Question

Read the passage from Gulliver's Travels. The method is this: in an acre of ground you bury, at six inches distance and eight deep, a quantity of acorns, dates, chestnuts, and other mast or vegetables, whereof these animals are fondest; then you drive six hundred or more of them into the field, where, in a few days, they will root up the whole ground in search of their food, and make it fit for sowing, at the same time manuring it with their dung: it is true, upon experiment, they found the charge and trouble very great, and they had little or no crop. However it is not doubted, that this invention may be capable of great improvement. Which excerpt from the passage is the best example of understatement

Answer 1

Answer: they found the charge and trouble very great, and they had little or no crop

Explanation:

An understatement is when a situation is represented lesser than what it actually is. This is done in order to be polite or for an ironic effect.

The oassge simply tells us about how the plowing process was done. In this case, it was expected to be successful but in the end it wasn't which can be seen in the lines that "they found the charge and trouble very great, and they had little or no crop".

It was a disaster and it was an understatement as the severity of the situation wasn't really explained as it was lessened.