Question

read the passage from sugar changed the world
no one interviewed the africans who labored in the sugar
fields to ask them about their hard labor. they were
meant to work and die. but there is one way we can hear
thern. the africans invented music, dances, and songs
that carry on the pulse, the beat, of their lives. (to hear
examples of music from the sugar lands, go to
www.sugarchangedtheworld.com.) in puerto rico,
bomba is a form of music and dance that the sugar
workers invented. it is a kind of conversation in rhythm
involving a woman, the man dancing with her, and the
drummers who watch her and find the right rhythm for
er movements. a master coming by would see dancing
—no words of anger or rebellion. but as she moved and
swayed, as the drummers \spoke\ back in their beats,
the workers were saying that they were not just labor,
not just bodies born to work and die. instead, they were
alive and speaking to one another in movements and
which text evidence best supports the authors claim
and purpose that enslaved people were more than
mercilessly treated workers?
o \bomba is a form of music and dance that the sugar
workers invented.\
o \they were not just labor, not just bodies born to work
and die.\
o \similarly, in brazil there is a dance called maculelê.\
o \people spin, jump, and seem to menace each other.\

Explanation:

The claim is that enslaved people were more than mercilessly treated workers. The text evidence “They were not just labor, not just bodies born to work and die” directly supports this by emphasizing that they had more to their existence than just being workers. The other options either describe a form of music/dance (A, C) or a dance move (D) which do not directly address the idea of enslaved people having more to their identity than just being workers.

Answer:

B. "They were not just labor, not just bodies born to work and die."