Chinese Cannabis: Multiple Choice Grammar Test

The non-psychoactive form of cannabis was used (1) _______ a food crop by rural populations across Eurasia in ancient times, (2) _______ ancient Rome, Egypt, and China. Cannabis seeds were used to make oil and flour, which became porridge or (3) _______ desserts. One of the names for ancient China was “the land of hemp and mulberry.” Hemp, known as ma, began (4) _______ in seed form during the Chou dynasty. It was widely used as a food crop during spring and autumn, the Warring States Period, and during the Qin and Han dynasties, (5) _______ part of the Chinese diet until the 10th century AD.

The Li Qi placed hemp as one of the five great grains of ancient China. (6) _______ were barley, rice, wheat, and soybeans.) They were well aware of the psychoactive properties of marijuana, and they distinguished (7) _______ ma fen, or toxic cannabis, and ma ze, or nontoxic hemp. Ma fen was said to cause people to “see devils” and was used by necromancers, (8) _______ ginseng, in order to see the future. Second-century-AD physician Hua T’o is said to have (9) _______ cannabis with wine to make anaesthetic for operations. Some, however, believe that the ma referred to as a food crop in ancient texts was actually hu ma, or foreign hemp, also known as sesame seeds. But that’s (10) _______ fun.

by David Tormsen