Question

Which quotation best supports the authors' claim and purpose?

"Textbooks talk about the Triangle Trade."
"Beekman's trade, for example, could cut out Europe entirely."
"What could the Europeans use to buy Indian cloth?"
"What we call a triangle was really as round as the globe."

Answer 1

"What we call a triangle was really as round as the globe."

Reason: this sentence directly states the authors' main claim (that the "Triangle Trade" label is misleading) and expresses their purpose of correcting that oversimplification. The other choices are either just descriptive, a single example, or a rhetorical question.