How Sugar Changed the World Part II

Today, few people have heard of Jundi Shapur. But in its time, it was an exceptional university. Jundi Shapur was built in what is now Iran sometime between the 400s and mid-500s A.D. We can only guess the dates, but we do know more about the school. It was the meeting place of the world's great minds. In 529, Christians closed the school of Athens—the last link to the academies of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The remaining Greek scholars moved to Jundi Shapur. Jews joined them, as did a group of Christians called Nestorians, who had their own ancient and scholarly traditions. Persians added their voices, and one of their learned doctors set off for what is now India, to gather and translate the wisdom of the Hindus. The school created the very first teaching hospital in the world, a place where the sick were treated and young doctors learned their craft, as well as a fine observatory to track the heavens. At Jundi Shapur the best scholars west of China all gathered to think and study together.

–Sugar Changed the World,

Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos

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

• “Today, few people have heard of Jundi Shapur.”

• “We can only guess the dates.”

• “Greek scholars moved to Jundi Shapur.”

• “Nestorians . . . had their own ancient and scholarly traditions.”

• “The school created the very first teaching hospital in the world.”

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Even though one book after another repeats this myth, the popularity of spices had nothing to do with disguising the taste of meat or fish that had gone bad. Any lord who could afford spices (which were expensive) could easily get fresh meat or fish (which were readily available); and when a cook happened to be stuck with rancid food, the spices he had available could not hide the awful smell or taste. Whenever they could, people used the spices that were so popular, they became an expensive necessity: pepper, ginger, sugar, sometimes saffron. Only the very rich could afford the luxuries—such as ambergris (which is coughed up by whales and offers a strange, perfumy taste of the sea).

–Sugar Changed the World,

Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos

Question: The central idea in this passage is that spices were popular because they were flavorful, not because they helped people eat spoiled food. Which ideas are key details supporting this? Check all that apply.

• Spices could not disguise bad meat.

• Ambergris has a briny, sealike taste.

• Fresh meat and fish were easy to find.

• Only the very rich could afford luxuries.

• A myth is often repeated in books.

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But the Crusades were more than battles; they were also an information exchange. As a result of their contact with Muslims, the Europeans began to break out of their sealed-off world. They learned mathematics and, according to some scholars, how to build windmills. Windmills were a great power source that allowed Europeans to drain swamps and make use of lands that had previously gone to waste. With more land, they could grow more food. This knowledge that Muslims had helped Europe to get on its feet. And wars against the Muslims brought Europeans to sugar.

–Sugar Changed the World,

Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos

Question: How does the underlined sentence develop the central idea that the Crusades had both negative and positive results?

• It relays the importance of wind energy during the Crusades.

• It demonstrates that Muslims were the only group of people with good inventions.

• It shows that a Muslim invention benefited European society.

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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

Question: What is the central idea of the passage?

• In the Middle Ages, spices that are now ordinary were rare imports from faraway places.

• The spices at the Champagne fair were from the Middle East, where they were used in cooking.

• Pepper was highly regarded in Europe, so merchants demanded more and more of it.

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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

Question: 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”

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The vast Muslim world was wonderful for the growth of knowledge. The Greeks had developed a level of practical experience and technical understanding a thousand years more advanced than anyone else nearby. The Muslims began to translate some of these ancient Greek texts. From India, Muslims learned of the zero, which allowed them to invent what we still call "Arabic" numerals. And because the Koran, the sacred book of Islam, is written in Arabic, scholars throughout the Muslim world learned to read Arabic and to share their knowledge. The Muslims swept past Jundi Shapur and learned the secrets of sugar. As they conquered lands around the Mediterranean Sea, they spread word of how to grow, mill, and refine the sweet reed.

–Sugar Changed the World,

Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos

Question: How does the map develop the central idea of the passage?

• It provides a visual representation of lands conquered by Muslims.

• It shows the regions that benefited from Muslims’ knowledge of sugar.

• It illustrates how the growth and refining of sugar led to Muslim conquests.

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