A Map Against A Theory
Written by Studio AM.
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In 1854, cholera killed hundreds of people around Broad Street in Soho, London. Many doctors explained the disease through bad air rising from filth. Physician John Snow instead argued that contaminated drinking water could transmit it.
Snow investigated where people had obtained water and where deaths occurred. The cases clustered around the public pump on Broad Street, but distance alone did not explain every case. A nearby workhouse had its own water supply and relatively few deaths. At a brewery, whose workers had beer and other water sources rather than using the street pump, no worker was reported to have died of cholera. A woman living in Hampstead also died after having Broad Street water delivered because she liked its taste.
These comparisons supported Snow's water hypothesis. He persuaded parish officials to remove the pump handle, although the outbreak was already declining. His later published account combined interviews, local comparisons, and a map showing the distribution of deaths.
The investigation did not depend on observing the bacterium directly. Nor could the map alone establish the cause. Its strength came from connecting the pattern of illness with evidence about water use, including cases that a simple account based on neighborhood location would miss.
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Questions
Choose an answer. The explanation appears after you answer.
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Question 1 of 4
Which statement best captures the main idea?
The answer is B: John Snow combined local investigations and a map of deaths to argue that cholera spread through water
The passage emphasizes the connection between the distribution of illness and evidence about which water people used.
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Question 2 of 4
Which group had no reported cholera deaths in the passage?
The answer is A: the workers at the brewery
The second paragraph distinguishes relatively few workhouse deaths from no reported deaths among brewery workers.
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Question 3 of 4
Why did the case of the woman in Hampstead support Snow's argument?
The answer is B: She shared the pump water with Soho victims without living in their neighborhood.
Her water source connected her to the outbreak despite her different location, supporting an explanation based on exposure.
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Question 4 of 4
In this passage, 'clustered' means
The answer is C: were grouped closely together in one area
The cases are grouped around the Broad Street pump, so clustered refers to closeness in location.
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