Question

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:

An angry athlete is an athlete who will make mistakes, as any coach will tell you. I was no exception. On the first of my three qualifying jumps, I leaped from several inches beyond the take-off board for a foul.

1. When and where is this narrative set?    [2]
2. What reason does the narrator Jesse Owens give for the heightened nationalistic feelings at this time?      [2]
3. In which event had Owens been confident of winning a gold medal? Why?     [3]
4. What had made Owens angry enough to make mistakes? Name Owens’ rival who approached him at this point.    [3]

Answer 1

1. This story is set in the time of the Berlin Olympic Games of 1936.
2. Hitler childishly insisted that his performers were members of a 'master race.' This heightened nationalistic feelings at this time. The Nazis believed in the Aryan superiority theory.
3. Jessie Owens had trained, sweated and disciplined himself for six years. He had already made a world record in the long jump in the last year. So, he expected to win the gold medal easily in the Berlin Olympic Games of 1936.
4. At the time of broad- jump trials, Jessie Owens saw a tall boy hitting the pit at almost 26 feet on his practice leaps. Jesse felt angry when he was told that Hitler had kept him under wraps obviously to win the jump against him. If Luz Long won, it would add some new support to the Nazis' Aryan superiority theory. Jessie was so disturbed thinking about it that he had made mistakes in his trial jumps. Luz Long, a German, was Jessie Owens' rival who approached at this point.