Middle School
Read the first four paragraphs of The Maya. Which paragraph explains how historians learned about the Mayan civilization?AAs the Olmecs declined, their neighbors to the east the Maya prospered in an area the size of Colorado or Great Britain. This area on the Yucatan Peninsula had poor, infertile soil and no large rivers, not ideal for a flourishing civilization. Yet its people built terraces to trap silt from the small rivers. They grew corn, beans, squash, peppers, cassava, and cacao (chocolate). With no beasts of burden (horses, oxen), their luxury goods were portable feathers, jade, gold, and shells.BThe Maya organized themselves into small city-states instead of one big empire. The largest was Tikal, which by 750 CE, had about 40,000 inhabitants. Tikal's residents had specialized occupations and were ruled by elites. The city-states fought each other frequently. The main goal was to capture their enemies and sacrifice them to the Mayan gods.CWe know about the Maya because they developed an elaborate and sophisticated writing system. It was the most advanced in Mesoamerica. Mayan writing included both pictographs and symbols for syllables. Since the 1980s, scholars have made great progress in deciphering this script. Many carved inscriptions have survived, but only a few accordion books on bark or deerskin remain.DMaya shamans (priests) were quite advanced in cosmology and mathematics. They invented three kinds of calendars. A 365-day solar year calendar was used for agricultural cycles. A 260-day ritual calendar was used for daily affairs. A third calendar, called the Long Count calendar, went back to 3114 BCE. It recorded the large-scale passage of time.
Images shows a lake labeled carbonates in water, a cow labeled animal respiration, a tree labeled photosynthesis, a factory labeled factory emissions, the sun labeled sunlight, a cloud labeled carbon dioxide in atmosphere, another tree labeled plant respiration, an arrow from organic carbon to dead organism, and fossils and fossil fuels. Arrows are labeled as follows: A from the sunlight to photosynthesis, B from carbon dioxide in atmosphere to photosynthesis, C from factory emissions to carbon dioxide in atmosphere, D from carbon dioxide in atmosphere to carbonates in water, E from dead organisms to fossils and fossil fuels, and F from plant respiration to the sky.Using the diagram above, answer the following questions:True or False. The arrow labeled C represents a transfer of chemical energy to mechanical energy. Explain why this is true or false.True or False. The arrow labeled A represents a transfer of solar energy to chemical energy. Explain why this is true or false.
