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

Which details from the text support the central idea of this passage? Check all that apply.

“sailed across the Mediterranean Sea to Syria”
“grown on the southwest coast of India”
“tiny dried black peppercorns were the perfect item to trade”
“From India the pepper was shipped across to Arabia”
“Jean de Joieville, a French writer . . . actually lived in the Muslim world”

Answer 1

“sailed across the Mediterranean Sea to Syria”

“grown on the southwest coast of India”

“From India the pepper was shipped across to Arabia”

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

“sailed across the Mediterranean Sea to Syria”

“grown on the southwest coast of India”

“From India the pepper was shipped across to Arabia”

Step-by-step explanation:

This specific passage from Sugar Changed the World seems to focus on the trading of spices and goods and how the demand for them has helped connect the world. This form of trade, since ancient times, has served as motivation for the development of means of transportation as well as a relationship between countries.

The book Sugar Changed the World, as its title implies, focuses more deeply on how sugar has left a bloody trail behind it while being produced and exported throughout history.