Passage Champion of the Channel
Champion of the Channel
In 1926 an editor at the London Daily News predicted that Gertrude Ederle, an American swimmer with eighteen world records and three Olympic medals, would fail in her attempt to swim across the English Channel. He claimed that “even the most uncompromising champion of the rights and capacities of women must admit that in contests of physical skill, speed and endurance they must remain forever the weaker sex.” Yet, at only nineteen years old, Ederle not only became the first woman to accomplish this feat, she also broke the men’s record by two hours. Gertrude Ederle’s triumphant swim across the English Channel was a testimony to her determination, innovative spirit, and passion for swimming.
Crossing the English Channel is a daunting task for any swimmer. At its narrowest point, the channel measures twenty-one miles across. Its icy waters hover around sixty degrees Fahrenheit, and its unruly tides and currents toss swimmers about like bobbing corks. Stinging jellyfish, seaweed, and floating debris from shipwrecks and lost cargoes present added hazards.
For decades the channel’s perils have defeated countless swimmers. Ederle, too, failed in her first attempt to cross the channel in 1925. Just six miles short of finishing, she became ill, and her coach had to haul her out of the water. Undeterred, Ederle decided to try again. Ederle knew that if she did not complete the challenge this time, she might never get the opportunity to set this record, because a rival female swimmer was preparing to make her second attempt at the crossing as well.
To prepare for the marathon swim, Ederle found ways to improve her equipment. She and her sister Meg discovered that melted candle wax perfectly sealed goggle edges, effectively waterproofing Ederle’s goggles against hammering waves. The sisters also designed a two-piece silk swimsuit for Ederle. During her first channel-crossing attempt she had worn a standard one-piece swimsuit that, after the lengthy hours of swimming across the channel, had stretched out, filling with water and creating drag, making an already challenging task almost insurmountable. Unlike the cumbersome typical bathing suit, this silk invention weighed little and allowed for easy movement.
On August 6, 1926, Ederle waded into the channel near Cape Gris-Nez, France. At first she shivered in the bone-chilling water even though she had covered her body in eight layers of grease for insulation. Her limbs felt stiff. Her strokes were irregular. Driving forward, she fought to clear her mind and find what she called her “sphere,” a place where the sea became her only companion and the shrieks of gulls and the humming of boat engines faded away. Using a new overhand stroke called the American crawl, Ederle eventually settled into a steady pace, briskly breaking through waves.
Throughout Ederle’s swim, two tugboats accompanied her. One carried newspaper reporters who wired dispatches of her progress to shore. The other, displaying a sign that read “This way, ole kid!” with an arrow pointing forward, transported her coach, family, and friends. Her coach played songs, such as “Yes, We Have No Bananas,” on a phonograph so that Ederle could time her strokes to the rhythm. Using a net, her coach also passed her baby bottles of broth for nourishment.
For hours Ederle swam, dodging debris with an amused smile. However, as she neared the English shore, a sudden fierce storm erupted. The tides and waves forced Ederle backward, and she fought the stubborn swells for several hours. The salty water caused her tongue to swell and inflamed her ears. Yet Ederle felt indescribably happy as she churned through the sea. Finally, as she neared the English shore, the storm abated, and the tide turned. No longer fighting against her, the sea pushed her toward the shore and victory.
After fourteen hours and thirty-one minutes, Ederle, on wobbly legs, stepped onto the English shore. The waiting crowd roared, honked their automobile horns, blasted their tugboat whistles, and set off flares that flashed in the sky. Ederle had swum into history.
When Ederle returned to New York, she received a parade, where thousands of people shouted “Trudy!” Not only were everyday American citizens proud of Ederle, but she also inspired them to be more active. Over the next few years, more than 60,000 people credited her with motivating them to earn their American Red Cross swimming certificates. Gertrude Ederle’s accomplishment proved to the world that with determination and passion, it was possible for a person to achieve his or her goals.
SOLO SWIMS ACROSS THE ENGLISH CHANNEL
|
Earliest Speed Records |
||
| Year | Swimmer | Time |
| 1875 | Matthew Webb (M) | 21 hours, 45 minutes |
| 1923 | Enrico Tiraboschi (M) | 16 hours, 33 minutes |
| 1926 | Gertrude Ederle (F) | 14 hours, 31 minutes |
| 1926 | Arnst Vierkotter (M) | 12 hours, 38 minutes |
| Current Speed Records | ||
| Year | Swimmer | Time |
| 2012 | Trent Grimsey (M) | 6 hours, 55 minutes |
| 2006 | Yvetta Hlavacova (F) | 7 hours, 25 minutes |
Question
In paragraph 4, the word “insurmountable” is used to highlight
- Ahow the bathing suit made it impossible for Ederle to make it across the channel.
- Bhow Ederle and her sister decided to improve Ederle’s swimming equipment in a creative way.
- Cthat the flaws in Ederle’s bathing suit made a difficult task even more complicated.
- Dthat the swimming equipment Ederle used needed to be custom made for her attempt.
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The answer is (C)
The question asks about the effect of the word “insurmountable,” which means “incapable of being overcome,” in paragraph 4.
Option C is correct because the suit Ederle wore during her first attempt to swim the channel “stretched out, filling with water and creating drag” (paragraph 4), which likely contributed to her failed attempt to swim across the channel.
Option A is incorrect; Ederle did not complete her first swim because she became ill (paragraph 3: “Just six miles short of finishing, she became ill, and her coach had to haul her out of the water.”), not because the suit made it impossible for Ederle to complete her swim.
Option B is incorrect because the author uses the word “insurmountable” to draw attention to the increased difficulty caused by the swimsuit, not to draw attention to the sisters’ creativity in solving the problem.
Option D is incorrect because the passage does not address whether the original swimsuit was custom made, simply that the swimsuit created additional difficulties for Ederle in a situation that was already difficult.
Question analysis
This vocabulary-in-context question asks what the author highlights by using the word insurmountable in a passage about Gertrude Ederle's English Channel swim. Students must read the word as it is used in its sentence about her first swimsuit and decide what point it stresses, which takes close attention to the surrounding words.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Working out the effect of a difficult word from its context is standard grade 7 work. The word is advanced, but the sentence around it explains the situation clearly, so the overall demand is typical.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- Hard words moderate
- Complex sentences moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Evidence
- Answered from one sentence or line
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 790 words; question and choices: about grade 9, 67 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
Knowing what insurmountable means is necessary but not sufficient, because the phrase is “almost insurmountable” and the point is how much harder the old suit made a hard swim. The commonest error takes the word at full strength and blames the suit for a failure that paragraph 3 attributes to illness. Choices about the sisters' fix describe the paragraph's next move rather than what this word stresses.
Hard words moderate Understanding the question
The question turns on “insurmountable”, impossible to overcome, and on the “almost” in front of it, which turns impossible into extremely hard. (Perfetti, 2007; Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Complex sentences moderate Understanding the question
The word ends a 38-word sentence whose “that” clause is interrupted by “after the lengthy hours of swimming across the channel”, so its link to the swimsuit is easy to lose. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The right choice and the one saying the suit made crossing impossible make the same point about the old suit and differ only in degree, which turns on the word “almost”. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Strategy: Read the whole sentence containing the word, along with the sentences around it, then ask what point about the old swimsuit the author is stressing.
Traps
- Dictionary meaning, not meaning here: A common meaning of the word that does not fit its use in this text.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Wrong purpose or structure: Names a purpose, structure or effect that the part does not serve, or describes what a part says when the question asks what it does.
The wrong answers, classified
A Dictionary meaning, not meaning here (Perfetti, 2007)
Applies the word's full sense, impossible to overcome, and ignores “almost”; the suit made the swim harder, and paragraph 3 says illness ended the first attempt.
B Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Answers with the paragraph's main point, the sisters' creative new gear, when the word stresses the problem the old suit caused, not the solution.
D Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Leaps from the old suit's failure to a claim that her equipment had to be custom made, a conclusion the word itself does not carry.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks why the author used the word “insurmountable.” First you need to know what the word means. Then you need to see what point it helps the author make.
Find the word in its sentence
Paragraph 4 says her old suit “had stretched out, filling with water and creating drag, making an already challenging task almost insurmountable.” Drag is a pull that slows you down in the water.
Work out what the word means
To surmount something means to get over it, like climbing over a wall. So insurmountable means impossible to get over or beat. But the author wrote “almost insurmountable.” Almost means not quite. Also notice “already challenging.” The swim was hard to begin with. So the suit made a hard job even harder. It did not make it fully impossible.
Check each choice
- C: the suit’s flaws made “a difficult task even more complicated.” This matches “already challenging” plus “almost insurmountable.”
- A says the suit made the swim “impossible.” That ignores “almost.” Also, paragraph 3 says her first try ended because “she became ill.”
- B: the sisters’ creative fix is in other sentences. This word describes the problem, not the fix.
- D: the passage never says her gear had to be custom made.
Watch out: A uses the dictionary meaning of the word. But always read the words around it, like “almost.”
Pick the answer
The word stresses how much harder the old suit made the swim. So the answer is C.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
A is the closest wrong answer, because it uses the word’s full meaning, impossible. But the author wrote “almost,” and Ederle’s first try ended when she got sick, not because of her suit. C keeps the right amount: a hard task made even harder.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Champion of the Channel” as printed (pages 56–57)
