Interactive Reading

Read the passage and answer the question.

For centuries, the color blue was extremely rare in human-made objects. Most early dyes and paints came from plants and minerals that produced reds, browns, and yellows, but a stable blue was hard to find. The ancient Egyptians eventually created a synthetic blue pigment by heating sand, copper, and other ingredients at high temperatures. This pigment spread across the Mediterranean and was prized for decorating tombs and statues. After the fall of Rome, however, the recipe was lost, and reliable blue remained costly and difficult to make until far more recent times.