Test: Deep Water- 2 - Class 12 MCQ

Douglas was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, participated on the debate team, and was elected as student body president in his final year. After graduating in 1920 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and economics, he taught English and Latin at his old high school for the next two years, hoping to earn enough to attend law school. "Finally," he said, "I decided it was impossible to save enough money by teaching and I said to hell with it."

Deep Water Summary in English. Deep Water is about the writer's journey of overcoming the fear of water, which is deeply rooted in him since childhood. After that, when the author is 11 years old, he experiences another incident which escalates his fear. He is at a swimming pool in Yakima, trying to learn how to swim.

Yakima located in Washington. When the author was ten or eleven years old, he decided to learn swimming. There was a pool at the YMCA in Yakima that offered exactly swimming opportunity. The river Yakima was dangerous and many incidents of drowning used to happen there. Thus the author’s mother desist him to go and learn swimming there.

When Douglas was thrown into the pool, he did not lose heart and planned to push himself up with all his force. He thought that once he came to the surface, he would paddle to the edge of the pool. Thrice, he tried to come to the surface, but unfortunately his strategy did not work and terror gripped him. His lungs were ready to burst; he was breathless and instead of air, sucked water.

A big bully threw Douglas into the deep end of the pool when no one was around. As Douglas realized that he was drowning, he made several attempts to save himself, but all in vain. Finally, he felt that he would die and became unconscious.

Deep Water is about the writer's journey of overcoming the fear of water, which is deeply rooted in him since childhood. The author started fearing water since the age of four. It starts when he was visiting California with his father. He visits a beach where a wave knocks him down and sweeps over him.

The aversion started when Douglas was three or four years old. His father had taken him to the beach in California. They were standing together in the surf. He had held his father tightly, even then the waves knocked him down and swept over him. He was buried in water. His breath was gone. He was frightened. There was terror in his heart about the overpowering force of the waves.

Any form of exertion exhausted him and made him feel sick. It made him stay away from the pool and he avoided water whenever he could. In short, the experience haunted him for a long time.

Douglas planned to allow himself to go down till his feet hit the bottom so that could make a big jump to come back to the surface like a cork. Then, he would lie flat on the surface of water and paddle to the edge of the pool.

His experience of drowning at the YMCA pool had a very deep impact on Douglas. He became extremely terrorised and fearful of death. He had experienced both the sensation of dying and the terror that fear of it can produce.

Douglas' mother recommended that he should learn swimming at the YMCA pool because it was safe. It was only two to three feet deep at the shallow end; and while it was nine feet deep at the other end, the drop was gradual.

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. So he wanted to try out his swimming skills at Lake Wentworth.

He continued swimming from April to July. Still, all terror had not left. He swam two miles across Lake Wentworth and the whole length to the shore and back of Warm Lake. Then he overcame his fear of water.

The incident which nearly killed Douglas occurred when he was ten or eleven years old. He had decided to learn swimming at the YMCA pool, and thus get rid of his fear of water. One morning, when he was alone at the pool, waiting for others, a big bully of a boy tossed him into the deep end of the pool. Though he had planned a strategy to save himself as he went down, his plan did not work. He went down to the bottom and became panicky. Thrice he struggled hard to come to the surface, but failed each time. He was almost drowned in the pool. He lost his consciousness and felt that he would die. Though he was ultimately saved, this misadventure developed in him a strong aversion to water.

Douglas had an underdeveloped body. He was skinny and had thin legs. So he was embarrassed and shy to walk in the pool with bare legs.