English II Unit 2 Test

Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.

The only way to make a lot of sugar is to engineer a system in which an army of workers swarms through the fields, cuts the cane, and hauls the pile to be crushed into a syrup that flows into the boiling room. There, laboring around the clock, workers cook and clean the bubbling liquid so that the sweetest syrup turns into the sweetest sugar. This is not farming the way men and women had done it for thousands of years in the Age of Honey. It is much more like a factory, where masses of people must do every step right, on time, together, or the whole system collapses.

What claim do the authors make in this passage?

• Sugar farming is a modern version of honey farming.

  
  

• Sugar cane has to be boiled in order to make sugar.

  
  

• Sugar production requires a great deal of workers.

  
  This method of making sugar is thousands of years old.

  
  

Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.

Cane sugar had brought millions of Africans into slavery, then helped foster the movement to abolish the slave trade. In Cuba large-scale sugar planting began in the 1800s, brought by new owners interested in using modern technology. Some of these planters led the way in freeing Cuban slaves. Now beet sugar set an example of modern farming that helped convince Russian nobles that it was time to free their millions of serfs. And that is precisely where Marc's family story begins—with Nina's grandfather, the serf who bought his freedom from figuring out how to color beet sugar.

How does the evidence support the central idea that cane sugar helped lead to the abolition of slavery?

• The evidence explains that serfs bought their freedom to color beet sugar instead. 

  
  

• The evidence reveals that sugar barons in Cuba and Russia freed enslaved people and serfs.

  
  

• The evidence reveals that the author's family members were hardworking serfs on Russian farms.

  
  

• The evidence details how the modern technologies were used for large-scale sugar planting.

  
  

Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.

Sugar was the connection, the tie, between slavery and freedom. In order to create sugar, Europeans and colonists in the Americas destroyed Africans, turned them into objects. Just at that very same moment, Europeans—at home and across the Atlantic—decided that they could no longer stand being objects themselves. They each needed to vote, to speak out, to challenge the rules of crowned kings and royal princes. How could that be? Why did people keep speaking of equality while profiting from slaves? In fact, the global hunger for slave-grown sugar led directly to the end of slavery. Following the strand of sugar and slavery leads directly into the tumult of the Age of Revolutions. For in North America, then England, France, Haiti, and once again North America, the Age of Sugar brought about the great, final clash between freedom and slavery.

Based on this excerpt, what question are the authors trying to answer?

• How did colonists challenge the rules of crowned kings?

  
  

• How did the Age of Sugar differ from the Age of Revolutions?

  
  

• When did Europeans decide to speak about equality?

  
  

• Why did some Europeans decide they wanted to speak out about slavery?

  
  

How does this image support the claim that monarchs of the 1700s had wealth and influence? Select three options.

• The king is wearing elaborate clothing made of fancy materials.

  
  

• The king is dressed like a soldier to show that he is willing to go into battle.

  
  

• The king has a sword and sits next to a helmet.

  
  

• The king sits next to a crown, which symbolizes his power.

  
  

• The king is depicted sitting on a floor made of stone.

  
  

Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.

Twenty-three years earlier, King Louis XIV had issued a set of rules that defined slavery as legal in the French sugar islands. But when two slaves managed to reach France, he freed them—saying they became free "as soon as they [touched] the soil" of France. The judges sided with Pauline—she was real to them, human, not a piece of property. For Pauline's judges, as for King Louis, slavery far off across the seas was completely different from enslaved individuals in France.

Which words best create a positive, hopeful tone?

• free, real, and human

  
  

• legal, rules, and judges 

  
  

• King, individuals, and property

  
  

• islands, soil, and seas

  
  

Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.

From the 1750s on, sugar transformed how Europeans ate. Chefs who served the wealthy began to divide meals up. Where sugar had previously been used either as a decoration (as in the wedding feast) or as a spice to flavor all courses, now it was removed from recipes for meat, fish, and vegetables and given its own place—in desserts. Dessert as the extremely sweet end to the meal was invented because so much sugar was available. But the wealthy were not the only ones whose meals were changing. Sugar became a food, a necessity, and the foundation of the diet for England's poorest workers.

How does the use of the word transformed support the claim in this passage?

• It indicates that sugar was becoming important to those who liked desserts.

  
  

• It indicates that sugar was more important to Europeans than spices were.

  
  

• It indicates that the addition of sugar to diets made Europeans better cooks.

  
  

• It indicates that the addition of sugar was a significant change to Europeans' diets.

  
  

Which text evidence best supports the authors' claim about plantations?

• "The Muslims worked out a new form of farming to handle sugar, which came to be called the sugar plantation."

  
  

• "By contrast, the plantation had only one purpose: to create a single product that could be grown, ground, boiled, dried, and sold to distant markets."

  
  

• "Since one cannot live on sugar, the crop grown on plantations could not even feed the people who harvested it."

  
  

• "The mill was right next to the crop, so that growing and grinding took place in the same spot."

  
  

Twenty-three years earlier, King Louis XIV had issued a set of rules that defined slavery as legal in the French sugar islands. But when two slaves managed to reach France, he freed them—saying they became free "as soon as they [touched] the soil" of France. The judges sided with Pauline—she was real to them, human, not a piece of property. For Pauline's judges, as for King Louis, slavery far off across the seas was completely different from enslaved individuals in France.

How do the details in the passage support the central idea?

• They compare the end of slavery in the French colonies with the end of slavery in other colonies.

  
  

• They provide details about the final few years of slavery in Europe and its many colonies.

  
  

• They provide examples of how laws and attitudes about equality changed in France.

  
  

• They explain why enslaved people entered convents in an attempt to gain their freedom.

  
  

Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.

Not only were Russian farms run on unfree labor, but they used very simple, old-fashioned methods of farming. Like the English back in the time of Henry III, all Russians aside from the very wealthy still lived in the Age of Honey—sugar was a luxury taken out only when special guests came to visit. Indeed, as late as 1894, when the average English person was eating close to ninety pounds of sugar a year, the average Russian used just eight pounds.

What inference does the passage best support?

• Most Russians in the 1890s were not wealthy.

  
  

• Most English citizens were very wealthy.

  
  

• Russians did not run their farms well.

  
  

• English people were fonder of sweets.

  
  

Which statement is the most objective summary?

• Craving sweetness leads to developing poor habits around food.

  
  

• New sources of sweetness use better techniques than the old sources did.

  
  

• Chemists conduct work that is not interesting to much of the public.

  
  

• Sugar cane is no longer the main source of sweetness for most people.