Sequence, cause and comparison: reading practice set 4

Nora’s note asked Dev to use the lane behind the bakery because the square was crowded with stalls. The messenger arrived after Dev had already left home. Unaware of the request, Dev crossed the square by his usual route and met an old neighbor beside a stall. They had not arranged to meet. Later, when Nora showed him the note, he realized that following its directions would have taken him away from that chance encounter.

For the first portrait photograph, a lamp stood to Mei’s left. A shadow from her nose fell across the opposite cheek. The photographer then moved the same lamp to her right and took another photograph. Mei kept her head in the same position, and neither the chair nor the camera moved. In the second photograph, the nose’s shadow fell toward the other side of her face. The two prints were placed together for comparison.

In a weaving sample, the crosswise yarn must travel over and under the lengthwise threads. It therefore needs some allowance rather than being pulled straight and taut from edge to edge. During one section, the weaver pulled each new row more tightly, leaving less of that allowance. The sides of the sample began drawing inward. She left the frame and the lengthwise threads in place, then returned to her earlier, looser placement of the crosswise yarn for the next section.

From the valley road, Hal could see the high stone walls beside him but little beyond them. He walked up to the ridge that same morning. From there, the walls looked like lines dividing connected fields, and he could follow the stream through several of them. No wall had been removed and no field had changed during his walk. The higher position simply let him see relationships that the road had hidden.

To travel upstream through this lock, a boat first enters from the lower stretch of canal. Both sides of the entry gates are then at the lower water level. Once the boat is inside, those gates close. Small panels in the upper gates are opened to admit water; the upper gates themselves remain shut while the chamber fills. The rising water lifts the boat. A crew member coils a spare rope during this interval, but finishing that task does not determine when the gates may open. The upper gates open only after the chamber’s water matches the higher canal level, allowing the boat to leave.

Both routes leave from Cedar and reach the same museum. The Hill bus departs first, passes several villages, and reaches the museum after the Marsh connection is scheduled to arrive. Hill passengers remain in one vehicle. The Marsh route departs Cedar later and uses two buses, with a change at Pine. Its earlier arrival depends on catching the second bus there; the timetable leaves only a short interval for that change. If the connection is missed, the next Marsh arrival is later than the Hill bus. No fares or walking distances within Pine station are listed in the information provided.

After dyeing two small cloth samples, Elin laid one beside the other to compare their shades. One had already dried, but the second was still wet and looked darker. In this process the wet cloth would look lighter as it dried. Elin therefore put both on the drying rack before choosing between them. She made no change to the dye at that point; she first wanted to compare the samples in the same condition.

The cook’s notes for the fruit loaf begin by setting the dried fruit in a bowl of water. After soaking, the fruit is tipped into a strainer and left until the loose water has drained away. Only then is the amount needed for the loaf measured. Any fruit left over goes into a covered bowl for another dish. The measured portion is stirred into the prepared mixture; the soaking water is not added. The notes measure drained fruit, rather than reserving a measured dry portion at the beginning.

Rina kept two garden beds of the same variety of lettuce, with twelve plants in each by the end of planting. She set all twelve in the first bed on one morning. For the second, she planted three at a time on four weekly visits. Her notebook later recorded most of the first bed’s harvest within a short span, while harvests from the second extended across several weeks. The account lists the planting and harvest dates, but it gives no weights for the harvested leaves.