The industrial revolution in England had a profound impact on the lives of people. Which of the following statements are correct about that ? 1. Women were the main workers in the silk, lace-making and knitting industries 2. Factory managers were well aware of the health risks of industrial work on children 3. Children were often employed in textile factories 4. The novel ‘Hard Times’ by Charles Dickens was a severe critique of the horrors of industrialization Select the correct answer using the code given below :
- (a)1 and 3 only
- (b)1 and 2
- (c)1, 3 and 4
- (d)3 and 4 only
Correct — C, 1, 3 and 4. Statement 1 records the pattern of women's employment in the textile trades of industrialising England, where silk, lace-making and knitting drew a workforce that was overwhelmingly female. Statement 3 is one of the best-documented facts of the period; children worked in textile factories in large numbers, valued for small hands and low wages, until a succession of Factory Acts through the nineteenth century restricted their hours and ages. Statement 4 is a straightforward literary fact: Dickens published 'Hard Times' in 1854, setting it in a fictional industrial town, and it is read as a sustained attack on the human cost of factory industry and the utilitarian thinking that defended it. Statement 2 is the one the key rejects, and only option (c) collects the other three.
- (a)1 and 3 only — It correctly rejects statement 2 but also drops statement 4, which is true and easily checked — 'Hard Times' is a canonical industrial novel, published in 1854 and openly critical of factory conditions.
- (b)1 and 2 — It keeps statement 2, the one false claim. It also drops both statement 3 and statement 4, which makes it the weakest option on the list.
- (d)3 and 4 only — It drops statement 1. Women's dominance of the silk, lace-making and knitting trades is the standard account of where female labour in industrialising England was concentrated, and the question includes it as a true statement.
Industrialisation in Britain from the later eighteenth century moved production out of homes and workshops into factories driven first by water and then by steam. It reorganised who worked, where and on what terms. Women and children formed a large part of the early factory workforce, hours were long and conditions dangerous, and the response came in two forms — parliamentary regulation through the Factory Acts, and a body of writing and reporting that made industrial conditions a public question.
The fastest route through this item is to certify the three statements you can check and let the fourth fall out. Statements 1, 3 and 4 are all standard textbook content, and only one option carries all three, so the answer is fixed even for a candidate unsure about statement 2. On statement 2 itself, be clear about what is being denied. It is not that nobody knew children were being harmed — parliamentary inquiries in the 1830s documented it in detail. What the standard account rejects is the picture of factory managers as well informed about, and responsive to, those risks; the record is one of employers denying or minimising the damage, which is why regulation had to be imposed from outside and why the 1833 Act had to create factory inspectors to enforce it. Note also that the paper prints 'Hard Times' and 'Industrial Revolution' in typographic single quotes, which is the booklet's house style and is preserved here as printed.
- Dickens published 'Hard Times' in 1854; it is set in a fictional industrial town and criticises factory conditions and utilitarian doctrine.
- Children were widely employed in textile mills, and successive Factory Acts through the nineteenth century progressively raised the minimum age and cut the hours.
- The Factory Act of 1833 created a body of factory inspectors, because enforcement could not be left to the employers.
- Silk, lace-making and knitting were among the industries in which women formed the main body of workers.
- Trying to adjudicate every statement when three are certain and only one option contains all three.
- Reading statement 2 as 'the risks were known to anyone' rather than as a claim about factory managers' awareness and conduct.
- Mixing up 'Hard Times' with Dickens's other novels; it is the one written directly about factory industry.
The GAT tests the social consequences of industrialisation as often as its technology, and usually as a four-statement item with one planted falsehood.
Which among the following was/were among the factors for England to experience the Industrial Revolution first? 1. The scientific inventions had paved the way for Industrial Revolution. 2. It had favourable social and political structures in place. 3. Navigable rivers had made inland transport easier. 4. It had seen the ascendancy of capitalist practices. Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a) 1 and 3 only
- (b) 1, 3 and 4 only
- (c) 4 only
- (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Answer(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
The causes of the same transformation whose social effects this item examines — the two together cover the way the GAT splits this chapter between why it happened and what it did to people.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The novel 'Hard Times', a critique of industrial society, was written by
- (a)Charles Dickens
- (b)Thomas Hardy
- (c)Jane Austen
- (d)George Eliot
Answer(a) Charles Dickens — published in 1854 and set in a fictional industrial town.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The British Factory Act of 1833 is chiefly remembered for
- (a)abolishing slavery in the colonies
- (b)appointing factory inspectors to enforce limits on children's work
- (c)granting the vote to factory workers
- (d)legalising trade unions
Answer(b) appointing factory inspectors to enforce limits on children's work — enforcement had proved impossible without them.