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Question

Difficulty: MediumExplicit Detail Retrieval

Passage:

In late eighteenth-century France, agronomic advocate Antoine-Augustin Parmentier sought to elevate the potato from a despised livestock feed to a staple crop for human consumption. Following his imprisonment in Prussia during the Seven Years' War—where he observed prisoners surviving solely on potato tubers—Parmentier realized the crop's caloric efficiency and resilience against famine. Prior to his campaign, French peasant communities widely believed that consuming potatoes transmitted leprosy, a superstition reinforced by municipal edicts prohibiting their cultivation in several northern provinces. To dismantle this institutional resistance, Parmentier employed unconventional publicity tactics rather than relying exclusively on academic treatises. In 1787, he planted a high-yield potato plot on royal land at Sablons, surrounding the perimeter with heavily armed guards during the day to convey an aura of immense value. Crucially, Parmentier instructed the guards to accept bribes and abandon their posts at night, allowing local farmers to intentionally 'steal' the tubers and cultivate them in private plots. This psychological strategy successfully transformed public perception, accelerating widespread domestic cultivation prior to the harvest failures of 1789.

According to the passage, French peasant resistance to potato cultivation prior to Parmentier's campaign was partly attributable to which of the following?

  1. A
    Official opposition from royal authorities who refused to grant Parmentier land for agricultural experiments
  2. B
    A complete lack of interest among agronomic scholars in promoting alternative staple crops
  3. A widespread superstitious belief that consuming the tubers transmitted leprosyAnswer
  4. D
    The high financial cost of importing Prussian tubers into French peasant communities
  5. E
    Municipal edicts that encouraged peasants to use potato crops exclusively for livestock feed

Answer

A widespread superstitious belief that consuming the tubers transmitted leprosy
The passage explicitly states that prior to Parmentier's campaign, 'French peasant communities widely believed that consuming potatoes transmitted leprosy.' The correct choice accurately retrieves and paraphrases this explicitly stated fact.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the prompt to determine the target detail
The prompt asks for a reason cited in the passage for French peasant resistance to potato cultivation prior to Parmentier's campaign.
Explicit detail retrieval requires matching the question's target criteria directly to the text.
2
Scan the passage for keywords related to peasant belief and resistance prior to the campaign
Located the sentence: 'Prior to his campaign, French peasant communities widely believed that consuming potatoes transmitted leprosy, a superstition reinforced by municipal edicts prohibiting their cultivation in several northern provinces.'
This section specifically details the cause of peasant resistance.
3
Evaluate the options against the explicit text statement
The option identifying a widespread superstitious belief that consuming tubers transmitted leprosy directly matches the statement in the text.
The correct answer must accurately paraphrase facts explicitly stated in the passage without adding outside assumptions.

Key Concept

Explicit Detail Retrieval
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Topics

Explicit Detail Retrieval

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