How Sugar Changed Three Continents (500 BC, Caribbean) — Questions and answers

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What did people in India learn to do with sugarcane?

Choices

  1. Draw maps with it.
  2. Use it as a building material.
  3. Crush the cane and boil the juice to make sugar crystals. ✓
  4. Only chew its stalks for sweetness.

Answer: Crush the cane and boil the juice to make sugar crystals.

From page 3

What did the Persians believe sugar was?

Choices

  1. A common drink.
  2. A precious medicine and a delightful spice. ✓
  3. Something only for farmers.
  4. A type of map.

Answer: A precious medicine and a delightful spice.

From page 5

Why couldn't everyone have sugar when it was in the Mediterranean?

Choices

  1. It was too sour.
  2. It was a common food item.
  3. It was a rare and expensive luxury only for the wealthy. ✓
  4. No one liked it very much.

Answer: It was a rare and expensive luxury only for the wealthy.

From page 7

What terrible thing happened when sugar was brought to the Americas?

Choices

  1. It lost its sweetness.
  2. Enslaved people were forced to work in terrible conditions on plantations. ✓
  3. It became less popular.
  4. The sugar plants stopped growing.

Answer: Enslaved people were forced to work in terrible conditions on plantations.

From page 8

How does Nikolai describe sugar's journey?

Choices

  1. Only sweet.
  2. Only bitter.
  3. Both sweet and bitter. ✓
  4. Fast and easy.

Answer: Both sweet and bitter.

From page 9

What can the history of sugar teach us, according to Kofi?

Choices

  1. That sweet things are always simple and easy.
  2. That sugar is good in everything we eat.
  3. That even the sweetest things can have a complex and sometimes painful past, but knowledge of it can give us strength. ✓
  4. That maps are the most important part of history.

Answer: That even the sweetest things can have a complex and sometimes painful past, but knowledge of it can give us strength.

From page 10