Read the passage from Charles Dickens's Hard Times. Which statement best sums up the meaning of this
passage?
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.
The Industrial Age brought wealth to more people
than at any other time in history.
More people were able to enjoy leisure time, thanks
to the advances of the Industrial Age.
O The Industrial Age brought with it problems such as
pollution and monotonous labor.
More people were able to find rewarding work,
thanks to the growth of industry.