READ THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE AND MARK THE LETTER A, B, C, OR D TO I...
2.2. Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the
correct answer to each of the questions.
Past explorers have made vast contributions to our knowledge of the world today. They
braved the oceans to discover the world and to bring their goods to other countries to
trade.
Many explorers had to overcome their fear of the unknown to travel around the world on
their sailing ships. Submitting themselves to unpredictable weather conditions, each
explorer either traveled further than his predecessor or tried to find a different route to
already discovered countries. For example, Vasco Da Gama, a Portuguese explorer,
established a sea route from Europe to India. He had extended the sea route that
Bartolomeu Dias had already done when he latter sailed around the Cape of Good Hope
in southern Africa.
More importantly, explorers first closed the gap between the east and the west by trading
their local goods with foreign ones. India was known for its spices such as nutmeg and
cinnamon while China was known for its silk. A part of the east was brought to the west
when western gourmets developed a taste for eastern spices in their food. People in the
east dressed in clothes that were previously only worn in the west. Without the explorers,
many of us would still be living in our own enclave with little knowledge of the vast
world and what other foreign countries have to offer us.