Passage Excerpt:
Unlike European navigators who relied on magnetic compasses and sextants to chart their courses across the open ocean, ancient Polynesian wayfinders navigated vast distances of the Pacific by reading the natural world. They observed the paths of stars, the flight patterns of birds, and the subtle behavior of ocean currents. To teach apprentice navigators how to interpret these complex ocean wave patterns, experienced wayfinders constructed stick charts. [X] These devices did not represent physical distances in the way a modern map does. Instead, they served as abstract, mnemonic training aids.
Given that all the choices are true, which one provides the most specific and detailed description of the physical composition of the stick charts and how they functioned as wave diagrams?
- Made from bound coconut midribs and fibers, with small shells attached to indicate the positions of islands, these grids mapped the intersection of major ocean swells.Answer
- BThese charts, which were kept on land because they were too fragile to be taken on voyages, were highly prized by the community.
- CThe charts were made of local organic materials, they showed the apprentices how waves interacted with islands.
- DWayfinders construct these wooden tools to guide apprentices, which had helped them teach students to read the ocean.