Word Analysis: Suffixes
A Nose For Trouble
A view of the inside of a subway tunnel with tiled walls and ceiling.
Photo credit: Detroit Publishing Co./Library of Congress
In the 1900s, people were hired to sniff out gas leaks in the subways in New York City.
New York City once had an unusual real-life superhero. If there was trouble in the air, James Kelly had an uncanny ability to smell it.
In the early 1900s, long before high-tech machines monitored the air for gas buildups and other dangers, Kelly used his extraordinary nose for sniffing out hazards in the city's underground subway system—including gas leaks, eels, and elephants.
Kelly grew up in Ireland, helping with his uncle's well-digging business. He learned at a young age to track vibrations, noises, and smells from underground to determine where to dig for water. Eventually, he immigrated to New York. He began working as a subway maintenance engineer in 1926, using his super sniffer abilities to locate leaks and other problems.
"Smelly" Kelly, as he was affectionately nicknamed, quickly reached legendary status with his knack for picking up scents and identifying the sources, using his nose and a variety of his own inventions. And soon he was teaching others to do the same. Kelly and his crew walked 10 miles (16.09 kilometers) of subway track daily, where they often found some unusual stuff causing a stink, including fish and eels trapped in the city pipes. Back then, there were no grates to keep large creatures from swimming into the pipes and getting stuck. Kelly once followed his nose to a school of 40 fish clogging a pipe in the subway bathroom.
He's also famous for making a startling smelly discovery.
When a subway station suddenly started reeking, Kelly was called to the scene. He sniffed the air and determined that the problem was elephants.
Of course, there were no elephants roaming the subway, so some people might have questioned his conclusion. But it turned out that he was correct. The station was built beneath an old circus building that had since been torn down. A broken pipe sent water flowing through the layers of buried animal waste, causing the stench that permeated the station.
Historians say that by the time Kelly reached his 60s, he had walked nearly 100,000 miles (160,934 kilometers) of subway track and trained dozens of others to follow in his footsteps by following their noses.
QUESTION 3
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Based on the article, which of these is true about "Smelly" Kelly?
He was a legendary maintenance engineer who disliked his hard job.
He was a legendary maintenance engineer who disliked his nickname.
He was a legendary maintenance engineer who had more luck than talent.
He was a legendary maintenance engineer who was also a good teacher.
1 answer
Based on the article, the true statement about "Smelly" Kelly is:
He was a legendary maintenance engineer who was also a good teacher.
The article notes that he trained others to follow in his footsteps and to use their own noses to detect problems, indicating his capability as a teacher.
