Which inference is best supported by the passage? (Passage: The Great Stink)
In the summer of 1858 the River Thames in London was so foul that Parliament, whose riverside buildings were hit hardest by the smell, considered relocating. The river received the sewage of over two million people. Many believed disease was carried by foul air, known as miasma, and the stench seemed to confirm this. Within weeks Parliament passed a bill funding a new sewer network designed by the engineer Joseph Bazalgette. Although the miasma theory was mistaken, the sewers separated drinking water from waste and sharply reduced cholera outbreaks in the following decades.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. Decisions can be driven by discomfort even when the stated reasoning is flawed
- Step 1: Find what the passage implies about motives. Step 2. Parliament acted because of the smell and miasma belief, yet the benefit came from a different mechanism. Answer: Decisions can be driven by discomfort even when the stated reasoning is flawed. Why not the others: Nothing says the politicians knew the real cause; Bazalgette's beliefs are not given; the earlier state of the river is not described.
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