Ruins of a Fabled City

Which statement best describes the central idea of the passage?

• Great Zimbabwe was an enormous stone city thought to be home to some of the greatest treasure of ancient history

• Mysteries related to Great Zimbabwe continue to interest historians and explorers even though archaeologists have confirmed its origins.

• The history of Great Zimbabwe was subject to much speculation until modern archaeologists definitively determined its origins

• Early missteps in the study and excavation of the Great Zimbabwe ruins led to the loss of valuable evidence about the city.

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What was the main way that Karl Mauch’s conclusions about Great Zimbabwe in paragraph 4 affected later archaeological investigations?

• Archaeologists from all over Europe became interested in excavating the area

• Archaeologists made assumptions about the history of the ruins before excavating.

• Archaeologists started to believe that many of the past accounts recorded about the ruins were true.

• Archaeologists realized it was unlikely that an ancient culture could build such grand structures.

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38. Which statement best describes Portuguese explorers’ experience searching for Great Zimbabwe?

• They routinely visited East Africa but never located the city.

• They were motivated by the hope of finding a mysterious city.

• They used details from de Barros’s story in order to determine the city’s exact location.

• They studied history books in order to gather information about the city.

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Which statement best describes Portuguese explorers’ experience searching for Great Zimbabwe?

• They routinely visited East Africa but never located the city.

• They were motivated by the hope of finding a mysterious city.

• They used details from de Barros’s story in order to determine the city’s exact location.

• They studied history books in order to gather information about the city.

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They studied history books in order to gather information about the city.

• why the settlement was abandoned

• where the ivory and gold from the city went

• why the ruins remained undiscovered until the 1870s

• who had built the settlement

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Which statement about the Shona people is best supported by the passage?

• They live along the east coast of Africa.

• They are descendants of the people who built Great Zimbabwe.

• They lived in the Middle East before settling in Africa.

• They were once ruled by King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

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The conclusions of David Randall-MacIver and Gertrude Caton-Thompson were significant because they

• proved that Great Zimbabwe was much older than previously thought.

• questioned why the Shona people left Great Zimbabwe.

• supported the idea that the ancient Shona had a robust society at Great Zimbabwe.

• revealed that Great Zimbabwe was African in origin.

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