16Hit1600
Information and IdeasEasy–MediumLocating the stated cause of a long silence

Information and Ideas practice question

The abbey's bells were silent for forty years after its tower was declared unsafe in 1979. In 2019, engineers found that the tower had never been unsafe: the 1979 survey had mistaken a crack in the plaster for a crack in the stone beneath it.

According to the text, why were the bells silent for forty years?

  1. A. A survey had mistaken a crack in the plaster for a crack in the stone.Correct
  2. B. The bells themselves had cracked.
  3. C. The tower had partly collapsed.
  4. D. The abbey could not afford to pay bell-ringers.

Answer: A. A survey had mistaken a crack in the plaster for a crack in the stone.

The second sentence gives the cause: the 1979 survey misread a plaster crack as structural.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. The bells themselves had cracked.
Nothing is said about the bells being damaged.
C. The tower had partly collapsed.
The tower 'had never been unsafe'.
D. The abbey could not afford to pay bell-ringers.
Money is never mentioned.

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