Question

Read the excerpt about Mary Kingsley from Into the Unknown by Stewart Ross. How would she travel upriver? By now, paddle-wheel steamers regularly journeyed as passenger ferries along African rivers. On the morning of June 5, Kingsley set off from the port of Glass on the Mové, a French paddle steamer with a wood-burning boiler. By now, steam technology had greatly improved. Which text feature best supports the excerpt?

1) Mary Kingsley and others on a ship in a river
2) A docked riverboat
3) A map of Kingsley's travels up the Ogoou River in 1895

Answer 1

Option (3), Mary Kingsley would use a French paddle steamer to travel upriver in Africa, and the best text feature supporting this is a map of her journey.

Step-by-step explanation:

Mary Kingsley would travel upriver on African rivers using a French paddle steamer with a wood-burning boiler, as mentioned in the excerpt from 'Into the Unknown' by Stewart Ross. Based on the text provided, the text feature that best supports the excerpt detailing how Kingsley would travel upriver is Option 3: A map of Kingsley's travels up the Ogoou River in 1895. This is due to the fact that such a map would directly illustrate the route taken by Kingsley using the steamer, providing geographical context to her journey and emphasizing the role of the steamboat in exploration.

The important role of steamboats in opening up the interior of continents like Africa for explorers, missionaries, and soldiers is underscored by the fact that when steamboats encountered a waterfall, they would be disassembled, carried around the falls by porters, and then reassembled to continue their voyage. This advancement in transportation technology allowed for upstream travel, which was not possible with traditional sailing ships that relied on wind and river currents.