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
The table supports the information in paragraph 9 mainly by
- Aemphasizing that people have continued to swim across the channel and have significantly reduced the speed record.
- Bsuggesting that Ederle inspired women to swim across the channel in an attempt to break the current speed record.
- Crevealing that other women competed with Ederle to set a record time for swimming across the English Channel.
- Dproviding a comparison between the earliest channel-swimming records and the current record times.
Show the answer
Correct answer: A
The question asks how the table supports the information in paragraph 9.
A. CORRECT. The table supports the information in paragraph 9 by showing that people have continued to swim the channel and have improved upon past records. The information in the table about records set by those who came after Ederle builds upon the idea that “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” (paragraph 9).
B. Incorrect. Even though paragraph 9 states that Ederle “inspired [everyday American citizens] to be more active” and the table presents the time for the current female record holder, there is no indication in paragraph 9 or in the table that the record holder was inspired by Ederle.
C. Incorrect. Although paragraph 3 mentions that Ederle had a female rival and the table includes the speed record of another female swimmer, paragraph 9 focuses on the impact Ederle’s swim had on average Americans (“inspired them to be more active” and “motivating them to earn their American Red Cross swimming certificates”) and does not provide information about other female swimmers competing with Ederle to set the channel-swim record.
D. Incorrect. Although paragraph 1 mentions that Ederle “broke the men’s record by two hours” and the table allows for comparisons between the earliest speed records and those of the present day, there is no mention in paragraph 9 of past, present, or future channel-swim records.
Question analysis
Paragraph 9 of “Champion of the Channel” tells how Gertrude Ederle's swim inspired ordinary Americans and what it proved, and the question asks in what way the table of channel speed records, from 1875 to the present, supports that paragraph. Students must compare swim times across eras and connect them to one paragraph, while several choices mention real details from the table or the passage.
- Grade level
- Grade 8 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Above grade 7 Grade 7 readers often say what a chart or table shows. This asks how a table of records spanning 137 years supports one paragraph's point, and more than one choice states something accurate about it, which is above grade 7 demand.
- 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
- A very close wrong answer major
- Reading between the lines moderate
- Reading a figure, table or graph moderate
- How, not what minor
- Evidence
- Answered from several paragraphs or stanzas
- Reading level
- Passage: about grade 9, 790 words; question and choices: about grade 11, 76 words.
- Corrected from the DOE handbook
- An inaccurate description of the table 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
This printing ties the table to paragraph 9, which is about Ederle inspiring ordinary Americans and proving that determination pays off, not about speed records. The link is therefore indirect: swimmers kept attempting the crossing and cut her time by more than half, extending her example. Wrong answers pull two ways, toward the accurate description of the table's layout and toward the choice that echoes the paragraph's word “inspired” while inventing a tie to a later swimmer.
A very close wrong answer major Choosing the answer
The comparison choice is literally true of the table, its earliest records set beside current ones; it differs from the key only by stopping at the comparison instead of saying what it shows, a record that kept falling. (Embretson & Wetzel, 1987; Gorin & Embretson, 2006; Ascalon et al., 2007)
Reading between the lines moderate Working it out
Paragraph 9 never mentions records; it says Ederle's swim “proved to the world” that determination achieves goals, so students must infer that later swimmers cutting her time by more than half carry that point forward. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Reading a figure, table or graph moderate Understanding the question
The table's two sections have to be compared row against row, Webb's 21 hours 45 minutes and Ederle's 14 hours 31 minutes against Grimsey's 6 hours 55 minutes, to see how far the record fell. (Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
How, not what minor Working it out
The stem asks how the table works with one paragraph, its purpose rather than its contents, so a choice that only describes what the table lists answers a different question. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Strategy: Sum up paragraph 9 in a phrase of your own, then compare the times in the table's two sections, and test each choice on two counts: the table must show it, and it must bear on that paragraph.
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.
- Reads too much in: A reasonable-sounding conclusion that goes further than the text allows.
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
The wrong answers, classified
B Reads too much in (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Matches paragraph 9's “inspired them to be more active” with Hlavacova's 2006 record, but nothing in the paragraph or the table says Ederle inspired her or any later swimmer.
C Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Joins the rival woman of paragraph 3 to the table's other woman, Hlavacova, who swam eighty years later, inventing a contest for the record that neither source describes.
D Wrong purpose or structure (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Accurately describes the table's layout, earliest records beside current ones, but names its contents rather than how the falling times extend paragraph 9's point about determination.
What was corrected from the DOE handbook, and why
- Explanation: In rejecting choice C, the handbook says the table “includes the speed records of other female swimmers.” The table lists only one woman besides Ederle: Yvetta Hlavacova (2006, 7 hours, 25 minutes). The explanation now says the table “includes the speed record of another female swimmer,” the wording of the DOE’s own later printing of this explanation. The reason for rejecting C is unchanged: paragraph 9 says nothing about other women competing with Ederle.
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
To support something means to back it up. So this asks how the table backs up paragraph 9. Don’t just describe what the table lists. Ask how its facts help prove the point of that paragraph.
Sum up paragraph 9
Paragraph 9 tells what happened after Ederle’s swim. She “inspired them to be more active.” Then the paragraph ends with its big point. Her swim “proved to the world that with determination and passion, it was possible for a person to achieve his or her goals.”
Determination means not giving up. So the point is this: if you keep at it, you can reach your goal.
Read the table’s two parts
The table lists the fastest swims across the channel. The top part shows the earliest records. The bottom part shows the current ones. These rows matter most:
Year Swimmer Time 1875 Matthew Webb 21 hours, 45 minutes 1926 Gertrude Ederle 14 hours, 31 minutes 2012 Trent Grimsey 6 hours, 55 minutes Connect the table to paragraph 9
Swimmers kept trying long after 1926. Half of Ederle’s time is about 7 hours and 15 minutes. Grimsey’s time in 2012 beats even that. So today’s record is less than half of her time. Each new record shows people who stuck with a hard goal and reached it. That carries on the point of paragraph 9.
Check each choice
- A fits. People kept crossing and “significantly reduced the speed record.” Significantly means by a lot. A lower record means a faster time.
- B is wrong. Paragraph 9 says Ederle inspired everyday Americans to be more active. Nothing says she inspired any woman to chase the record.
- C is wrong. The table lists only one other woman, Yvetta Hlavacova. She swam in 2006, 80 years after Ederle, so they never competed.
- D is wrong. It is true of the table, but it only tells how the table is laid out. Paragraph 9 never even mentions records.
Watch out: D uses the table’s own headings, so it sounds right. But the question asks how the table supports paragraph 9, not what is in it.
Choose the answer
The table shows swimmers chasing the record for years and cutting Ederle’s time by more than half. That backs up the point about determination. So the answer is A.
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
D comes closest, because the table really does set the earliest records beside the current ones. But D stops at describing the table. A tells what that comparison shows: people kept trying, and the record fell from 14 hours and 31 minutes to under 7 hours.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Champion of the Channel” as printed (pages 56–57)
