Sugar Changed the World, Part 4: Building Claims — Quiz
Question 8 • English Language Arts 10
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. Which sentence best states the authors' claim in this passage?
Answer
A
Monarchies became increasingly strong and popular during the Age of Sugar.
B
The growing demand for sugar made the lives of enslaved people even worse.
C
Economic demand for sugar led to political pressure to end enslavement.
D
Turning Africans into objects was important for the sugar industry to succeed.
Explanation
The passage says that the global hunger for sugar grown by enslaved people led directly to the end of slavery and fueled revolutions centered on freedom. This supports choice A: economic demand for sugar led to political pressure to end enslavement. Choice B describes the harm caused by sugar production, but it does not state the passage’s main claim.
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