Page 178 - English Class 9

by one, the classic cities in the southern lowlands were abandoned, and
by 900 AD, Maya civilisation in that region had collapsed. The reason
for this mysterious decline is unknown, though scholars have developed
several competing theories. Some believe that by the ninth century the
Maya had exhausted the environment around them to the point that it
could no longer sustain a very large population.

VIII

Other Maya scholars argue that constant warfare among competing
Curriculum Development Centre 78-CEHRD
city-states led the complicated military, family and trade alliances between
them to break down, along with the traditional system of dynastic power.
As the stature of the holy lords diminished, their complex traditions of
rituals and ceremonies dissolved into chaos. Finally, some catastrophic
environmental changes–like an extremely long, intense period of drought
may have wiped out the Classic Maya Civilization. Drought would have
hit cities like Tikal, where rainwater was necessary for drinking as well as
for crop irrigation. All three of these factors may have played a part in the
downfall of the Maya in the southern lowlands. Curriculum Development Centre 78-CEHRD

A. Match the following words from the text with their meanings.

a. drought i. an instance of a large number of people or things
arriving somewhere

b. excel ii. a picture representing a word, syllable or sound

c. hieroglyph iii. to be very good at doing something

d. dominant iv. digging ground to look for old buried buildings
or objects

e. concentration v. a long period of time when there is little or no
rain

f. invasion vi. a lot of something in one place

g. excavation vii. more important, powerful or easy to notice than
other things
172 English 9