Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.

I wanted to know more about the beguiling Nina, and my cousin had plenty of stories to share. He told me that her grandfather was a Russian serf—a farmer who could be bought and sold by the noble who owned his land. Family legend has it that this serf, a remarkable and intelligent man, helped to change the course of the history of sugar. In the early 1800s, the British controlled most of the sugar plantations of the Caribbean and the sea routes to Europe. As a result, their rivals were desperate to find a new way to create sugar. They turned to beets.

What is the purpose of this passage?
A.)It explains why the person telling the story is fascinated with Russian history.
B.)It provides background on how a family from Russia got into the sugar business. C.)It explains that beets can be grown, processed, and refined into sugar for market.
D.)It reveals methods used by the British to maintain control of the sugar market.

The story Sugar Changed the World follows the evolution of the sugar business and the blood trail it left in human history. The production of sugar lead the slave trade market and caused the death of countless Africans exploited in cane plantations. The book follows its history from 7000 B.C. to the 21st century.

This exceprt serves to present the story of this Russian family, whose ancestor (the grandfather of the person telling the story) became a serf in the sugar business. A serf, according to the Cambridge dictionary, is a member of a low social class of farm workers who cannot leave the land where they work and who are ruled by the owner of the land.