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Difficulty: EasyExplicit Detail Retrieval

In 1854, French engineer Eugène Belgrand proposed a radical restructuring of Paris's municipal infrastructure by introducing a dual water supply network that strictly separated drinking water from non-drinking water. Earlier municipal projects had attempted to draw from a single combined source for all urban needs, but Belgrand recognized that high-purity spring water was essential solely for human consumption. In contrast, river water drawn from the Seine and the Ourcq canal was sufficient for street washing, public fountains, and industrial uses. By constructing dedicated aqueducts to transport pure spring water from distant rural regions, Belgrand secured a pristine domestic supply while avoiding the prohibitive expense of filtering all water used throughout the city. Consequently, untreatable surface water continued to feed the secondary, non-potable network.

According to the passage, Belgrand's dual water supply system differed from previous municipal water projects in Paris primarily because it:

  1. restricted the use of high-purity spring water to domestic consumption while using unpurified river water for non-potable urban tasks.Answer
  2. B
    purified all river water drawn from the Seine before distributing it to industrial applications and public fountains.
  3. C
    eliminated the city's reliance on distant aqueducts by sourcing all domestic drinking water locally from the Ourcq canal.
  4. D
    lowered municipal expenses by blending spring water with river water prior to domestic distribution.
  5. E
    discontinued water delivery to street-washing networks in order to conserve water for industrial uses.

Answer

Belgrand's dual supply system restricted high-purity spring water to domestic consumption while using unpurified surface river water for non-potable urban functions.
The passage explicitly mentions that Belgrand's system separated drinking water from non-drinking water because high-purity spring water was needed only for human consumption, allowing untreatable river water to be utilized for street washing, fountains, and industry.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the key detail requested by the prompt.
The prompt asks how Belgrand's dual supply network differed from earlier single-source projects according to the passage.
Explicit detail retrieval requires matching specific stated facts directly from the text.
2
Locate the relevant statement in the text.
The text notes that earlier projects used a single source, whereas Belgrand 'strictly separated drinking water from non-drinking water,' reserving spring water for human consumption and using river water for public fountains, street washing, and industry.
This contrast directly describes the primary structural difference of his dual system.
3
Match the passage facts with the correct option.
The statement regarding restricting pure spring water to domestic use while employing unpurified river water for non-potable tasks accurately paraphrases the explicit passage detail.
It preserves the exact facts without adding unwarranted extrapolations or misreading modifiers.

Key Concept

Explicit Detail Retrieval
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Explicit Detail Retrieval

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