Question

Which of the following quotes best describes the reason the Romans were so frightened by the earthquake?

• A. "they considered these alarming strokes as the prelude only of still more dreadful calamities" (lines 37755-54003)
• B. "the city of Alexandria annually commemorated the fatal day, on which fifty thousand persons had lost their lives in the inundation" (lines 24201-19659)
• C. "a curious spectator amused his eye, or rather his fancy, by contemplating the various appearance of valleys and mountains, which had never, since the formation of the globe, been exposed to the sun" (lines 55567-31229)
• D. "great quantities of fish were caught with the hand;" (line 79737)
• E. "But the tide soon returned, with the weight of an immense and irresistible deluge, which was severely felt" (lines 23078-27450)

Answer 1

The correct option is A "they considered these alarming strokes as the prelude only of still more dreadful calamities" (lines 37755-54003)

"they considered these alarming strokes as the prelude only of still more dreadful calamities" - this quote from the passage aptly describes the fear of the Romans. This violent earthquake so scared the Romans that they started recalling earlier earthquakes which had forever changed the cities of Palestine and Bithynia and they started believing that this earthquake was just the beginning and that many more such calamities were not far away. In this context, only option A can be the correct answer. The other options are incorrect as they are not relevant to the context.