4. In the period of which we speak, there reigned in the cities a stench barely conceivable to us modern men and women. The streets stank of manure, the courtyards of urine, the stairwells stank of moldering wood and rat droppings, the kitchens of spoiled sheets, damp feather beds, and the pungently sweet aroma of chamber pots. The stench cabbage and mutton fat: the unaired parlors stank of stale dust, the bedrooms of greasy of sulfur rose from the chimneys, the stench of caustic lyes from the t
Answer (1)
The text paints a picture of a time when waste, decay, and unclean living conditions were common, making it hard for modern people to imagine living in such an environment. It emphasizes the contrast between historical and modern cleanliness.
