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
Read this sentence from paragraph 1.
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.
What does the editor’s comment reveal about the challenges Ederle faced in attempting her feat?
- ARegardless of her ability, being an American put Ederle at a serious disadvantage over a Londoner, who would be more familiar with the English Channel.
- BAt the time, Ederle still needed more training in order to succeed in the daunting task of swimming the English Channel.
- CWhile Ederle could participate in athletic competition, some people were not comfortable with her attempt to swim the channel because no woman had ever attempted it before.
- DIn spite of her previous achievements, Ederle still experienced social as well as physical obstacles in attempting to swim the channel.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
This is the answer (D)
The question asks what the sentence reveals about Ederle’s challenges leading up to her attempt to swim across the channel.
Option D is correct because the sentence implies a lack of social support since many people believed that a woman, no matter how skilled a swimmer, did not have the strength to overcome the physical challenges that the dangerous channel waters presented (paragraph 1: “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.’”).
Option A is incorrect because the idea that Ederle was at a disadvantage because she was American rather than English, and thus less familiar with the channel, was not the basis for the newspaper editor’s prediction about the outcome of her swim.
Option B is incorrect because the passage establishes that Ederle was a highly accomplished swimmer who had won major world competitions (paragraph 1: “. . . Gertrude Ederle, an American swimmer with eighteen world records and three Olympic medals . . .”).
Option C is incorrect; the newspaper editor’s point was that it would be impossible for Ederle to complete the swim because she was a woman, not because people were uncomfortable with the idea since no woman had attempted it before.
Question analysis
This reading question quotes a 1926 newspaper editor's prediction that swimmer Gertrude Ederle would fail to cross the English Channel and asks what it reveals about the challenges she faced. Students must infer what lay behind the editor's prediction, and one tempting choice gets the attitude partly right but the reason wrong.
- Grade level
- Grade 7 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- At grade 7 Inferring what a quoted opinion reveals is standard grade 7 work. The demand is typical, though the editor's full reasoning, with words like uncompromising, comes in the sentence after the one quoted in the question.
- Estimated difficulty
- Moderate: several steps, or a close reading with one strong distractor.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly understand
- What makes it hard
- Reading between the lines moderate
- A very close wrong answer moderate
- Complex sentences minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 790 words; question and choices: about grade 13, 148 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
The quoted sentence on its own suggests only that someone doubted Ederle, so students who stay inside it guess at why. Those who read the editor's next sentence find the reason, his belief that women are the weaker sex, and can see social prejudice as an obstacle. The near miss gets the prejudice right but invents its cause, and the right answer adds the physical challenge that the second paragraph details.
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
The quoted sentence gives only a prediction; its reason, women as “the weaker sex”, comes in the next sentence and must be read as a social obstacle alongside the channel's physical ones. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
A very close wrong answer moderate Choosing the answer
The right choice and the one about people being uncomfortable both find a social obstacle in spite of her ability, and they part only on its cause: the editor's view of women, or no woman having tried. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Complex sentences minor Understanding the question
The editor's claim is one long, formal sentence beginning “even the most uncompromising champion of the rights and capacities of women”, with its point delayed to the end. (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Freedle & Kostin, 1993; Messick, 1989)
Strategy: Read the editor's full claim in the sentence that follows, then ask what his reasoning was based on and what it suggests about the challenges she faced.
Traps
- Half right: One half of a two-part choice is right and the other is not.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
The wrong answers, classified
A Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Reads a London editor doubting an American as national rivalry and local knowledge of the channel, a plausible guess that the editor's own words about women rule out.
B Word match (Freedle & Kostin, 1993)
Borrows “daunting task” from paragraph 2 and assumes a predicted failure means too little training, despite the eighteen world records and three Olympic medals in the same sentence.
C Half right (King et al., 2004; Thissen, Steinberg & Fitzpatrick, 1989)
Rightly senses social doubt but gives the wrong reason: the editor says women are weaker, and women, including Ederle in 1925, had already attempted the crossing.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
The editor predicted that Ederle would fail. You need to work out what his prediction shows about the challenges she faced. This is an inference: a smart guess based on clues in the text.
Read the editor’s reason
The very next sentence gives his reason. He said 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.”
Put his words in plain English
A champion here means a supporter of a cause. Uncompromising means not giving in at all. Capacities means abilities. So he said: even the strongest supporter of women must admit that women will always be weaker in sports. He expected her to fail just because she was a woman.
See the two kinds of challenge
The editor ignored her skill. She had “eighteen world records and three Olympic medals.” So she faced a social obstacle, one that comes from what other people think. People doubted her because she was a woman. She also faced physical obstacles. Paragraph 2 describes the icy water, the tides, and the jellyfish.
Check each choice
- D: in spite of her past wins, she faced “social as well as physical obstacles.” This matches.
- A: the editor never mentions her being American or knowing the channel.
- B: her records show she was well trained. Training was not the editor’s reason.
- C: people did doubt her, but not because no woman had tried. Ederle herself had tried in 1925 (paragraph 3).
Watch out: C spots the social problem but gives the wrong reason for it.
Pick the answer
The editor’s view of women was a social obstacle, added to the hard swim itself. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer, since it also points to a social problem. But the editor’s reason was that women are “the weaker sex,” not that no woman had tried. In fact, Ederle tried in 1925. D names the real social obstacle and the physical ones too.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Champion of the Channel” as printed (pages 56–57)
