How did the instructor make Douglas a good swimmer? [CBSE (AI) 2012, 2013]

How did the instructor make Douglas a good swimmer? [CBSE (AI) 2012, 2013]

Answer: The haunting fear of the water followed Douglas in his fishing trips, swimming, boating and canoeing. He used every way he knew to get rid of this fear but it held him firmly in its grip. So, he finally engaged an instructor to learn swimming. The instructor made him practise five days a week, an hour each day. He held one end of the rope in his hands and the other end through a pulley overhead of Douglas was tied to the belt. Thus the instructor relaxing his hold on the rope made Douglas swim back and forth in the pool. After three months of this much training, the instructor taught Douglas to put his face underwater and breathe out and to raise his nose and breathe in. He repeated this breathing out and breathing in exercise hundreds of times. Bit by bit, he got rid of part of the terror which had gripped him. Next, the instructor held Douglas at the side of the pool and made him kick the water with his legs. After weeks of practice, he could command his own legs for swimming in water. Thus piece by piece, the instructor built a swimmer. When he had perfected each piece, he put them into an integrated whole in the seventh month of the training.

More Question-

1. How did Franz perform when his turn came to recite? How did M. Hamel react?
2. Who occupied the backbenches in the classroom on the day of the last lesson? Why? [CBSE Delhi 2015]
3. Why had M. Hamel put on his fine Sunday clothes? Why were the old men of the village sitting there in the back of the classroom?
4. What was unusual about M. Hamel’s dress and behaviour on the day of his last French lesson? [CBSE Delhi 2010C]
5. What was tempting Franz to keep away from school ‘that morning’? [CBSE Delhi 2010C]
6. Why had the bulletin board become a centre of attention during the last two years? [CBSE Delhi 2010]
7. How did M. Hamel say farewell to his students and the people of the town? [CBSE (AI) 2012]
8. How did Franz react to the declaration that it was their last French lesson? [CBSE Delhi 2013]
9. “This is your last French lesson.” How did Franz react to this declaration of M. Hamel? [CBSE Delhi 2010]
10. Who did M. Hamel blame for the neglect of learning on the part of boys like Franz? [CBSE Delhi 2011]
11. “What a thunderclap these words were to me!” Which were the words that shocked and surprised little Franz? [CBSE Delhi 2010; (AI) 2011]
12. One order from Berlin changed the scenario of the school. Comment
13. What did M. Hamel tell them about the French language? What did he ask them to do and why? [CBSE Delhi 2011, 2013C]
14. How does M. Hamel pay a tribute to the French language? [CBSE (AI) 2008]
15. How was M. Hamel’s class different the day Franz went late to school?
16. How was the scene in the school, on the morning of the last lesson, different from that on other days? [CBSE Delhi 2008] [CBSE (AI) 2015]
17. Which objects of nature does Keats mention as sources of joy in his poem, ‘A Thing of Beauty? [CBSE (AI) 2015]
18. What does a thing of beauty do for us? [CBSE Delhi 2015]
19. What does Keats consider an endless fountain of immortal drink and why does he call its drink immortal? [CBSE (AI) 2013]
20. According to Keats, what moves the pain and suffering away from human life? [CBSE Sample Paper 2016]
21. Describe any three things of beauty mentioned in the poem, ‘A Thing of Beauty'. [CBSE (AI) 2012, CBSE (AI) 2013]
22. How is a thing of beauty a joy forever? [CBSE Delhi 2012]
23. What is the message of the poem, ‘A Thing of Beauty? [CBSE (AI) 2011]
24. What spreads the pall of despondence over our dark spirits? How is it removed? [CBSE (F) 2010]