Y.M.C.A. in Yakima that offered exactly the opportunity. The Yakima River was treacherous. Mother continually warned against it, and kept fresh in my mind the details of each drowning in the river. But the Y.M.C.A. pool was safe. It was only two or three feet deep at the shallow end; and while it was nine feet deep at the other, the drop was gradual. I got a pair of water wings and went to the pool. I hated to walk naked into it and show my skinny legs. But I subdued my pride and did it. 

From the beginning, however, I had an aversion to the water when I was in it. This started when I was three or four years old and father took me to the beach in California. He and I stood together in the surf. I hung on to him, yet the waves knocked me down and swept over me. I was buried in water. My breath was gone. I was frightened. Father laughed, but there was terror in my heart at the overpowering force of the waves. 

My introduction to the Y.M.CA. swimming pool revived unpleasant memories and stirred childish fears. But in a little while I gathered confidence. I paddled with my new water wings, watching the other boys and trying to learn by aping them. I did this two or three times on different days and was just beginning to feel at ease in the water when the misadventure happened.

I went to the pool when no one else was there. The place was quiet. The water was still, and the tiled bottom was as white and clean as a bathtub. I was timid about going in alone, so I sat on the side of the pool to wait for others. 

I had not been there long when in came a big bruiser of a boy, probably eighteen years old. He had thick hair on his chest. He was a beautiful physical specimen, with legs and arms that showed rippling muscles. He yelled, “Hi, Skinny! How’d you like to be ducked?” 

With that he picked me up and tossed me into the deep end. I landed in a sitting position, swallowed water, and went at once to the bottom. I was frightened, but not yet  frightened out of my wits. On the way down I planned: When my feet hit the bottom, I would make a big jump, come to the surface, lie flat on it, and paddle to the edge of the pool.

It seemed a long way down. Those nine feet were more like ninety, and before I touched bottom my lungs were ready to burst. But when my feet hit bottom I summoned all my strength and made what I thought was a great spring upwards. I imagined I would bob to the surface like a cork. Instead, I came up slowly. I opened my eyes and saw nothing  but water — water that had a dirty yellow tinge to it. I grew panicky. I reached up as if to grab a rope and my hands clutched only at water. I was suffocating. I tried to yell but no sound came out. Then my eyes and nose came out of the water — but not my mouth.

I flailed at the surface of the water, swallowed and choked. I tried to bring my legs up, but they hung as dead weights, paralysed and rigid. A great force was pulling me under. I screamed, but only the water heard me. I had started on the long journey back to the bottom of the pool.

I struck at the water as I went down, expending my strength as one in a nightmare fights an irresistible force. I had lost all my breath. My lungs ached, my head throbbed. I was getting dizzy. But I remembered the strategy — I would spring from the bottom of the pool and come like a cork to the surface. I would lie flat on the water, strike out with my arms, and thrash with my legs. Then I would get to the edge of the pool and be safe.

I went down, down, endlessly. I opened my eyes. Nothing but water with a yellow glow — dark water that one could not see through.

And then sheer, stark terror seized me, terror that knows no understanding, terror that knows no control, terror that no one can understand who has not experienced it. I was shrieking under water. I was paralysed under water — stiff, rigid with fear. Even the screams in my throat were frozen. Only my heart, and the pounding in my head, said that I was still alive.

And then in the midst of the terror came a touch of reason. I must remember to jump when I hit the bottom. At last I felt the tiles under me. My toes reached out as if to grab them. I jumped with everything I had.

But the jump made no difference. The water was still around me. I looked for ropes, ladders, water wings. Nothing but water. A mass of yellow water held me. Stark terror took an even deeper hold on me, like a great charge of electricity. I shook and trembled with fright. My arms wouldn’t move. My legs wouldn’t move. I tried to call for help, to call for mother. Nothing happened.

And then, strangely, there was light. I was coming out of the awful yellow water. At least my eyes were. My nose was almost out too.

Then I started down a third time. I sucked for air and got water. The yellowish light was going out. 

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.

The next I remember I was lying on my stomach beside the pool, vomiting. The chap that threw me in was saying, “But I was only fooling.” Someone said, “The kid nearly died. Be all right now. Let’s carry him to the locker room.” 

Several hours later, I walked home. I was weak and trembling. I shook and cried when I lay on

my bed. I couldn’t eat that night. For days a haunting fear was in my heart. The slightest exertion upset me, making me wobbly in the knees and sick to my stomach.

I never went back to the pool. I feared water. I avoided it whenever I could.

A few years later when I came to know the waters of the Cascades, I wanted to get into them. And whenever I did — whether I was wading the Tieton or Bumping River or bathing in Warm Lake of the Goat Rocks — the terror that had seized me in the pool would come back. It would take possession of me completely. My legs would become paralysed. Icy horror would grab my heart. 

This handicap stayed with me as the years rolled by. In canoes on Maine lakes fishing for landlocked salmon, bass fishing in New Hampshire, trout fishing on the Deschutes and Metolius in Oregon, fishing for salmon on the Columbia, at Bumping Lake in the Cascades — wherever I went, the haunting fear of the water followed me. It ruined my fishing trips; deprived me of the joy of canoeing, boating, and swimming.

I used every way I knew to overcome this fear, but it held me firmly in its grip. Finally, one October, I decided to get an instructor and learn to swim. I went to a pool and practiced five days a week, an hour each day. The instructor put a belt around me. 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 we went back and forth, back and forth across the pool, hour after hour, day after day, week after week. On each trip across the pool a bit of the panic seized me. Each time the instructor relaxed his hold on the rope and I went under, some of the old terror returned and my legs froze. It was three months before the tension began to slack. Then he taught me to put my face under water and exhale, and to raise my nose and inhale. I repeated the exercise hundreds of times. Bit by bit I shed part of the panic that seized me when my head went under water.

Next he held me at the side of the pool and had me kick with my legs. For weeks I did just that. At first my legs refused to work. But they gradually relaxed; and finally I could command them. 

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. 

This went on until July. But I was still not satisfied. I was not sure that all the terror had left. So I went to Lake Wentworth in New Hampshire, dived off a dock at Triggs Island, and swam two miles across the lake to Stamp Act Island. I swam the crawl, breast stroke, side stroke, and back stroke. Only once did the terror return. When I was in the middle of the lake, I put my face under and saw nothing but bottomless water. The old sensation returned in miniature. I laughed and said, “Well, Mr Terror, what do you think you can do to me?” It fled and I swam on.

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. 

The experience had a deep meaning for me, as only those who have known stark terror and conquered it can appreciate. In death there is peace. There is terror only in the fear of death, as Roosevelt knew when he said, “All we have to fear is fear itself.” Because I had experienced both the

sensation of dying and the terror that fear of it can produce, the will to live somehow grew in intensity. 

At last I felt released — free to walk the trails and climb the peaks and to brush aside fear.

Introduction

In "Of Men and Mountains" by William Douglas, the author recounts an incident from his childhood when he was tossed into a swimming pool by an older boy and nearly drowned. He had an aversion to water from an earlier traumatic incident and had been learning to swim at the YMCA pool. When he was alone at the pool, the older boy threw him into the deep end, and Douglas was unable to swim to the surface due to fear and panic. He struggled to stay afloat and was about to lose consciousness when a lifeguard rescued him. The experience left him with a determination to overcome his fear of water and learn to swim properly.

Think as you read

1. What is the "misadventure" that William Douglas speaks about?
   
   
   ANSWER:
   The ''Misadventure'' is an incident that took place at the Y.M.C.A Swimming pool when Douglas as a kid went there to learn swimming. One day when Douglas was waiting by the side of the pool for company, a big bully picked him up and tossed him into the deep end which was nine feet in depth. As he was not a good swimmer, Douglas nearly drowned. This incident left him traumatized.
   
   
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:
   William Douglas was thrown into the pool by a muscular boy. He got frightened but did not lose his wits in the beginning. While going down he planned to make a big jump when his feet would hit the bottom and come to surface, lie flat on the water and paddle to the edge of the pool. But his plan did not materialize. He went down very slowly and by the time his feet touched the bottom his lungs were ready to burst. His journey back to the top was very slow and the entire experience made him grew panicky and terrorized.
   
   The same thing happened when he went down for the second and third time in the water till he started fainting and thought himself to be dead.
   
   
3. How did this experience affect him?
   
   ANSWER:
   
   Douglas's childhood trauma of almost drowning in a pool triggered his aversion to water. The incident left him feeling weak and tearful, and he lost his appetite. Any physical activity drained him and caused him to feel nauseous, compelling him to avoid water and stay away from the pool whenever possible. Consequently, the incident continued to haunt him for a considerable period.
   
   
4. Why was Douglas determined to get over his fear of water? 
   
   ANSWER:
   
   Douglas was determined to get over his fear of water because he wanted to live a normal life without any handicap. Since his fear of water was not letting him enjoy the water related fun activities like canoeing, boating, swimming and fishing etc. he decided to get rid of this fear completely.
   
   
5. How did the instructor “build a swimmer” out of Douglas? 
   
   
   ANSWER:
   The instructor taught him all the swimming related activities one by one. He taught him how to exhale when the face is in the water and inhale when the face is above water. He also taught him different strokes and how to use one's feet for swimming. When Douglas mastered all the skills necessary for swimming one by one, the instructor asked him to use all at once so that he could swim, and this trick worked.
   
   
6. How did Douglas make sure that he conquered the old terror? 
   
   ANSWER:
   
   Even after the swimming training was over, Douglas wasn't confident about his swimming or that he had overcome the fear. He was determined to completely get rid of it forever. He swam alone in the pool. He went to Lake Wentworth to dive. There, he tried every possible stroke he had learnt. He fought back the tiny vestiges of terror that gripped him in middle of the lake. Finally, in his diving expedition in the Warm Lake, he realised that he had truly conquered his old terror.

Fiction, Chapter 3 - The Man Who Knew too Much - Class-IX English-A

Chapter-3

The Man Who Knew Too Much

Answer these questions-

Question- What is a nickname? Can you suggest another one for private Quelch?

Answer- a nickname is a name given to a person (except the real name) in any kind of feeling (affection, jealousy etc.) or which describes his or her traits.

         Another name for private Quelch can be ‘Mr. know all ’.

Question- Private Quelch looked like a ‘professor’ when the author first met him at the training depot. Why?

Answer- When the author first met him at the training depot, his lanky, stooping posture, his frown and his horn rimmed spectacles made him look like a professor.

Question- What does the dark sun dried appearance of the sergeant suggest about him?

Answer- The dark sun dried appearance of the sergeant suggests that he was very experienced and had dedicated his life to the army. He was not a man to be trifled with and knew his subject well.

Question- How was private Quelch’s knowledge exposed even further as the sergeant’s classes went on?

Answer- As the sergeant’s classes went on and he finished his lecture he questioned everybody including the professor. The professor answered every question with confidence and accuracy and thus, his knowledge was exposed even further.

Question- What did the professor meant by intelligent reading?

Answer- By intelligent reading the professor means to do a thorough study through observation and have as much knowledge about any subject as possible.

Question- What were the professor’s ambition in the army?

Answer- The professor wanted to get a commission in the army. His first step was to get a stripe.

Question- Did private Quelch’s day to day practices take him closer towards his goal? How can you make out?

Answer- Private Quelch was hardworking and intelligent with a clear goal. But his habit of exhibiting his knowledge in the hope of impressing was his backdrop. This habit of his was extremely irritating and the reason he was appointed to the back quarters of the kitchen.

Question- Describe corporal Turnbull.

Answer- Corporal Turnbull was a young officer who had come from Dunkirk. He was disciplined and the squad used to admire him a lot. His personality commanded respect and he was known for his toughness.

Question- How did Private Quelch manage to anger the corporal?

Answer- Private Quelch interrupted the corporal in the midst of his lecture and tried to correct him where he was already correct. Then he compared the corporal’s way with the way of another instructor and showed off as if he was an expert on the subject and thus, managed to anger the corporal.

Question- Do you think that private Quelch learnt a lesson when he was chosen for cookhouse duties? Give reasons.

Answer- No, I don’t think private Quelch learnt his lesson when he was chosen for cookhouse duties because the write narrates over hearing him addressing the cooks about their unscientific method of peeling potatoes. This shows that he still used to show off his knowledge whenever he got the chance.

Want to check grammar for free? Try Free Grammar Checker.

Fiction, Chapter-2 - A Dog Named Duke - Class IX English-A

Chapter-2

A Dog Named Duke

William D. Elis

Answer these questions –

QUESTION- In 1953 Hooper was a favored young man. Explain.

ANSWER-This means that in 1953, Hooper had everything a man could ask for. He was healthy and fit. He was extremely successful in his job, was married and had his own home. He was liked by everyone and everything was going for him.

QUESTION- They said that they would create a desk job for him.

  (a) Who are ‘they’?

ANSWER -‘They’ refers to some men from the company in which Hooper worked.

(b) Why did they decide to do this?

ANSWER -They decided to do this because they knew that due to his accident chuck will not be able to move around ad work as he did earlier. So, they told him to take a year off and decided to create a desk job for him which not requiring much movement would have suited his circumstances.

QUESTION- Duke was an extra ordinary dog. What qualities did he exhibit to justify this?

ANSWER- Duke was an extra ordinary dog.

·       After the accident, he realized that chuck can’t maintain his balance and so he never jumped on his master again.

·       He understood that he can help his master to walk again.so, he dragged Hooper patiently and persistently and helped him gain back his endurance and strength.

·       When walking in the dark, Hooper would stay still until Hooper would trip and fall down, Duke would stay still until stood on his feet again.

All these instances prove that Duke was an intelligent, careful, tactful and responsible dog who helped his master not only to get back on his feet but also flourish in his career. These instances prove that Duke was an extra ordinary dog.

QUESTION- What problems did Chuck present when he returned to the company’s headquarters?

ANSWER- When Chuck returned back to the company’s headquarters neither could he work continuously for a long time nor could he write. This move of Hooper presented a problem because due to his condition , he was useless of his old job  of a salesman but nobody could tell him so because no one wanted to hurt his feelings after all his struggle to get back to work again.

QUESTION- Why do you think that Charles Hooper’s appointment as national assistant sales manager is considered a tribute to duke?

ANSWER- Charles Hooper’s appointment as national assistant sales manager is considered a tribute to duke because it was duke who taught him to cope with the challenge and accept the changed mode of life after his accident. Without Duke, Chuck would never have been able to walk, get back to his job, work hard and get promoted.

Fiction Chapter -1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read Class IX English-A

Chapter 1
How I Taught My Grandmother to Read

Question- What made Triveni a popular writer?

Answer- Her style of writing and her convincing stories which dealt with the day to day life of ordinary people made Triveni a popular writer. People liked her and her stories because they could easily relate to her stories as they usually depicted the psychological problems people face in their day to day life.

Question- Why did grandmother depend on the granddaughter to know the story?

Answer- Grandmother depended on her granddaughter to know the story because she was an uneducated lady who never went to school and so she didn’t know how to read or write.

Question- Pick out two sentences which state that the grandmother was desperate to know what happened in the story.

Answer- Two sentences which state that the grandmother was desperate to know the story are-

1.    “I waited eagerly for you to return.”   

2.    During that time she would forget all her work and listen with the greatest concentration.

Question-Could the grandmother succeed in accomplishing her desire to read? How?

Answer- Yes, the grandmother succeeded in accomplishing her desire to read by working very hard, doing lots of homework, reading, writing, reciting, repeating and being determined to continue and accomplish her goal of learning the Kannada alphabets.

Question- Which of the following traits would be relevant to the character of the narrator’s grandmother?

Answer- The following traits are relevant to the character of the narrator’s grandmother-

         (i) Determined- grandmother was a determined lady as she set the goal and decided to keep Saraswati pooja day as the deadline and was able to accomplish her goal in spite of many obstacles.

         (ii) Emotional- grandmother was an emotional lady as when her granddaughter was not with her she felt sad and helpless. When her granddaughter returned and she related her story and helplessness she got emotional and cried.

Question- Write the character sketch of grandmother.

Answer- The main character in the story ‘how I taught my grandmother to read’ written by Sudha Murty is Krishtakka, the grandmother of the writer. Of sixty-two years with grey hairs and wrinkled hands. She worked a lot in the kitchen as she enjoyed feeding her children and grandchildren a lot. The writer states that she had not seen her grandmother cry even in the most difficult situation which shows that she had a strong-willed character.

She was a very determined lady as she didn’t give up in spite of all obstacles when she decided to learn the Kannada language. She was also very diligent and hardworking as the amount of homework she did was amazing. She decided to learn the Kannada language so that she could read independently. This shows that she possessed an independent spirit. She was also very religious and pious as she obeyed her holy scriptures and respected her teacher (granddaughter) irrespective of her age.