Question

Read the following scenario and answer the questions below.
Thousands of young families moved "over the hills" and into the San Fernando Valley, a suburb of Los Angeles, after World War II. New neighbourhoods were springing up, replacing orange groves and open space; roads and schools quickly sprang into existence, trying to keep pace with the rapid population growth. The number of cars increased as there was no public transportation to these suburbs. Ringed by beautiful mountains, the entire Los Angeles basin looked like a new, green, sun-filled paradise to the families seeking a fresh start. In the early 1950s, one of the common family chores in Los Angeles was to carry the trash out to the stone incinerator behind the garage where each family burned all of their dry trash. "Wet" garbage was collected and taken to a city dump, where it was burned by the city. Everyone throughout the city either used an incinerator or burned things in an open trash pile; there were over 400 000 backyard trash incinerators. On warm afternoons, eyes would sometimes sting and burn as the smoke could not move over the mountains because of inversion. The combination of this smoke and smoke from automobiles mixed with fog from the ocean formed "smog," as it was dubbed in Los Angeles. People would stop, close their eyes, and let the cleansing tears refresh irritated eyes. They accepted this as a normal part of life in sunny California. Later, in the 1970s, the effect of sunlight on the air and smoke inversion created a photochemical type of smog. Vancouver has a very similar geographical layout. It, too, is ringed by mountains and, especially in winter, has a lot of fog. Based on the lesson learned in California, however, Vancouver never allowed people to burn anything in their backyards. Today, Vancouver enjoys an excellent environment.
Part of the reason that people's eyes would sting was the ________.
A) lead emissions from the burning trash
B) carbon monoxide from the burning trash
C) smoke and particulates from the burning trash
D) excess water vapour from the burning trash
E) plastics and chemicals in the burning trash

Answer

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