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
Which statement describes how the author’s use of problem-and-solution in paragraph 5 contributes to the development of ideas in the passage?
- ADetailing the challenges that the cold channel waters presented highlights how effective Ederle’s training was.
- BDescribing Ederle’s physical difficulties during her swim provides evidence of the team effort required in order to ensure her safety.
- CExplaining the difficulties that arose early in the effort helps predict the additional problems that occurred during Ederle’s attempt.
- DIllustrating Ederle’s process of blocking out her discomfort shows that swimming the channel was both a mental and a physical challenge.
Show the answer
Correct answer: D
The answer is (D)
The question asks how a problem-and-solution structure in paragraph 5 contributes to the ideas presented in the passage.
Option D is correct because the paragraph describes how the water’s temperature made Ederle uncomfortable and made it difficult for her to regulate her stroke. The paragraph continues with the explanation of how she overcame these issues by focusing her mind on the sea and tuning out the distractions in her surroundings (paragraph 5: “. . . the sea became her only companion and the shrieks of gulls and the humming of boat engines faded away.”).
Option A is incorrect because the details in paragraph 5 do not provide a connection between the cold temperature of the water and the effectiveness of Ederle’s training.
Option B is incorrect because the difficulties Ederle encountered were only partially relieved by her team, and her team’s efforts to ensure Ederle’s safety are not explained in the passage.
Option C is incorrect because the paragraph does not focus on the relationship between the problems Ederle encountered at the start of her swim and the problems she encountered during or near the end of her swim.
Question analysis
This reading question asks how the problem-and-solution structure of one paragraph about Gertrude Ederle's English Channel swim helps develop the passage's ideas. Students must identify the difficulties she faced at the start of the swim and how she overcame them, then judge which abstract statement describes that pattern without adding details the paragraph lacks.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Analyzing how a paragraph's structure develops ideas is grade 7 content, but the choices are abstract claims about purpose, the paragraph's problems and solutions must be identified first, and every choice mentions real difficulties, more than typical grade 7 work.
- Estimated difficulty
- Hard: combines ideas, needs a plan, and has more than one tempting wrong answer.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 3, strategic thinking · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what major
- Every choice must be checked moderate
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 790 words; question and choices: about grade 14, 95 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- A grammar slip in the explanation was corrected.
- 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 first halves of the choices are all true, which pushes the whole judgment onto what each says the paragraph accomplishes. The paragraph's solution is mental, clearing her mind until the noise faded, so a reading that sees only physical problems reaches for training, teamwork or foreshadowing. Students who list the problems and the fixes before reading the choices see that only one statement accounts for both.
How, not what major Working it out
The question asks how a problem-and-solution pattern in paragraph 5 develops the passage's ideas, so the student must name the pattern's effect, not retell the cold and the stiffness. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Every choice must be checked moderate Choosing the answer
Every choice opens with an accurate phrase about paragraph 5's difficulties, the cold water or the early struggle, so only each choice's second half can be tested. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
The solution is told in images, finding her “sphere”, where “the sea became her only companion”, which must be read as a mental strategy. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: List the problems paragraph 5 names and how Ederle got past each one, then choose the statement that accounts for the problems and the solutions alike.
Traps
- 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.
- Outside knowledge: A choice is plausible in the real world but not supported by this text.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
The wrong answers, classified
A Outside knowledge (King et al., 2004; Recht & Leslie, 1988)
Assumes that getting through the cold shows good training, a natural idea from sports, but paragraph 5 never mentions training and credits her mind and stroke instead.
B Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Imports the support team from paragraph 6's tugboats, while paragraph 5 centres on Ederle's own body and mind and says nothing about a team or her safety.
C Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Reads the early stiffness and shivering as foreshadowing of the later storm, a structural link the paragraph never makes, while ignoring how she overcame the cold.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: The handbook reads “her team’s efforts to ensure Ederle’s safety is not explained”. It now reads “are not explained”, since the subject is “efforts”.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
In a problem-and-solution pattern, the author shows a problem and then how someone deals with it. You need to say what this pattern in paragraph 5 adds to the passage. So first find the problems. Then find the solutions.
Find the problems
At first Ederle “shivered in the bone-chilling water.” Then: “Her limbs felt stiff. Her strokes were irregular.” Limbs are arms and legs. Irregular means uneven. These are problems with her body.
Find the solutions
Next, “she fought to clear her mind” and find her “sphere.” Her sphere was “a place where the sea became her only companion and the shrieks of gulls and the humming of boat engines faded away.” That is a calm place in her mind. She shut out the noise and her discomfort. Then, with the American crawl, she “settled into a steady pace.”
Decide what the pattern shows
The problems are in her body: cold, stiff, and uneven. Much of the solution is in her mind: focusing and shutting out the world. So the paragraph shows that the swim tested both her body and her mind.
Check each choice
- D: blocking out her discomfort shows the swim was “both a mental and a physical challenge.” Mental means of the mind.
- A: paragraph 5 never mentions her training.
- B: the team on the tugboats is in paragraph 6. Paragraph 5 is about Ederle alone.
- C: paragraph 5 doesn’t use the early trouble to hint at later problems. It shows her getting past it.
Watch out: A storm does come later, in paragraph 7, so C can seem right. But paragraph 5 ends with her solving the problem, not with a warning.
Pick the answer
Only D explains both the problems and the way she solved them. So the answer is D.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
C is the closest wrong answer, because more trouble does come later, in the storm. But paragraph 5 doesn’t hint at the storm. It ends with Ederle “briskly breaking through waves.” D explains the whole pattern: body problems solved partly by the mind.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Champion of the Channel” as printed (pages 56–57)
