Read the following passage.
A. Coal was once the backbone of Nova Scotia's economy, and Springhill was built around its mines. The work was always risky. The first Springhill mine disaster came in 1891, when an explosion of coal dust killed 125 men. In 1956 another dust explosion killed 39 miners, although rescuers were able to bring out 88. The third disaster, in 1958, was caused by a bump, a kind of underground earthquake. The sudden stress of a bump can make the surrounding rock collapse, bringing down wooden support pillars and the roofs of tunnels.
B. The bump struck on October 23, 1958, while 174 miners were working below ground. It spread as three distinct shock waves, each like a small earthquake, and people on the surface soon understood that a wide area underground had been hit. Draegermen, the trained rescue miners, went down at once, together with barefaced miners who had no breathing equipment. They helped the first survivors who were walking or limping out, but they faced deadly gas and passages that were partly collapsed or completely blocked. The story drew huge public attention, and its coverage included the first live television news reports from the CBC.
C. Two groups of trapped men waited in the dark. They lived on scraps of sandwiches and water from the lunch buckets of the dead. One man, Percy Rector, had his arm pinned under timbers and begged the others to cut it off; they could not bring themselves to do it, and he died. After six days, 12 men were reached when the chief surveyor, Blair Philips, tested a broken air pipe and the trapped miners saw the flash of his lamp. The last survivors, a group that included Maurice Ruddick, were found on November 1. Of the 174 men, 100 were rescued and 74 were killed.
D. The rescue drew visitors. On October 30 Prince Philip came to the disaster site, and he later saw the rescued men in hospital. On The Ed Sullivan Show, two survivors appeared and the host asked viewers to give to the Springhill relief fund. The governor of Georgia invited the survivors to a free holiday at a seaside resort, but he excluded Ruddick because he was a Black man, and Ruddick had to stay with his family in a nearby Black community. The company, the Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation, then closed the Springhill mines, leaving over 200 men without jobs. In 1959 a Royal Commission was unable to find the cause of the bump and recommended more research on rock mechanics.
E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.
Decide which paragraph, A to D, has the information given in each statement below. Select E if the information is not given in any of the paragraphs.
AI explanationShows the answer. Tap to open.
Correct Answer: D
Why this is correct: The fourth paragraph says the governor of Georgia invited the survivors to a free holiday at a resort. But he excluded Ruddick because he was a Black man. Treating someone differently because of his race is unfair treatment.
Passage Reference: The governor of Georgia invited the survivors to a free holiday at a seaside resort, but he excluded Ruddick because he was a Black man, and Ruddick had to stay with his family in a nearby Black community.
Tips: Ruddick is named more than once. Follow his name to the part about a trip, and see who was left out.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph gives the earlier Springhill disasters and explains a bump. No holiday or survivor is named.
- B: The first hours of the rescue are in Paragraph B, and nothing there is about how any survivor was treated later.
- C: Maurice Ruddick is named in Paragraph C, but only as one of the last men found. The holiday comes later.
- E: The resort holiday from the governor of Georgia, and Ruddick being left out because he was Black, are in Paragraph D.
Correct Answer: B
Passage Reference: Draegermen, the trained rescue miners, went down at once, together with barefaced miners who had no breathing equipment.
Why this is correct: Look at paragraph B: it says the rescue miners went down at once together with barefaced miners who had no breathing equipment. With no breathing equipment, those men had nothing to protect them from the deadly gas.
Tips: Rescuers turn up in more than one place. Pick out the men who first went below, and check what some of them had no protection against.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Notice that paragraph A says rescuers saved 88 men in 1956, but it does not describe what equipment they had.
- C: The rescue in paragraph C is told from inside the mine, through a pipe and a lamp. It is not told through the gear of the rescuers.
- D: Notice that paragraph D covers visitors, a television appeal and the closing of the mines, not the rescue teams.
- E: Barefaced miners with no breathing equipment went down with the rescue teams in Paragraph B.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: The bump struck on October 23, 1958, while 174 miners were working below ground.
Why this is correct: The second paragraph gives the date of the bump, October 23, 1958, and says 174 miners were working below ground. It does not give the hour, and no other paragraph mentions the time of day either.
Tips: Notice that paragraph B gives a date. Ask whether any paragraph also gives a time of day.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph gives the year of the bump and explains what a bump is. It has no clock time.
- B: The date of the bump is in Paragraph B, the nearest place to look, but the hour is missing.
- C: Paragraph C has dates for the rescue, such as November 1, but never the time the bump struck.
- D: Visits and the closing of the mines fill Paragraph D. The hour of the bump is not there.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: After six days, 12 men were reached when the chief surveyor, Blair Philips, tested a broken air pipe and the trapped miners saw the flash of his lamp.
Why this is correct: The third paragraph says 12 men were reached when the chief surveyor, Blair Philips, tested a broken air pipe. The trapped miners saw the flash of his lamp. The chief surveyor is the mine official.
Tips: Men are rescued at different times. Ask which rescue came 'after a mine official checked a damaged tube', and how the check helped.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Look at paragraph A: it talks about tunnels and roofs falling in a bump, but nobody is found through a pipe.
- B: Rescue miners go down in Paragraph B, yet no pipe or surveyor leads them to anyone.
- D: The fourth paragraph tells what happened after the rescue, from a prince's visit to a Royal Commission.
- E: In paragraph C, the chief surveyor tests a broken air pipe, and the trapped men see his lamp.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: The first Springhill mine disaster came in 1891, when an explosion of coal dust killed 125 men.
Why this is correct: The first paragraph says the first Springhill mine disaster came in 1891, when an explosion of coal dust killed 125 men. An explosion is a blast, and 125 is over a hundred.
Tips: Several death tolls appear. Look for the word 'first'.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: The bump of 1958 fills paragraph B. It was not an explosion, and it was not the first disaster.
- C: The third paragraph gives 74 deaths in 1958, not the toll of the first disaster.
- D: The closing of the mines and the inquiry fill Paragraph D. Older disasters are not mentioned there.
- E: The 1891 explosion that killed 125 men is described in Paragraph A.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: The company, the Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation, then closed the Springhill mines, leaving over 200 men without jobs.
Why this is correct: Notice that paragraph D says the Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation closed the Springhill mines, leaving over 200 men without jobs. The company is the owner, and over 200 is more than two hundred.
Tips: Find what the owners did to the mines in Springhill. Then check how many workers lost their jobs as a result.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Look at paragraph A: it says coal was the backbone of the economy, but no mine is closed there.
- B: Notice that paragraph B shows passages blocked by the bump, not a company decision to stop mining.
- C: Numbers of men rescued and killed are in Paragraph C, but no one loses a job there.
- E: Which company closed the mines? Paragraph D names it and says over 200 men lost their jobs.
Correct Answer: B
Passage Reference: The story drew huge public attention, and its coverage included the first live television news reports from the CBC.
Why this is correct: The second paragraph says the coverage of the disaster included the first live television news reports from the CBC. Live reports are shown as events happen.
Tips: More than one thing that people watched is mentioned. Pick out the news that was shown 'as it was happening'.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Look at paragraph A: it is background on earlier explosions and on what a bump is. There is no news coverage.
- C: The men in Paragraph C are in the dark underground. Nothing is said about how the news was shown.
- D: A television show appears in paragraph D. But it was an appeal for money after the rescue, not live news from the scene.
- E: The first live television news reports from the CBC are mentioned in Paragraph B.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: One man, Percy Rector, had his arm pinned under timbers and begged the others to cut it off; they could not bring themselves to do it, and he died.
Why this is correct: The third paragraph says Percy Rector begged the others to cut off his pinned arm. They could not bring themselves to do it. It never explains why they held back.
Tips: The third paragraph tells you what the men did not do. Check whether it says why.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Wooden supports falling in a bump are described in Paragraph A, but Rector does not appear.
- B: Paragraph B follows the rescuers going down, and no trapped man is named there.
- C: Notice that paragraph C is the closest: the men would not cut off Rector's arm, yet their reason is never given.
- D: Notice that paragraph D deals with events after the rescue. Rector and his companions are not mentioned.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: In 1956 another dust explosion killed 39 miners, although rescuers were able to bring out 88.
Why this is correct: A dust explosion in 1956 killed 39 miners, as paragraph A tells us. The bump came in 1958, two years later, and 39 is dozens.
Tips: Count back two years from 1958 and find that year in the passage.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: Notice that paragraph B starts with the bump itself in 1958 and does not look back at earlier years.
- C: The third paragraph counts the dead of 1958, not of an explosion two years before.
- D: Notice that paragraph D moves forward to 1959 and the Royal Commission, not back to 1956.
- E: The 1956 dust explosion that killed 39 miners is in Paragraph A.
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