Iron working in Africa

Iron working in AfricaMany scholars believe that the secret of iron smelting (the process ofextracting the iron from the rock that contains it) came with Phoenicianmerchants. The Phoenicians living on the shores of the Mediterranean weresmelting iron by 1,000 B.C.E. They were a seafaring people whosesquare-rigged ships sailed along the North African coast, where theyestablished settlements that became colonies. The most famous was Cathay,modern Tunisia, founded about 800 B.C.E, but other settlement therescattered along the Mediterranean and the Atlantic coast of Africa as far southas Mauritania. The indigenous peoples of North Africa who surroundedthese Phoenician colonies were Berbers who cultivated wheat, barley,and millet on the rich coast, lands between their pastures for sheep.goats, and cattle. The Phoenicians were traders as well as sailors whoexchanged iron implements and the technology to make them in return for thelivestock of the Berbers.Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in thehighlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning inimportant ways or leave out essential information.A.The Berbers supplied labor for the Phoenician colonies, working intheir fields and caring for their animals.B.Surrounding the Phoenician were the Berbers, native North Africanpeople who grew grains and raised animals.C.The Berbers grew wheat, barley, and millet on the lowlandssurrounding Phoenician animal pastures.D.Like the native Berbers, the Phoenician colonies grew wheat, barley,and millet and millet and raised sheep, goals, and cattle.According to paragraph 1, many scholars believe that iron smelting in Africafirst began when the technique wasA.brought by Phoenicians who settled on the North African coastB.discovered by the Berbers around 1,000 B.C.EC.brought back from Phoenicia by seafaring African merchantsD.discovered in Carthage in modern Tunisia around 800 B.C.EBy 600 B.C.E, Carthage had become a wealthy and powerful city in the westernMediterranean whose commerce depended on goods brought across the Sahara by thepastoral, nomadic, Berbers of the interior who controlled the early trans-Saharanroutes. [▇]Two hundred years later, these routes were to become great arteries of tradebetween Africa and the Mediterranean world in 500 B.C.E. [▇]However, they were pathsused to connect the chain of Saharan oases inhabited by Berbers who since greatantiquity had maintained the line of communications and contacts between the regions ofAfrica south of the Sahara and Mediterranean coast north of it. [▇]The paintings in therock shelters of the Sahara graphically depict the two-wheeled, horse-drawn chariots,most probably used for war but also able to transport African gold, ivory, and slaves takenin raids in return for salt, cloth, beads, and iron from North Africa. [▇]Why does the author include the informa...