Question

From London Labour and the London Poor, Volume 1, published 1851

by Henry Mayhew

There are two kinds of fruit sold in the streets—"green fruit" and "dry fruit."
In commerce, all fruit which is edible as it is taken from the tree or the ground, is known as "green." A subdivision of this green fruit is into "fresh" or "tender" fruit, which includes currants, gooseberries, strawberries, and, indeed, all fruits that demand immediate consumption, in contradistinction to such productions as nuts which may be kept without injury for a season. All fruit which is "cured" is known as "dry" fruit. In summer the costers vend "green fruit," and in the winter months, or in the early spring, when the dearness or insufficiency of the supply of green fruit renders it unsuited for their traffic, they resort, but not extensively, to "dry fruit." It is principally, however, when an abundant season, or the
impossibility of keeping the dry fruit much longer, has tended to reduce the price of it, that the costlier articles are to be found on the costermonger's barrow.
Fruit is, for the most part, displayed on barrows, by the street-dealers in it. Some who supply the better sort of houses—more especially those in the suburbs—carry such things as apples and plums, in lean round wicker-baskets, holding pecks or half-pecks.… The regular costermongers seldom deal in oranges and chestnuts. If they sell walnuts, they reserve these, they say, for their Sunday afternoon's pastime.

1. The author's main purpose in this passage is to:
a. encourage readers to treat street vendors more kindly.
b. describe the kinds of baskets used to hold fruit
c. invite readers to enjoy more fruit themselves.
d. classify the types of fruit sold on the street.

2. The author writes that fresh and tender fruit are "in contradistinction to such productions as nuts which may be kept without injury for a season." This means that nuts.
a. are unlike fresh fruit because they can be stored for a long time.
b. often harm the people who eat them.
c. are in season only once a long time.
d. rot during only a specific season of the year.

3. Which word means nearly the same as commerce in line 2?
a. storm
b. business
c. unity
d. variety

4. Who does the author say sells fruits such as apples and plums?
a. local basket weavers.
b. sellers who work in nicer neighborhoods
c. sellers who dry their own fruit
d. regular street sellers.

Answer 1

1 is D. 2 is A. 3 is B. 4 is B.

Answer 2

1. D: classify the types of fruit sold on the street

Step-by-step explanation:

By explainning about the green and the dry fruit, then,a subdivision of fresh or tender fruit; cured and dry fruit, and the examples of them.

Answer:

2. A: are unlike fresh fruit because they can be stored for a long time.

Step-by-step explanation:

Contradistiction means that this type of fruit is different from the green and fresh fruit that demand immediate consumption.

Answer:

3. B: business

Step-by-step explanation:

The "fruit sold in the streets", in commerce, their business: it is an activity that involves buying and selling things.

Answer:

4. B: sellers who work in nicer neighborhoods

Step-by-step explanation:

The author says that "...those in the suburbs - carry such things as apples and plums..."