Sugar Changed The World UNIT TEST
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. Cane sugar had brought millions of Africans into slavery, then helped foster the movement to abolish the slave trade. In Cuba large-scale sugar planting began in the 1800s, brought by new owners interested in using modern technology. Some of these planters led the way in freeing Cuban slaves. Now beet sugar set an example of modern farming that helped convince Russian nobles that it was time to free their millions of serfs. And that is precisely where Marc's family story begins—with Nina's grandfather, the serf who bought his freedom from figuring out how to color beet sugar. How does the evidence support the central idea that cane sugar helped lead to the abolition of slavery? -The evidence explains that serfs bought their freedom to color beet sugar instead. -The evidence reveals that sugar barons in Cuba and Russia freed enslaved people and serfs. -The evidence reveals that the author's family members were hardworking serfs on Russian farms. -The evidence details how the modern technologies were used for large-scale sugar planting.
B
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. In one part of Russia, though, the nobles who owned the land were interested in trying out new tools, new equipment, and new ideas about how to improve the soil. This area was in the northern Ukraine just crossing into the Russian regions of Voronigh and Hurst. When word of the breakthrough in making sugar reached the landowners in that one more advanced part of Russia, they knew just what to do: plant beets. Cane sugar had brought millions of Africans into slavery, then helped foster the movement to abolish the slave trade. In Cuba large-scale sugar planting began in the 1800s, brought by new owners interested in using modern technology. Some of these planters led the way in freeing Cuban slaves. Now beet sugar set an example of modern farming that helped convince Russian nobles that it was time to free their millions of serfs. And that is precisely where Marc's family story begins—with Nina's grandfather, the serf who bought his freedom from figuring out how to color beet sugar. What is the purpose of this passage? -to explain the new technologies farmers used in the 1800s -to connect a period of Russian history with the history of sugar -to explain to readers how enslaved Africans differed from Russian serfs -to give background information about the origins of cane sugar
B
Read Lola's argument that people need college degrees. It seems like every high school student is expected to go to college. Some teenagers resent the pressure this expectation puts on them. But we teens have to be realistic. A college degree is necessary in today's world. Most employers today require job applicants to have a college degree. Many jobs require specific skills acquired through college courses geared to that profession. Of course, not every job requires the exact subject matter you learned at college. But employers are looking for people with perseverance, analytical skills, and the ability to communicate. Those are the things you will learn during your years at college. What evidence does Lola provide to support her claim? Select two options. -A college degree is necessary in today's world. -Employers require a college degree for most jobs. -Every high school student is expected to go to college. -Teenagers resent the pressure placed on them to go to college. -Employers want new hires to have skills and traits acquired in college.
B, E
Read the passage and study the image and caption from Sugar Changed the World. Caption: The first factories were places like this cotton mill in Manchester, England. All over England, in sooty cities such as Manchester and Liverpool, when the factory whistle blew, workers would set down their presses and file out to drink a quick cup of tea sweetened with sugar—usually dipping a piece of bread in the warm drink. Soon a smart manufacturer figured out that this break, and the need for a jolt of sweetness, was an opportunity. English workers were offered sugary cookies and candies—what we call today energy bars—that quick pick-me-up that helped workers to make it through their long shifts. Starting around 1800, sugar became the staple food that allowed the English factories—the most advanced economies in the world—to run. Sugar supplied the energy, the hint of nutrition, the sweet taste to go with the warmth of tea that even the poorest factory worker could look forward to. Sugar was a necessity. How does the image support the text? -The image shows the process for manufacturing cotton in early factories. -The image shows English factory workers enjoying sugar during their break. -The image shows that factory work in the 1800s was labor intensive. -The image shows how sugar was produced in cotton factories.
C
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. Gandhi began to see that there was a way for the indentured Indians to strengthen themselves without having to rely on machetes and guns. Freedom, he realized, did not come only from rising up against oppressors or tyrants. It could also be found in oneself. The mere fact that the sugar masters treated their workers as some form of property did not mean the Indians had to accept that definition. In fact, it was up to them to claim, to assert, their own worth, their own value. A man who had his inner, personal dignity was free—no matter how a boss tried to bully him. Gandhi's years in South Africa became a laboratory, as he experimented with how to be a truthful, free person. Finally, he was ready to put his ideas into practice. How does the evidence support the central idea that Gandhi decided it was time to replace violence with nonviolent protest? -The evidence notes that Gandhi encouraged indentured Indians to get rid of their weapons. -The evidence reveals Gandhi's belief that workers should peacefully accept how they are treated. -The evidence shows how Gandhi experimented with ways to assert one's dignity and be free. -The evidence indicates that bosses bullied workers, which Gandhi knew led to violence.
C
Read Gunther's evaluation of an argument. In his editorial "Better Safe Than Sorry?: Revisiting the Debate over Capital Punishment," Nemo Jones effectively lays out his argument that the death penalty should be abolished. In his thorough examination of the evidence, he presents authoritative case studies of people whose innocence was proven too late and of criminals who were undeterred by thoughts of capital punishment. He examines comprehensive statistics regarding these groups and summarizes years of interviews with officials in government, law enforcement, and the penal system. His final paragraphs contain the most emotionally persuasive evidence, as he relates the lasting effects on the children of those who have been put to death. Which element is missing from this evaluation? -the thesis statement -a summary of the claim -an evaluation of the evidence -a concluding statement
A
Read the passage and study the map from Sugar Changed the World. If you walked down Beekman Street in New York in the 1750s, you would come to a general store owned by Gerard Beekman—his family gave the street its name. The products on his shelves showed many of the ways sugar was linking the world. Beekman and merchants like him shipped flour, bread, corn, salted beef, and wood to the Caribbean. They brought back sugar, rum, molasses, limes, cocoa, and ginger. Simple enough; but this trade up and down the Atlantic coast was part of a much larger world system. Textbooks talk about the Triangle Trade: Ships set out from Europe carrying fabrics, clothes, and simple manufactured goods to Africa, where they sold their cargoes and bought people. The enslaved people were shipped across the Atlantic to the islands, where they were sold for sugar. Then the ships brought sugar to North America, to be sold or turned into rum—which the captains brought back to Europe. But that neat triangle—already more of a rectangle—is completely misleading. Beekman's trade, for example, could cut out Europe entirely. British colonists' ships set out directly from New York and New England carrying the food and timber that the islands needed, trading them for sugar, which the merchants brought back up the coast. Then the colonists traded their sugar for English fabrics, clothes, and simple manufactured goods, or they took their rum directly to Africa to buy slaves—to sell to the sugar islands. English, North American, French, and Dutch ships competed to supply the Caribbean plantations and buy their sugar. And even all these boats filling the waters of the Atlantic were but one part of an even larger system of world trade. Africans who sold other Africans as slaves insisted on being paid in fabrics from India. Indeed, historians have discovered that some 35 percent of the cargo typically taken from Europe to Africa originally came from India. What could the Europeans use to buy Indian cloth? The Spanish shipped silver from the mines of Bolivia to Manila in the Philippines, and bought Asian products there. Any silver that English or French pirates could steal from the Spanish was also ideal for buying Asian cloth. So to get the fabrics that would buy the slaves that could be sold for sugar for the English to put into their tea, the Spanish shipped silver to the Philippines, and the French, English, and Dutch sailed east to India. What we call a triangle was really as round as the globe. This map shows how the Triangle Trade has traditionally been depicted. Which statement best explains how the map supports the text? -The map shows a common and simplistic presentation of how sugar-related trade worked. -The map shows an example of what the Triangle Trade looked like before it became the Rectangle Trade. -The map shows, and the text describes, why the Triangle Trade was destined for failure. -The map shows, and the text explains, why the Triangle Trade was so harsh to those who participated in it
A
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. By the late 1700s, Saint Domingue (what is now Haiti) was the world center of sugar. So many sugar plantations dotted the landscape that slaves called commanders managed other slaves. On the night of August 14, 1791, commanders from the richest sugar plantations in Saint Domingue gathered in a place called Alligator Woods and swore a solemn oath. They would rise up against their white owners, "and listen to the voice of liberty which speaks in the hearts of all of us." That voice told them to destroy everything related to sugar. Sugar made the Africans slaves, so sugar must be wiped off the island, now a vast sugar factory to the world. By the end of August, the French colony was in flames. So many cane fields were on fire that the air was filled with "a rain of fire composed of burning bits of cane-straw which whirled like thick snow." Smashing mills, destroying warehouses, setting fields on fire, the freedom fighters demolished some one thousand plantations—and that was just in the first two months of their revolution. The fight against sugar and chains soon had a leader, Toussaint, who called himself "L'Ouverture"—the opening. Toussaint was making a space, an opening, for people to be free. How do the authors use historical evidence to support their claim in this passage? -They use primary-source quotations to show that enslaved people in Saint Domingue were willing to destroy property to gain their freedom. -They use secondary-source quotations to show the plan that the commanders devised in Alligator Woods in August of 1791. -They use primary-source information to describe the role of commanders on sugar plantations in Saint Domingue. -They use secondary-source information to describe Toussaint's plan to enslave all the people working on the sugar plantations.
A
This painting is of King Louis XIV as shown in Sugar Changed the World. How does this image support the claim that monarchs of the 1700s had wealth and influence? Select three options. -The king is wearing elaborate clothing made of fancy materials. -The king is dressed like a soldier to show that he is willing to go into battle. -The king has a sword and sits next to a helmet. -The king sits next to a crown, which symbolizes his power. -The king is depicted sitting on a floor made of stone.
A, C, D
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. Cutting cane was hard work, but it was nothing like what came next: Piles of freshly cut cane had to be fed into the ever-turning mill wheels, until they were completely crushed. The owners insisted that during the work hours the grinding never stop, no matter what. The mills were most often tended by women who were doing dangerous work while getting almost no rest. That was a very bad combination. An ax was often propped up near the rollers so if a slave closed her eyes for a second while pushing the cane, her arm could be hacked off before she was pulled through the merciless grinders. Guests at sugar plantations often remarked on how many one-armed people they saw. Day after day, week after week, month after month, the cane was cut, hauled to the mill, and fed through the rollers. The mills kept going as long as there was cane to grind—the season varied between four and ten months, depending on the local growing conditions. A visitor who came to Brazil in 1630 described the scene: "People the color of the very night, working briskly and moaning at the same time without a moment of peace or rest, whoever sees all the confused and noisy machinery . . . will say that this indeed is the image of Hell." Which text evidence best supports the authors' claim that a frantic pace made working conditions even worse? -"The owners insisted that during the work hours the grinding never stop, no matter what." -"The mills were most often tended by women who were doing dangerous work while getting almost no rest." -"Guests at sugar plantations often remarked on how many one-armed people they saw." -"this indeed is the image of Hell"
A
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. For an African, whether you were sent to the Caribbean or South America, you were now part of the sugar machine. And it did not much matter where your ship landed. You could be working the fertile fields of Brazil or the hills of Jamaica; the brutal cycle of making sugar was much the same. If the terrain was not too rocky or hilly, you might be part of a group of slaves who drove teams of oxen to draw plows across the fields. On rougher ground, you were sent out to clear a space five inches deep and five feet square. Then you dug holes for the cane shoots in the cleared squares. You needed to work quickly and without stopping. Overseers watched closely to make sure of that, beating slaves who did not carve out at least twenty-eight holes an hour on one French island. The painstaking work had just one aim: to plant a crop that would end up taking the life of every worker who touched it. As Equiano explained, the sugar slaves could hardly rest even when their day was done. How do the authors create a tone that develops their claim and purpose? -by using words with negative connotations, such as brutal -by describing the land with positive connotations, such as fertile -by describing the land with negative connotations, such as rocky -by using words with neutral connotations, such as plant
A
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. Knowing that their slaves were likely to die by the time they reached their thirties, Louisiana sugar planters were extremely selective—they bought only healthy-looking young men in their late teens. On average, the men purchased in Louisiana were an inch taller than the people bought in the other slave states. Those teenagers made up seven to eight out of every ten slaves brought to America's sugar Hell. The others were younger teenage girls, around fifteen to sixteen years old. Their job, for the rest of their short lives, was to have children. Elizabeth Ross Hite knew that, for sure, "all de master wanted was fo' dem wimmen to hav children." Enslaved children would be put to work or sold. The overseer S.B. Raby explained, "Rachel had a 'fine boy' last Sunday. Our crop of negroes will I think make up any deficiencies there may be in the cane crop." That is, a master could sell any slaves who managed to live, if he needed more money than he could make from sugar. Jazz was born in Louisiana. Could it be that a population of teenagers, almost all of them male, were inspired to develop their own music as a way to speak, to compete, to announce who they were to the world? Bomba in Puerto Rico, Maculelê in Brazil, jazz in Louisiana—all gave people a chance to be alive, to be human, to have ideas, and dreams, and passions when their owners claimed they were just cogs in machinery built to produce sugar. How do the authors use historical evidence to support their claim in this passage? -They argue that youth and gender are advantages when inventing entirely new forms of music. -They argue that plantation owners acted against their own economic interests when they selected enslaved young men. -They argue that different forms of music, such as jazz and bomba, came out of different types of hardship. -They argue that extremely difficult conditions inspired enslaved young men to invent new forms of music.
A
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. Not only were Russian farms run on unfree labor, but they used very simple, old-fashioned methods of farming. Like the English back in the time of Henry III, all Russians aside from the very wealthy still lived in the Age of Honey—sugar was a luxury taken out only when special guests came to visit. Indeed, as late as 1894, when the average English person was eating close to ninety pounds of sugar a year, the average Russian used just eight pounds. What inference does the passage best support? -Most Russians in the 1890s were not wealthy. -Most English citizens were very wealthy. -Russians did not run their farms well. -English people were fonder of sweets.
A
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. Twenty-three years earlier, King Louis XIV had issued a set of rules that defined slavery as legal in the French sugar islands. But when two slaves managed to reach France, he freed them—saying they became free "as soon as they [touched] the soil" of France. The judges sided with Pauline—she was real to them, human, not a piece of property. For Pauline's judges, as for King Louis, slavery far off across the seas was completely different from enslaved individuals in France. Which words best create a positive, hopeful tone? -free, real, and human -legal, rules, and judges -King, individuals, and property -islands, soil, and seas
A
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. After the Egyptians crushed cut cane and captured the juice, they boiled and strained the liquid, let it settle, then strained it again. The cane juice was now poured into molds with holes in the bottom, so that all the liquid could drain out, leaving only a powder. That powder was then mixed with milk and boiled again. After one round of these steps, the process was repeated all over again. As a result of all this effort and care, Egypt was known for the "whitest and purest" sugar. Which statement best summarizes this passage? -Egyptians required access to fire, molds, and milk in order to produce sugar. -Egyptians created an innovative process for refining white sugar. -The Egyptians' techniques proved that they were the smartest -people in the ancient world. -The Egyptians' success inspired other cultures to develop similar techniques.
B
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. No one could have seen it at the time, but the invention of beet sugar was not just a challenge to cane. It was a hint—just a glimpse, like a twist that comes about two thirds of the way through a movie—that the end of the Age of Sugar was in sight. For beet sugar showed that in order to create that perfect sweetness you did not need slaves, you did not need plantations, in fact you did not even need cane. Beet sugar was a foreshadowing of what we have today: the Age of Science, in which sweetness is a product of chemistry, not whips. In 1854 only 11 percent of world sugar production came from beets. By 1899 the percentage had risen to about 65 percent. And beet sugar was just the first challenge to cane. By 1879 chemists discovered saccharine—a laboratory-created substance that is several hundred times sweeter than natural sugar. Today the sweeteners used in the foods you eat may come from corn (high-fructose corn syrup), from fruit (fructose), or directly from the lab (for example, aspartame, invented in 1965, or sucralose—Splenda—created in 1976). Brazil is the land that imported more Africans than any other to work on sugar plantations, and in Brazil the soil is still perfect for sugar. Cane grows in Brazil today, but not always for sugar. Instead, cane is often used to create ethanol, much as corn farmers in America now convert their harvest into fuel. Which sentence best states the authors' claim in this passage? -Today we have many sources of sugar, but sugarcane is still the best source. -Advances in the production of sweeteners hastened the end of involuntary servitude. -The Age of Science has made the role of modern chemists similar to the former role of slaves. -Brazilians make ethanol from sugarcane because they cannot grow corn successfully.
B
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. Starting around 1800, sugar became the staple food that allowed the English factories—the most advanced economies in the world—to run. Sugar supplied the energy, the hint of nutrition, the sweet taste to go with the warmth of tea that even the poorest factory worker could look forward to. Sugar was a necessity. Why were the English the first to build factories to mill cloth? Because of the wealth they gained, the trade connections they made, and the banking systems they developed in the slave and sugar trade. Indeed, the cheap cloth from the factories was used to clothe the slaves. English factories, you might say, were built, run, and paid for by sugar. In 1800, when the English were consuming their eighteen pounds of sugar a year, around 250,000 tons of sugar was produced worldwide—almost all sent to Europe. A century later, in 1900, when sugar was used in jams, cakes, syrups, and tea, and every modern country was filled with factories, world production of sugar reached six million tons. By that time, the average person in England ate ninety pounds of sugar a year—and in the early twentieth century, that number kept rising. (Americans today eat only about 40 pounds of cane sugar a year, but that is because other forms of sweeteners, such as corn syrup, are now cheaper than cane sugar. If you consider all forms of sweetener, Americans eat an average of 140 pounds every year.) How do the details in this passage support the authors' purpose? -The authors include details about how much sugar Americans consume to persuade readers that modern diets are unhealthy. -The authors include details about the changes in diets over time to inform readers about how sugar has transformed what we eat. -The authors include details about how much sugar people have eaten over time to entertain readers with surprising statistics. -The authors include details about American and British diets to persuade readers that eating habits now are healthier than they were in the past.
B
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. The Muslims worked out a new form of farming to handle sugar, which came to be called the sugar plantation. A plantation was not a new technology but, rather, a new way of organizing planting, growing, cutting, and refining a crop. On a regular farm there may be cows, pigs, and chickens; fields of grain; orchards filled with fruit—many different kinds of foods to eat or sell. By contrast, the plantation had only one purpose: to create a single product that could be grown, ground, boiled, dried, and sold to distant markets. Since one cannot live on sugar, the crop grown on plantations could not even feed the people who harvested it. Never before in human history had farms been run this way, as machines designed to satisfy just one craving of buyers who could be thousands of miles away. On a plantation there were large groups of workers—between fifty and several hundred. The mill was right next to the crop, so that growing and grinding took place in the same spot. Which text evidence best supports the authors' claim about plantations? -"The Muslims worked out a new form of farming to handle sugar, which came to be called the sugar plantation." -"By contrast, the plantation had only one purpose: to create a single product that could be grown, ground, boiled, dried, and sold to distant markets." -"Since one cannot live on sugar, the crop grown on plantations could not even feed the people who harvested it." -"The mill was right next to the crop, so that growing and grinding took place in the same spot."
B
Read the sentence. When I go rock climbing, I prefer climbing in landscapes that present a challenge. What type of sentence is this? -a simple sentence -a complex sentence -a compound sentence -a compound-complex sentence
B
What is the function of a claim in an argument? -to introduce the topic -to state the writer's opinion -to state a reason for the writer's belief -to give evidence supporting the writer's belief
B
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. The leaders of the American Revolution kept close watch as the former slaves fought for their freedom in Haiti. But that fight split the Founding Fathers—who had their own conflicts about how to deal with slavery in the new United States. When John Adams was president, he sent guns and supplies to Toussaint to help in the struggle against the French. Thomas Jefferson, though, was terrified by the success of the Haitian revolution. When Thomas Jefferson succeeded Adams, he saw Haiti only as a threat. He expected ex-slaves from the island to spread into America, preaching freedom and rebellion to the slaves. "Unless something is done," he warned, "and soon done, we shall be the murderers of our own children . . . ; the revolutionary storm now sweeping the globe will be upon us." So he refused to recognize Haiti—America's only sister republic. In fact, it was not until 1862 that Abraham Lincoln, about to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, finally established relations with Haiti. Americans like Jefferson were proud of having fought for their freedom. But as long as they could still see Africans as property, they could not treat Haitians as equally brave and courageous human beings. For if Haitians could claim their freedom and be recognized by America, why couldn't slaves within the United States do the same thing? In this passage, how do the authors use historical details to support the claim that US political leaders' positions on slavery impacted the relations between the United States and Haiti? Select three options. -by explaining that the Founding Fathers held the same beliefs about the rebellions in Haiti -by quoting Thomas Jefferson's views on the dangers of enslaved Haitians rebelling -by describing John Adams's actions to support Haiti in its fight against the French -by revealing the Founding Fathers' views that Haiti was America's only sister republic -by illustrating Thomas Jefferson's view that the Haitian rebellion could lead to a rebellion of the enslaved in America
B, C, E
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. When the prophet Muhammad began preaching in A.D. 610, he attracted only a few disciples. Yet by the time he died in 632, his faith had spread throughout Arabia. By 642, the armies of Muslim conquerors, along with the arguments of the Muslim faithful, took the religion all across Syria, Iraq, parts of Iran, and Egypt. From there, Islam spread through North Africa along the Mediterranean, across to the Iberian Peninsula, and over to France. Islam's march into Europe ended in 732, when the French defeated the Muslim armies at the battle of Poitiers. But that was not all. Muslim rulers took Alexander's old lands in Afghanistan and then, from there, swept through to conquer northern India. The pagan tribes of Central Asia chose Islam. By conversion or conquest, Islam, the religion of Muhammad, won over nearly all the lands of the ancient world: Egypt, Persia, India, and the Christian Mediterranean. Which text features would be most helpful to support the central idea of the passage? Select two options. -a timeline showing when Alexander the Great's power came to an end -a map showing the spread of Islam through much of the ancient world -a timeline showing when Muslim conquerors took over each part of Europe -a map showing how Alexander the Great spread Islam throughout the world -a timeline showing the spread of Muhammad's teachings
B, E
Read the excerpt from Parvati's argument in favor of using cell phones in class. Today's cell phones are not just phones; they are little computers. That means they are effective research tools. Students can use them to access dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference materials. They can search for articles, videos, and images. In my civics class, our teacher even held mock elections, and we voted using our cell phones. What is the best evaluation of Parvati's evidence? -It is irrelevant and insufficient, because she discusses using computers rather than phones. -It is irrelevant and insufficient, because her evidence relies solely on her own experience. -It is relevant and sufficient, because she gives convincing examples of how phones support classwork. -It is relevant and insufficient, because she provides general reasons without specific examples.
C
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. The English public, now consuming some eighteen pounds of sugar a year, knew little about the lives of the enslaved Africans whose labor sweetened their meals. Worse yet, every Englishman who hammered the wood, sewed the sails, manufactured the rope for slave ships, or built the barrels to hold slave-harvested sugar made his money from the slave trade. The English were getting richer because Africans were being turned into property. Clarkson and others who believed as he did, who in the coming decades would be called abolitionists, realized that while that link gave the English a stake in slavery, it also gave the antislavery forces an opportunity. If they could reverse the flow—make the horrors of slavery visible to those who benefited from it—they might be able to end the vile practice forever. The abolitionists were brilliant. They created the most effective public relations campaign in history, inventing techniques that we use to this day. When he spoke, Clarkson brandished whips and handcuffs used on slaves; he published testimonials from sailors and ship doctors who described the atrocities and punishments on slave ships. When Olaudah Equiano published his memoir, he educated his readers about the horrors of the slave trade. And then, when the English began to understand what slavery really was, Clarkson and others organized what we would call a boycott of "the blood-sweetened beverage." Which excerpt from the passage best states the authors' claim? -"The English were getting richer because Africans were being turned into property." -". . . while that link gave the English a stake in slavery, it also gave the antislavery forces an opportunity." -"They created the most effective public relations campaign in history, inventing techniques that we use to this day." -". . . Clarkson and others organized what we would call a boycott of 'the blood-sweetened beverage.'"
C
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. The only way to make a lot of sugar is to engineer a system in which an army of workers swarms through the fields, cuts the cane, and hauls the pile to be crushed into a syrup that flows into the boiling room. There, laboring around the clock, workers cook and clean the bubbling liquid so that the sweetest syrup turns into the sweetest sugar. This is not farming the way men and women had done it for thousands of years in the Age of Honey. It is much more like a factory, where masses of people must do every step right, on time, together, or the whole system collapses. What claim do the authors make in this passage? -Sugar farming is a modern version of honey farming. -Sugar cane has to be boiled in order to make sugar. -Sugar production requires a great deal of workers. -This method of making sugar is thousands of years old.
C
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. The sugar that piled up on the docks near the plantations was something new in the world: pure sweetness, pure pleasure, so cheap that common people could afford it. Scientists have shown that people all over the world must learn to like salty tastes, sour tastes, mixed tastes. But from the moment we are born, we crave sweetness. Cane sugar was the first product in human history that perfectly satisfied that desire. And the bitter lives of the enslaved Africans produced so much sugar that pure sweetness began to spread around the world. How do the authors support their claim and purpose with their choice of words? -by using words with only positive connotations -by using words that criticize sugar -by repeating the words pure, sweetness, and tastes -by repeating the words cheap and bitter
C
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. You could date a great change in the world to a visit one Madame Villeneuve made to France in 1714. That year, Pauline, an enslaved woman from the Caribbean, arrived in France as the personal servant of her mistress. When Madame Villeneuve set off from the coast to visit Paris, she left Pauline in a convent. The young woman spent her time studying with the nuns and went so far in her training that she asked to become a nun herself and remain in the convent. The nuns agreed, which enraged Madame Villeneuve. She rushed to a judge, demanding to have her property back. Was Pauline a free woman, a bride of Christ, or an item to be bought, sold, and warehoused when she was not in use? Twenty-three years earlier, King Louis XIV had issued a set of rules that defined slavery as legal in the French sugar islands. But when two slaves managed to reach France, he freed them—saying they became free "as soon as they [touched] the soil" of France. The judges sided with Pauline—she was real to them, human, not a piece of property. For Pauline's judges, as for King Louis, slavery far off across the seas was completely different from enslaved individuals in France. Slave owners fought back, arguing that owners should be able to list their slaves as property when they arrived in France and take them with them when they left. Though most parts of France agreed to this, lawmakers in Paris hesitated. Pierre Lemerre the Younger made the case for the slaves. "All men are equal," he insisted in 1716—exactly sixty years before the Declaration of Independence. To say that "all men are equal" in 1716, when slavery was flourishing in every corner of the world and most eastern Europeans themselves were farmers who could be sold along with the land they worked, was like announcing that there was a new sun in the sky. In the Age of Sugar, when slavery was more brutal than ever before, the idea that all humans are equal began to spread—toppling kings, overturning governments, transforming the entire world. How do the details in the passage support the central idea? -They compare the end of slavery in the French colonies with the end of slavery in other colonies. -They provide details about the final few years of slavery in Europe and its many colonies. -They provide examples of how laws and attitudes about equality changed in France. -They explain why enslaved people entered convents in an attempt to gain their freedom.
C
Read the passage from the All Men Are Created Equal section of Sugar Changed the World. To say that "all men are equal" in 1716, when slavery was flourishing in every corner of the world and most eastern Europeans themselves were farmers who could be sold along with the land they worked, was like announcing that there was a new sun in the sky. In the Age of Sugar, when slavery was more brutal than ever before, the idea that all humans are equal began to spread—toppling kings, overturning governments, transforming the entire world. Sugar was the connection, the tie, between slavery and freedom. In order to create sugar, Europeans and colonists in the Americas destroyed Africans, turned them into objects. Just at that very same moment, Europeans—at home and across the Atlantic—decided that they could no longer stand being objects themselves. They each needed to vote, to speak out, to challenge the rules of crowned kings and royal princes. How could that be? Why did people keep speaking of equality while profiting from slaves? In fact, the global hunger for slave-grown sugar led directly to the end of slavery. Following the strand of sugar and slavery leads directly into the tumult of the Age of Revolutions. For in North America, then England, France, Haiti, and once again North America, the Age of Sugar brought about the great, final clash between freedom and slavery. Read the passage from the Serfs and Sweetness section of Sugar Changed the World. In the 1800s, the Russian czars controlled the largest empire in the world, and yet their land was caught in a kind of time warp. While the English were building factories, drinking tea, and organizing against the slave trade, the vast majority of Russians were serfs. Serfs were in a position very similar to slaves'—they could not choose where to live, they could not choose their work, and the person who owned their land and labor was free to punish and abuse them as he saw fit. In Russia, serfdom only finally ended in 1861, two years before Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Not only were Russian farms run on unfree labor, but they used very simple, old-fashioned methods of farming. Like the English back in the time of Henry III, all Russians aside from the very wealthy still lived in the Age of Honey—sugar was a luxury taken out only when special guests came to visit. Indeed, as late as 1894, when the average English person was eating close to ninety pounds of sugar a year, the average Russian used just eight pounds. In one part of Russia, though, the nobles who owned the land were interested in trying out new tools, new equipment, and new ideas about how to improve the soil. This area was in the northern Ukraine just crossing into the Russian regions of Voronigh and Hurst. When word of the breakthrough in making sugar reached the landowners in that one more advanced part of Russia, they knew just what to do: plant beets. Cane sugar had brought millions of Africans into slavery, then helped foster the movement to abolish the slave trade. In Cuba large-scale sugar planting began in the 1800s, brought by new owners interested in using modern technology. Some of these planters led the way in freeing Cuban slaves. Now beet sugar set an example of modern farming that helped convince Russian nobles that it was time to free their millions of serfs. Which claim do both passages support? -New technology in the sugar trade was the key factor in ending involuntary servitude worldwide. -Economic demand for sugar was the most important factor in the endurance of servitude and serfdom. -Economic demand for sugar was the most important factor in ending servitude and serfdom worldwide. -New technology in the sugar trade made it possible for people to understand that humans are equal.
C
Read this example of incorrect sentence structure. Gino is starring in the school play, it opens next week. Which revision best corrects the sentence? -Gino is starring in the school play it opens next week. -Gino is starring in the school play, or it opens next week. -Gino is starring in the school play, which opens next week. -Gino is starring in the school play after it opens next week.
C
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. We all crave sweetness, now more than ever since there are so many ways to satisfy that need. And there are still sugar plantations where the work is brutal. In places like the Dominican Republic (Haiti's island neighbor), some sugar work is not very different from what it was for Marina's Indian ancestors in British Guiana: hard, poorly paid labor by people who are often mistreated. But for most of us, chemists have more to say about how we satisfy that taste than do overseers. When sugar is in the headlines, critics speak about how much of it we eat, not who picked the crop. Doctors warn that young people are gaining too much weight from eating sugary snacks; parents learn that kids who drink too many sweet sodas can cycle between manic sugar "highs" and grinding sugar "crashes." No one worries about where the sweetness comes from. Our diet was transformed by the Age of Sugar, but that era is over. Which statement is the most objective summary of the passage? -Craving sweetness leads to developing poor habits around food. -New sources of sweetness use better techniques than the old sources did. -Chemists conduct work that is not interesting to much of the public. -Sugar cane is no longer the main source of sweetness for most people.
D
What is the central idea of a text? -the feeling or emotion that a text provokes in the reader -a conclusion based on evidence and background knowledge -a series of ideas that support a main point -the main point the author is trying to make
D
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. In France, there was no Parliament or Congress; no one expected to be able to protect his rights by voting. But even in the land of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, the people demanded to be heard. In July 1789, Parisians stormed the Bastille, the hated prison where the king locked up anyone he disliked. And in August, the newly defined National Assembly issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. "Men are born and remain free and equal in rights," it announced to the world. Here it was again, Pierre Lemerre's phrase, Jefferson's phrase, the principle Clarkson was fighting for—indeed, he came to France to support the new government. And yet the Declaration also said that "property is an inviolable and sacred right." So what were slaves? Equal human beings, or goods that belonged to their owners? Human rights versus property rights. That argument goes on today as, for example, we debate how closely to regulate coal mining. Is it best to let owners set rules, which is likely to give all of us cheaper coal, or to have the government set standards, which is more likely to protect workers and the environment? In France, one side argued that slaves must be freed. The other said that to change anything in the sugar islands would invite slave revolts, help France's rivals, and thus hurt the nation. Which historical events do the authors include to support the claim in this passage? Select two options. -details of Marie Antoinette's actions at the Bastille -specific details about the modern sugar industry -a quotation from the Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen -a summary of political changes related to human rights in France -a description of revolts in the sugar islands
C, D
Read Gunther's evaluation of an argument. In his editorial "Better Safe Than Sorry?: Revisiting the Debate over Capital Punishment," Nemo Jones effectively lays out his argument that the death penalty should be abolished. In his thorough examination of the evidence, he presents authoritative case studies of people whose innocence was proven too late and of criminals who were undeterred by thoughts of capital punishment. He examines comprehensive statistics regarding these groups and summarizes years of interviews with officials in government, law enforcement, and the penal system. His final paragraphs contain the most emotionally persuasive evidence, as he relates the lasting effects on the children of those who have been put to death. Which element is missing from this evaluation? -the thesis statement -a summary of the claim -an evaluation of the evidence -a concluding statement
D
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. From the 1750s on, sugar transformed how Europeans ate. Chefs who served the wealthy began to divide meals up. Where sugar had previously been used either as a decoration (as in the wedding feast) or as a spice to flavor all courses, now it was removed from recipes for meat, fish, and vegetables and given its own place—in desserts. Dessert as the extremely sweet end to the meal was invented because so much sugar was available. But the wealthy were not the only ones whose meals were changing. Sugar became a food, a necessity, and the foundation of the diet for England's poorest workers. How does the use of the word transformed support the claim in this passage? -It indicates that sugar was becoming important to those who liked desserts. -It indicates that sugar was more important to Europeans than spices were. -It indicates that the addition of sugar to diets made Europeans better cooks. -It indicates that the addition of sugar was a significant change to Europeans' diets.
D
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. Sugar was the connection, the tie, between slavery and freedom. In order to create sugar, Europeans and colonists in the Americas destroyed Africans, turned them into objects. Just at that very same moment, Europeans—at home and across the Atlantic—decided that they could no longer stand being objects themselves. They each needed to vote, to speak out, to challenge the rules of crowned kings and royal princes. How could that be? Why did people keep speaking of equality while profiting from slaves? In fact, the global hunger for slave-grown sugar led directly to the end of slavery. Following the strand of sugar and slavery leads directly into the tumult of the Age of Revolutions. For in North America, then England, France, Haiti, and once again North America, the Age of Sugar brought about the great, final clash between freedom and slavery. Based on this excerpt, what question are the authors trying to answer? -How did colonists challenge the rules of crowned kings? -How did the Age of Sugar differ from the Age of Revolutions? -When did Europeans decide to speak about equality? -Why did some Europeans decide they wanted to speak out about slavery?
D
