Question

How do the details in this passage support the authors’ purpose?


Starting around 1800, sugar became the staple food that allowed the English factories—the most advanced economies in the world—to run. Sugar supplied the energy, the hint of nutrition, the sweet taste to go with the warmth of tea that even the poorest factory worker could look forward to. Sugar was a necessity.

Why were the English the first to build factories to mill cloth? Because of the wealth they gained, the trade connections they made, and the banking systems they developed in the slave and sugar trade. Indeed, the cheap cloth from the factories was used to clothe the slaves. English factories, you might say, were built, run, and paid for by sugar.

In 1800, when the English were consuming their eighteen pounds of sugar a year, around 250,000 tons of sugar were produced worldwide—almost all sent to Europe. A century later, in 1900, when sugar was used in jams, cakes, syrups, and tea, and every modern country was filled with factories, world production of sugar reached six million tons. By that time, the average person in England ate ninety pounds of sugar a year—and in the early twentieth century, that number kept rising. (Americans today eat only about 40 pounds of cane sugar a year, but that is because other forms of sweeteners, such as corn syrup, are now cheaper than cane sugar. If you consider all forms of sweeteners, Americans eat an average of 140 pounds every year.)


A. The authors include details about how much sugar Americans consume to persuade readers that modern diets are unhealthy.
B. The authors include details about the changes in diets over time to inform readers about how sugar has transformed what we eat.
C. The authors include details about how much sugar people have eaten overtime to entertain readers with surprising statistics.
D. The authors include details about American and British diets to persuade readers that eating habits now are healthier than they were in the past.

Answer 1

Answer:

The correct answer is the authors include details about the changes in diets over time to inform readers about how sugar has transformed what we eat..

Explanation:

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Answer 2

The details in this passage support the authors’ purpose because B. The author includes details about the changes in diets over time to inform readers about how sugar has transformed what we eat.

Let us analyse why the other options are incorrect:

• Option A. The authors include details about how much sugar Americans consume to persuade readers that modern diets are unhealthy: This option only mentions the sugar consumption of Americans, whereas the text also talks about the sugar consumption of the British.

• Option C. The authors include details about how much sugar people have eaten over time to entertain readers with surprising statistics: The text has a serious, factual tone. It is incorrect to call it entertaining. Therefore, this option is not the right answer.

• Option D. The authors include details about American and British diets to persuade readers that eating habits now are healthier than they were in the past: The text shows that people are consuming more sugar than they did before, and that is not a part of healthy eating habits. Thus, this option is incorrect.

• Option B. The authors include details about the changes in diets over time to inform readers about how sugar has transformed what we eat: The author traces the presence of sugar in ‘jams, cakes, syrups, and tea’ and now in almost everything, in one form or another. Thus, sugar has indeed triggered a big change in food habits.

Hence option B is the correct answer.

Tip: The trick to answer such questions is to look at minute details given in the options. Sometimes, one word is enough to make an option an incorrect answer.

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