One thing to note is that the Apology mentions Socrates’ ridicule by Aristophanes 8n The Clouds. Socrates was ‘jeered at’ by his contemporaries.

A more nuanced point concerns the fact that, Thales was well known for reducing all reality to a single element, water. In contemplating the Heavens, therefore, he landed upon (or in) his answer to the question.

An even more nuanced point concerns the fact that speeches during Socrates’ trial would have been timed with a water clock. Plato might be suggesting, therefore, that it was water that killed him.

Note: you weren’t expected to glean all of the above from this one passage. The lesson is:

That philosophical writing is often textured and repays close examination.