Question 5 • World History 1A - Mr.Sauceda (Fall 2026)
Read the passage from Charles Dickens’s Hard Times.It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which interminable [unending] serpents of smoke trailed themselves for ever and ever, and never got uncoiled. It had a black canal in it, and a river that ran purple with ill-smelling dye, and vast piles of building full of windows where there was a rattling and a trembling all day long, and where the piston of the steam-engine worked monotonously up and down, like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness.
Answer
A
The Industrial Age brought wealth to more people than at any other time in history.
B
More people were able to enjoy leisure time, thanks to the advances of the Industrial Age.
C
The Industrial Age brought with it problems such as pollution and monotonous labor.
D
More people were able to find rewarding work, thanks to the growth of industry.
Explanation
Dickens describes smoke pouring from chimneys, a black canal, and a river polluted by dye. He also compares the steam engine’s repetitive motion to something monotonous, suggesting that factory work was repetitive and dreary. These details support the idea that the Industrial Age brought problems such as pollution and monotonous labor.
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