Read the following passage carefully. The passage is followed by four…
2022
Read the following passage carefully. The passage is followed by four questions based on it. Alternative answers have been given for each question. Select the most suitable answer from the alternatives.
In the 16th century, an age of great marine and terrestrial exploration, Ferdinand Magellan led the first expedition to sail around the world. As a young Portuguese noble, he served the king of Portugal, but became involved in the quagmire of political intrigue at court and lost the king's favor. After he was dismissed from service by the king of Portugal, he offered to serve the future Emperor Charles V of Spain.
A papal decree of 1493 had assigned all land in the New World west of 50 degrees W longitude to Spain and all the land east of that line to Portugal. Magellan offered to prove that the East Indies fell under Spanish authority. On September 20, 1519, Magellan set sail from Spain with five ships. More than a year later, one of these ships was exploring the topography of South America in search of a water route across the continent. This ship sank, but the remaining four ships searched along the southern peninsula of South America. Finally they found the passage they sought near 50 degrees S latitude. Magellan named this passage the Strait of All Saints, but today it is known as the Strait of Magellan.
One ship deserted while in this passage and returned to Spain, so fewer sailors were privileged to gaze at that first panorama of the Pacific Ocean. Those who remained crossed the meridian now known as the International Date Line in the early spring of 1521 after 98 days on the Pacific Ocean. During those long days at sea, many of Magellan's men died of starvation and disease.
Later, Magellan became involved in an insular conflict in the Philippines and was killed in a tribal battle. Only one ship and 17 sailors under the command of the Basque navigator Elcano survived to complete the westward journey to Spain and thus prove once and for all that the world is round, with no precipice at the edge.
Ques: Many sailors who crossed the meridian in 1521 suffered due to
- A.
Natural high sea
- B.
Starvation and disease
- C.
Vast panorama of Pacific Ocean
- D.
Political intrigue of Portugal
Attempted by 4 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Concept
A detail-based reading-comprehension question is answered only from what the passage explicitly states; do not bring in outside knowledge or pick an option merely because the words appear somewhere in the text. The task is to locate the exact sentence that answers what is asked.
Application
The question asks what the sailors who crossed the meridian in 1521 suffered from. The passage says they “crossed the meridian now known as the International Date Line in the early spring of 1521 after 98 days on the Pacific Ocean. During those long days at sea, many of Magellan’s men died of starvation and disease.” The cause of their suffering, named directly in the text, is starvation and disease.
Why the other choices fail
“Natural high sea”: the passage never names the open sea itself as a source of the sailors’ hardship.
“Vast panorama of the Pacific Ocean”: this is described as a privilege the surviving sailors were able to behold, not a hardship.
“Political intrigue of Portugal”: this relates to Magellan’s earlier loss of the king’s favour at court, not to the 1521 ocean crossing.
Result
The hardship the passage attributes to those sailors is starvation and disease.