Question

Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. 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 was 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 sweetener, Americans eat an average of 140 pounds every year.) How do the details in this passage support the authors’ purpose?
-The authors include details about how much sugar Americans consume to persuade readers that modern diets are unhealthy.
-The authors include details about the changes in diets over time to inform readers about how sugar has transformed what we eat.
-The authors include details about how much sugar people have eaten over time to entertain readers with surprising statistics.
-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

C.  The authors include details about how much sugar people have eaten over time to entertain readers with surprising statistics.

When looking at the excerpt, there are no arguments being made/defended.  As such, we can safely say this piece is not to persuade. While we do see details about the changes in diets, that information is in support of the statistics.  The statistics present are somewhat alarming, but this seems to be done for shock value or entertainment purposes only.  

Answer 2

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

The first clue that leads us to this answer is the title, Sugar Changed the World, we can infer that the author is going to tell us the changes sugar has produced throughout history, that includes the diets. The title also makes us think that the text is going to be informative as the writer describes events related to sugar, giving statistics and facts. A persuasive tone is not detected yet, so we as readers are not expected to make a change in our beliefs, answer 1 and 4 are therefore incorrect.

Although some statistics are shown, this kind of texts are not mean to entertain readers with "surprising statistics" as it has an academic tone and is probably extracted from a book or research paper, which primcipal objetctive is to inform. If the statistics were used to amaze us a more colloquial language would be used and it would be part of an entertainment magazine.