“We're Not Afraid to Die... if We Can All Be Together” — Class 11 MCQs with Answers

“We're Not Afraid to Die... if We Can All Be Together” — important questions & MCQs with answers (Class 11 English)

2 solved questions from this chapter's difficulty levels, each with its answer and explanation. Tap an option to check yourself.

0 of 2 answered

1. Q1 of 2Medium

   What did Mary shout when she appeared at the front hatch?

   A“The engine has stopped!”B“The children are hurt!”C“Land ahead!”D“We're sinking! The decks are smashed; we're full of water.”
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   Answer: “We're sinking! The decks are smashed; we're full of water.”

   Explanation: Mary appeared and screamed, 'We're sinking! The decks are smashed; we're full of water.'

2. Q2 of 2Medium

   Why had Sue not told her parents how badly she was hurt?

   AShe could not speakBShe had not noticed the injuriesCShe was afraid of being scoldedDShe did not want to worry them while they were trying to save everyone
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   Answer: She did not want to worry them while they were trying to save everyone

   Explanation: Asked why she hadn't made more of her injuries, she replied, 'I didn't want to worry you when you were trying to save us all.'

“We're Not Afraid to Die... if We Can All Be Together” notes: key concepts (Class 11 English)

Gordon Cook and Alan East's first-person account of a family's round-the-world voyage nearly ending in the southern Indian Ocean. A survival narrative whose real subject is the courage of two children aged six and seven.

The voyage and its model

A 37-year-old businessman, his wife Mary and their children set sail from Plymouth to duplicate Captain James Cook's round-the-world voyage of 200 years earlier.

Preparation

Sixteen years of honing seafaring skills in British waters; a professionally built boat, Wavewalker, 23 metres and 30 tons, wooden-hulled, tested in the roughest weather they could find.

The plan and the crew

A three-year, 105,000-kilometre journey. At Cape Town they took on two crewmen for the southern Indian Ocean — American Larry Vigil and Swiss Herb Seigler.

Preparations for the storm

On 2 January they dropped the storm jib, lashed a heavy mooring rope in a loop across the stern, double-lashed everything, ran the life-raft drill, attached lifelines and put on oilskins and life jackets.

The wave

At about 6 p.m. an ominous silence fell. What looked like an enormous cloud aft was a wave 'perfectly vertical and almost twice the height of the other waves, with a frightful breaking crest'.

The narrator's injuries

His head smashed into the wheel and he was swept overboard, accepting death and feeling 'quite peaceful'. His lifeline saved him; his left ribs cracked and his mouth filled with blood and broken teeth.

Damage and repair

The starboard side was bashed open and the rib frames smashed down to the keel. He stretched canvas and secured waterproof hatch covers over the holes so most water was deflected over the side.

The pumps

Hand pumps blocked with debris and the electric pump short-circuited; the spare hand pumps had been wrenched overboard. He remembered a second electric pump under the chartroom floor, and it worked.

Sue's courage

Struck on the head, she said nothing about her swollen head, black eyes and deep cut: 'I didn't want to worry you when you were trying to save us all.'

Jonathan's words

Asked whether they would die, the six-year-old said: 'we aren't afraid of dying if we can all be together — you and Mummy, Sue and I.' The line gives the text its title.

Navigation to Ile Amsterdam

With the main compass lost and the spare uncorrected for magnetic variation, he allowed for westerly currents and asked Larry to steer 185 degrees, predicting landfall at 5 p.m.

The landfall

The children woke him with the news — the island 'as big as a battleship'. Ile Amsterdam was 'a bleak piece of volcanic rock, with little vegetation — the most beautiful island in the world!'