Commonplace items sometimes play surprising roles in world

Question

Commonplace items sometimes play surprising roles in world development. For example, though most people today associate nutmeg with simple baked goods, this common spice once altered the course of political history. For centuries, the nutmeg tree grew only in the Banda Islands, a small chain in the southwest Pacific. Locals harvested the aromatic nuts of the tree and sold them to traders. Eventually these nuts, from which the spice is made, ended up as a luxury item in the European market, via Venetian spice merchants. Eager to establish a monopoly over this valuable spice, the Dutch attacked the Bandas, subjugating the native people in a mostly successful attempt to control the nutmeg trade.

However, one island in the Banda chain remained in the hands of the British and was the object of much conflict between the Netherlands and England. After many battles, the British offered to cede control of the island in exchange for New Amsterdam, a Dutch outpost on the east coast of North America. At the time, the Dutch, inveterate traders, were more interested in the spice trade than in the mercantile value of New Amsterdam and so accepted the offer. In 1667, the Treaty of Breda gave the Dutch complete control of the Banda Islands, and thus of the nutmeg trade, and gave the British New Amsterdam, which they promptly renamed New York.   1 
 D 
 1. Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the claim that New Amsterdam would have remained a Dutch possession if not for the conflict over nutmeg?

A. Attempts to cultivate nutmeg trees outside of the Banda Islands had failed.
B. Few people lived in New Amsterdam before it was ceded to the British.
C. The British controlled trade in other valuable spices, such as cloves.
D. New Amsterdam served as a trading center for furs exported to Europe.
E. The Netherlands controlled no North American territories other than New Amsterdam.

2 
 A 
 2. The second paragraph performs which of the following functions in the passage?

A. It offers specific information to complete the logic of the author's claims.
B. It summarizes and evaluates the evidence given thus far.
C. It presents the author's main point to explain a unique situation.
D. It cites a particular case to demonstrate the importance of historical change.
E. It discusses the necessary outcome of the author's assertions.

3 
 C 
 3. In the passage, the author is primarily interested in

A. tracing the history of a major city
B. discussing the role of spices in world development
C. offering a specific example to support a general claim
D. arguing for continued research into political history
E. presenting an innovative view of a commonplace item

samark · Accepted Answer

Carcass,

This passage is about the prospects of business, some good business value product and how some countries wanted to possess business of nutmeg (a prospective business value product). So, the whole motivation was to get hold on anything which was a good business prospect.

"New Amsterdam served as a trading center for furs exported to Europe."

Now, if suppose Amsterdam were a trading center for furs. It would have commercial value(business prospect). So, Dutch would not have just given the island to British without showing any resilience. There would have wanted to keep Amsterdam for its commercial value.

Hence, its D.

Hope, it helps!

Option D is right D.

ravigupta2912 · Answer

I don't fully agree with OA to Q1.

The answer choice  D. New Amsterdam served as a trading center for furs exported to Europe.

relies on..

At the time, the Dutch, inveterate traders, were more interested in the spice trade than in the mercantile value of New Amsterdam and so accepted the offer.  in the passage.

However, the passage does not say that NA had 0 mercantile value. It just says that spice trade had more of a value. If Dutch were able to cultivate nutmeg trees outside, then, they would not have necessarily ceded NA. A seems to me a better choice.

If D had said something along the lines of comparison, one could have accepted it. But the logical jump in D is quiet significant. Just because NA has some mercantile value, therefore, the Dutch would have resisted bartering it with English?

The passage does not even mention "low mercantile value" of NA, so one can "infer" some sort of "degree" of trade occuring at NA.

Would like to hear thoughts of people on this.

frank1 · Answer

6 minutes and i got this one wrong

In the passage, the author is primarily interested in

A. tracing the history of a major city
B. discussing the role of spices in world development
C. offering a specific example to support a general claim
D. arguing for continued research into political history
E. presenting an innovative view of a commonplace item

I thought it was E remembering the first line of the passage
but It was C

Alex75PAris · Answer

1. D
" At the time, the Dutch, inveterate traders, were more interested in the spice trade than in the mercantile value of New Amsterdam and so accepted the offer."

2. A
"However, one island in the Banda chain remained in the hands of the British and was the object of much conflict between the Netherlands and England."

3. C
"However, one island in the Banda chain remained in the hands of the British and was the object of much conflict between the Netherlands and England."

AMsac123 · Answer

For Qn two i thought it was answer D. Can somebody please explain it to me

pikolo2510 · Answer

Hey  samark

Can you post the OE for each question, it will help me understand if my reasoning is correct for the answer choice?

Also, can you let me know why Option D is wrong in Question #2?

Thanks in advance!

AkshayKS21 · Answer

and Anazeer and pikolo2510 I was confused between A and D. I hope you eliminated other answers to arrive at D. Here is why D for Question 2 is wrong though- D It cites a particular case to demonstrate the importance of historical change . Second paragraph cites (or continues) a particular case to support a generalisation "Commonplace items sometimes play surprising roles in world development" on which complete passage is based. There s no importance of historical change discussed in the passage. Historical change is further illustrated by a case of Dutch and British, and this case is not evaluated for its importance, the case is just stated. Makes sense?

carcass · Answer

From this, you can conclude that once what is called NA was an important hub.

Moreover, you could use also POE: all the other answers choice are not mentioned in the passage. Pretty easy question.

Hope this helps

Abhinav_1630 · Answer

Explanation for Questions 3? Why not B?

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Hi

Between  B and C , B is incorrect because it didn't judges the direction of the author, This is tricky answer choice because in majority of the passages the main idea lies somewhere in  para 1 , but exceptions are always there and the case is different in this passage.

In  1st paragraph  the author provides example about topic of his/her interest. It is same when we write our research thesis, before writing about the variable being discuss in the research we first provide introduction or some basic information about the variable to to get people understand what we want them to. In this passage the author provides some basic information in form of an example in the first paragraph but that was not what author want to get notice to.

In the  second paragraph  the very first word  "However"  make us cautious that author has main thing to discuss yet. and then he/she provides what is the area of interest so that is the reason B is wrong.

Hope it helps

Diya52 · Answer

In question 3, why is E wrong? and in option C. offering a specific example to support a general claim -- I suppose that "Commonplace items sometimes play surprising roles in world development." is the general claim but how do we know that this is a general claim?

PhantomAY · Answer

Author's main point is to make the claim that "commonplace items sometimes play a surprising role in world development", while spice mutneg is just one example to support that view so it's not author's main point.

PhantomAY · Answer

E is wrong for 2 reasons

1 - you don't certainly translate "innovative" from "surprising" directly
2 - C is better than E due to its bigger scope. And this is on the tricks for main idea questions - normally the answers in the highest abstract level is the correct one (simply because no better answer can be more "main idea").

And the first sentence of the first paragraph is clearly the main conclusion since the rest of the paragraph just going around a specific example to support this claim. "General claims" refers to claims that are more high level, without specifics being defined.

ricardorr04 · Answer

~6:20 mins and all correct. Took a bit too long on the first question...

What are the difficulty levels of this questions and the passage? Didn't seem like a tough passage and questions 2 and 3 weren't too tough imo.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

The difficulty level of the questions should be as such in my opinion:

Question #1: 700
Question #2: 700
Question #3: 600

Good Luck

UserMaple5 · Answer

Bunuel   carcass

I found two additional questions on this passage - could you please add?

1. The passage suggests which of the following about the Banda Islands?
A ) The British arrived in the islands before the Dutch.
B) Nutmeg was the only spice that grew on the islands.
C) Natives of the islands produced nutmeg from the nuts of the nutmeg tree. - correct I think
D) The Banda Islands are still in the possession of the Dutch.
E) The local economy of the islands depended completely on nutmeg.

2. Which of the following is mentioned in the passage as a reason for the initial interest of the Netherlands in the Banda Islands?

A) Increased economic competition with Britain
B) Disappointment with the economic development of New Amsterdam
C) Frustration with the practices of Venetian spice merchants
D) Failure to cultivate nutmeg in other locations
E) Desire to restrict access to a commodity - I think this is correct

thanks

Mavisdu1017 · Answer

Hey  Sajjad1994  where is OE for Q3? I was confused between C and E, but I think C is too general and tenuous while E is much more specific.

Nidhijain94 · Answer

agree. New Amsterdam already had merchant value. fur trade option D does not explicitly mention if it is higher value than the buisness new Amsterdam had before via negotiating with British

dazzler97 · Answer

Same here, I was confused between C and E, went with E because what does a "general claim" mean here & how do we know that this claim is "general" in nature? So far it could just be author's opinion and not general.

Commonplace items sometimes play surprising roles in world

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GMAT Reading Comprehension (RC) Questions

Commonplace items sometimes play surprising roles in world

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