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I'm reading Intermediate Comprehension Passages, page 1. In the following passage,

It was already late when we set out for the next town, which according to the map was about fifteen miles away on the other side of the hills. There we felt sure that we would find a bed for the night. Darkness fell soon after we left the village, but luckily we met no one as we drove swiftly along the narrow winding road that led to the hills. As we climbed higher, it became colder and rain began to fall, making it difficult at times to see the road. I asked John, my companion, to drive more slowly. After we had travelled for about twenty miles, there was still no sign of the town which was marked on the map. We were beginning to get worried.

There is a tricky question which is

The travellers had a map but

1- they did not know how to use it.

2- it gave them the wrong information.

3- they could not see it very well in the dark.

4- the town they were looking for was not clearly marked.

Three and four are clearly not the best answers. To my understanding, since there is no clue about anything wrong with the map, I've chosen the first one as a best answer that fits the context. However, at the end of the book, the story is paraphrased and clearly states that the second option is the best answer. My question is why the second option is the best answer? Which clue(s) I can use to support my answer. Thank you.

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    15 miles as the crow flies, but they're traveling up and then down the hills, so the distance they must travel would be greater than the distance the crow must fly. They do not know how to use the map.
    – TimR
    Commented Jun 10, 2016 at 2:20
  • 4
    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this is not a question about the English language, but about deduction and real-world implication.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Nov 7, 2016 at 11:31

2 Answers 2

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According to the map, the next town was about 15 miles away, but even after they travelled nearly twenty miles, there still were no signs of any town in the vicinity. This proves that the map gave them the wrong information.

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Weird though, they could've been the one navigating wrongly since it was dark and raining, maybe they couldn't see very well. But the first answer would be wrong as they knew how to use the map. They can tell where the town was and how far away it would be.

So I surmised that the answer falls to the second one. Instead of having clues to support your answer you can instead contradict the other options.

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