Which excerpt from the passage is the best example of understatement?

a.) in an acre of ground you bury, at six inches distance and eight deep, a quantity of acorns, dates, chestnuts

b.) then you drive six hundred or more of them into the field, where, in a few days, they will root up the whole ground

c.) they found the charge and trouble very great, and they had little or no crop it is not doubted,

d.) that this invention may be capable of great improvement

I think that C, that is, "they found the charge and trouble very great, and they had little or no crop it is not doubted", is your answer.

Understatement represents something as smaller or less intense than it reallly is, it presents it as less important. In sentence C, the speaker refers to a problem as a minor inconvinience "(...)trouble very great". Generarlly, we all know, that troubles are far from great. "They had little or no crop it is not doubted", you could change the focus and say that you have "some crop" instead of referring to the crop as being little.

c. when the head chef asks the applicants to make any creative dish they like (i did the usatestprep)

the answer is not b, and i don't think its a, so i choose either man's identity is found within the traditions of his ancestors   or language is a powerful tool, tell me if i was wrong or right by the way