02 Making Inferences Test Prep Check

Read the Excerpt Below: ---------------------------------

There are many workers who help run the city’s systems. One of the systems you don’t see is mostly underground. It is the sewer system, the system that carries the dirty water from homes and businesses. The water goes to a sewage treatment site where it is cleaned. There are many jobs at that site, including some workers to check every hour to make sure that the water is clean enough, using chemistry to analyze the water. Workers have to make sure the sewers are working; they check on the flow and they need to check for leaks. They may need to replace a part of the system. If you have ever seen a hole in the road and workers digging deep underground, you know they’re probably fixing a sewer. When a sewer breaks, it is urgent to fix it. If they don’t fix it right away, it could become a health problem.

There’s another system that involves water. It is the water system. We have very clean water in the US. About fifty years ago, water would come right from local sources like lakes and go into people’s homes. Pipes carried it to the homes, but people might turn on the faucet and get water and a little fish. Yes, a fish could come into the home from the pipes. It would have traveled from the lake to the home.

Pipes still carry water to the homes, but now it is filtered first. There are big filtration plants where water is pumped into the plant, where there are big pipes and containers where it is cleaned. Then the water is pumped to homes and businesses through the system of pipes under the city.

There are some other systems that are part of the city but not part of the government. Businesses run those systems. One system that a business runs is the electrical system. You pay for the electricity you get, and that payment pays for the cost of running that system. You don’t pay a company for the inspectors who work in the health system. You pay the government. You pay for that service when you pay taxes. All the systems fit together, and each part is important to everyone in Chicago.

Inference Question: What would happen if the people in a city did not pay their taxes? Support your answer with details from the text.