The passage traces how the Industrial Revolution contributed to urbanization. First, new machines and factories increased production. That created many jobs in manufacturing. Most factories were built in or near cities, close to transportation and markets. So people who had farmed in rural areas began moving to urban centers for steady wages. As a result, city populations grew quickly. The author then explains a chain reaction. Crowded cities needed more housing, clean water systems, and public transit. City governments also faced new problems, such as pollution and unsafe working conditions. These problems led to calls for reform. By using phrases like "because" and "as a result," the text shows that urban growth did not happen randomly. It followed from factory jobs drawing people into cities.
How does the text show that the Industrial Revolution led to urbanization?
- It explains that factories increased production and profits, so business owners built more rural workshops and kept most workers on the farms where they already lived.
- It explains that factory jobs in cities drew rural workers, so city populations grew and needed new systems. (correct answer)
- It explains that people first crowded into cities for reform and better housing, and only afterward did inventors design the machines that filled the new factories.
- It explains that pollution and unsafe conditions pushed families out of cities and back toward farms, so machines mattered far less than people's dislike of urban life.
Explanation: The passage builds a cause-and-effect chain with signal words like "because" and "as a result": factories placed jobs in cities, rural workers moved there for steady wages, city populations grew, and those crowded cities then needed housing, clean water, and transit. The correct answer follows that exact order, so it is the best choice. The option about building rural workshops and keeping workers on farms reverses the passage's point that factories were near cities and pulled people toward them. The option that puts crowding and reform before the machines flips the order of cause and effect, since production and jobs came first. The option claiming pollution pushed families back to farms takes real details from the passage—pollution and unsafe conditions—but misuses them; the text says these problems led to reform, not to people leaving cities. Only one choice keeps the direction of cause and effect the passage actually describes.