I am unsure if this is correct, but here is the full possible question:
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.
-Sugar Changed the World,
Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos
What is the central idea of the passage?
O Egyptians boiled and strained liquid to form sugar.
O Egyptians had a special process for refining white sugar.
O Egyptians were hard workers who overcame many challenges.
O Egyptians crushed sugar cane and used the juice as a sweetener.
The answer to this question is Egyptians had a special process for refining white sugar. (2nd option).
There is also this question:
Today, few people have heard of Jundi Shapur. But in its time, it was an exceptional university. Jundi Shapur was built in what is now Iran sometime between the 400s and mid-500s A.D. We can only guess the dates, but we do know more about the school. It was the meeting place of the world's great minds. In 529, Christians closed the school of Athens—the last link to the academies of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The remaining Greek scholars moved to Jundi Shapur. Jews joined them, as did a group of Christians called Nestorians, who had their own ancient and scholarly traditions. Persians added their voices, and one of their learned doctors set off for what is now India, to gather and translate the wisdom of the Hindus. The school created the very first teaching hospital in the world, a place where the sick were treated and young doctors learned their craft, as well as a fine observatory to track the heavens. At Jundi Shapur the best scholars west of China all gathered to think and study together.
–Sugar Changed the World,
Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos
What is the central idea of the passage?
O Jundi Shapur was most famous for its teaching hospital and observatory.
O Jundi Shapur allowed teachers and students from different cultures to share ideas.
O Jundi Shapur included the ideas of scholars such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
O Jundi Shapur is barely known today, but it was an important place in the Middle East.
The answer to this is Jundi Shapur allowed teachers and students from different cultures to share ideas. (2nd option).
There is also this question:
The Italian merchants sometimes sailed across the Mediterranean Sea to Syria, where they could buy black pepper that had been grown on the southwest coast of India. The tiny dried black peppercorns were the perfect item to trade, because the small ships of the time could carry enough to make a nice profit. From India the pepper was shipped across to Arabia, where camel caravans would carry it all the way to Syria. The Italians could purchase enough pepper in Syria to carry with them to the next Champagne fair. Every count whose cook added the bite of costly black pepper to his food knew he was getting a taste of far distant lands. As late as 1300, Jean de Joieville, a French writer who had actually lived in the Muslim world, still believed that these spices came from the outer edges of the Garden of Eden, located somewhere along the river Nile. There, people “cast their nets outspread into the river, at night; and when morning comes, they find in their nets such goods as...ginger, rhubarb, wood of aloes, and cinnamon.”
–Sugar Changed the World,
Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos
What is the central idea of the passage?
O In the Middle Ages, spices that are now ordinary were rare imports from faraway places.
O The spices at the Champagne fair were from the Middle East, where they were used in cooking.
O Pepper was highly regarded in Europe, so merchants demanded more and more of it.
O The Champagne fairs relied on a vast trade network that drove up the prices of new and rare goods.
The answer to this is In the Middle Ages, spices that are now ordinary were rare imports from faraway places. (1st option).
