Question

sugar changed the world, part 3: word choice and multimedia
pre - test complete
read the passage 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
which evidence best supports the authors claim and purpose?

• \simple enough, but this trade up and down the atlantic coast was part of a much larger world system.\
• \beekmans trade, for example, could cut out europeans entirely.\
• \africans who sold other africans as slaves needed what was paid in fabrics from india.\
• \what could the europeans use to buy indian cloth?\

Explanation:

To solve this question, we analyze each option in the context of the passage's claim about how sugar trade was part of a larger global system:

Analyzing each option:

• Option 1: "Simple enough, but this trade up and down the Atlantic coast was part of a much larger world system." This directly connects Beekman’s local trade (on Beekman Street) to the broader global trade system, supporting the authors’ claim about the scope of the sugar - related trade.
• Option 2: "‘Beekman’s trade, for example, could cut out Europeans entirely.’" The passage focuses on how local trade was part of a larger system, not on cutting out Europeans. So this does not support the claim.
• Option 3: "Africans who sold other Africans as slaves insisted on being paid in fabrics from India." This is about the slave trade and payment in Indian fabrics, not about how local trade (like Beekman’s) was part of a larger world system. Thus, it does not support the claim.
• Option 4: "What could the Europeans use to buy Indian cloth?" This is a question about how Europeans bought Indian cloth, not about the connection between local trade and a larger world system. So it does not support the claim.

Answer:

A. Simple enough, but this trade up and down the Atlantic coast was part of a much larger world system.