Question

"The whole house was constantly in a state of inundation, under the discipline of mops and brooms and scrubbing brushes; and the good housewives of those days were a kind of amphibious animal, delighting exceedingly to be dabbling in water ..." In this selection, the use of the word inundation is probably _____. exaggerated literal

Answer 1

The correct answer is "In this selection, the use of the word inundation is probably exaggerated."

In this situation, inundation is not a real inundation/flood, therefore it is not literal. It is a word used to exaggerate the fact that the housewives are constantly cleaning the house, sweeping and mopping. You can see that too in the excerpt "under the discipline of mops and brooms". We know the author is referring to the cleaning process and therefore, chooses to use the word inundation to create more depth to what he's describing.