Egyptian Society and Economy Like most ancient civilizations, Egypt had a hierarchical social structure. At the top of society was the pharaoh, who was not only the monarch, but also considered to be a living god. Next were government officials and priests, and then there was a large middle class composed of merchants, soldiers, farmers, and artisans. Most Egyptians belonged to this class, and farming was the most usual occupation. At the bottom of the social ladder were slaves and servants.
Because of its location near the Mediterranean & Red Seas, it was easy for Egyptians to trade with other civilizations nearby, such as Nubia, Palestine, and Greece. Exports included grain, linen, and papyrus; imports included lumber, gold, and incense. The female pharaoh Hatshepsut is especially well-known for promoting trade.

Question: What is the topic of this passage? Use R & A from RACE.

Read the excerpt from "mother tongue." those tests were constructed around items like fill-in-the-blank sentence completion, such as “even though tom was mary thought he was ” and the correct answer always seemed to be the most bland combinations of thoughts, for example, “even though tom was foolish, mary thought he was ridiculous.” well, according to my mother, there were very few limitations as to what tom could have been and what mary might have thought of him. so i never did well on tests like that. how does tan build a central idea of her story in the excerpt? tan discusses the types of questions on achievement tests to support the idea that the tests limit students’ ability to write well. tan explains a question on a language achievement test to support the idea that the tests should include more interesting content. tan gives an example of her experience with achievement tests to support the idea that they are not always accurate measures of language ability. tan considers how her mother might answer a question on a test to support the idea that nonstandard english limits a person’s ability to communicate.