Question

With the rise of Islam, Egypt became the world's great sugar laboratory. The kind of sugar easiest to produce from cane is dark—the color comes from molasses, which also makes that form of sugar spicy and even bitter. What we call molasses is just a natural part of the first grinding of sugar cane into syrup. Sugar refiners drain out the dark molasses to use by itself and are left with relatively white sugar. The noble and wealthy, who could afford sugar, wanted it to be as pure, sweet, and white as possible. The Egyptians figured out how to meet that need.

What evidence from the passage best supports the inference that white sugar was rarer and more valuable than brown sugar? Select two options.

"Egypt became the world's great sugar laboratory"
"The kind of sugar easiest to produce from cane is dark"
"drain out the dark molasses to use by itself"
"wanted it to be as pure, sweet, and white as possible"
"Egyptians figured out how to meet that need"

Answer 1

Options B and C are correct.

Step-by-step explanation:

The passage describes how sugar was important for the Egyptians while the questions asks about the value of white sugar over brown sugar.

Option B is correct since it means that dark sugar might not have been appreciated due to the amount of it and how easy it was to produce it.

On the other hand, option C points out that rich people liked white sugar as pure, sweet, and of course, white as possible, something that increased its value.

Answer 2

Evidences from the passage which best supports the inference that white sugar was rarer and more valuable than brown sugar are:

"The kind of sugar easiest to produce from cane is dark"

"wanted it to be as pure, sweet, and white as possible"

The first sentence shows that it was easier to produce dark sugar. Which will mean that this kind of sugar could be found in abundance whereas white sugar was not easy to produce and hence was rarer and more valuable.

The second evidence shows the demand of the wealthy people for white sugar. This proves that the sugar was rarer and more valuable.