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Read these lines: "My eyes tell me that on the inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it." What do the cuts tell the speaker?
AThat someone had scraped mud off it very roughly
BThat the shoe had been mended by a poor cobbler
CThat the owner had walked through a building site
DThat the shoe was far older than it first appeared
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: A. That someone had scraped mud off it very roughly
1. The speaker points to six almost parallel cuts on the inside of one shoe.
2. He then states outright what caused them: careless scraping round the edges of the sole.
3. He adds the purpose of that scraping, which was to get crusted mud off.
4. So the cuts point to rough mud removal, option A. Mending and age are never mentioned.
_Source: Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892), A Scandal in Bohemia_
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