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Sugar Changed the World, Part 2: Central Ideas — Quiz

Question 4 • English Language Arts 10

Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World . One of these early Hindu writings, the Atharva Veda , speaks of an archer's bow made of sugar cane. It tells of growing a circle of sugar cane as a kind of sweet protection for a lover, and it includes specific instructions on how to use sugar cane. To worship and request help from Durga, the most important goddess, you lie down and face a three-cornered fire pot. Then, as you speak the sacred words, you place your offerings in the fire. Sugar cane was now an ingredient in ceremonies involving fire. Maybe after many, many offerings a priest noticed that if the juice of the cane was boiled in the right way, it crystallized into sweet, dark brown clumps. Perhaps that transformation itself seemed magical—a heated liquid turning into something that looked like dark grains of sand. In the Atharva Veda , sugar cane is called ikshu , which means "something that people want, or desire, because of its sweetness.” But once people learned how to make sugar crystals, they began to use the name sharkara , which also meant "gravel.” What evidence from the passage best supports the inference that sugar cane had special significance in the ancient era? Choose three correct answers.

Answer
A
"you lie down and face a three-cornered fire pot"
B
"sugar cane was now an ingredient in ceremonies involving fire"
C
"sugar cane is called ikshu , which means 'something that people want'"
D
"it crystallized into sweet, dark brown clumps"
E
“Perhaps that transformation itself seemed magical”

Explanation

The passage shows sugar cane had significance beyond being a food: it was used in religious ceremonies, described as desirable, and its transformation into crystals may have seemed magical. Choice B directly connects sugar cane to ceremonies, choice C explains that its name meant something people desired, and choice E describes the transformation as possibly magical. Choice A describes how someone faced the fire pot but does not show sugar cane’s significance by itself; D describes the crystals without indicating their cultural importance.

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