閱讀前先看 Before you read
- 主題
- Why the Classic Maya cities collapsed
- 文章重點
- The Classic Maya collapse around 800-950 AD was not caused by a single factor. A severe multi-decade drought combined with overstretched agriculture, weakened royal authority and warfare to bring down a particular political system — but not the Maya people themselves.
- 難度
- 中等偏難 · Upper-Intermediate
- 建議時間
- 18 分鐘
重要單字
- sophisticated — highly developed or complex / 精密的、複雜的
- inscriptions — words carved into stone / 銘文
- sediment — matter that settles at the bottom of water / 沉積物
- cascade — a chain reaction in stages / 連鎖反應
- rituals — fixed religious or ceremonial actions / 儀式
- collapse — a sudden serious failure / 崩潰
30 秒快速理解 30-second summary
Between 250-900 AD the Classic Maya built a sophisticated civilisation in the lowland rainforest, then largely abandoned it. Single-cause explanations fail. Lake-sediment cores show 800-1000 AD was the driest period in 8,000 years. Most scholars now favour a "cascade" model: drought stressed agriculture, weakened rain-ritual kingship and triggered warfare. The Maya people remain — only the divine-king system collapsed.
逐段練習 Read paragraph by paragraph
1
段落 1 — A sudden ending
For roughly six centuries, between about 250 and 900 AD, the lowland rainforests of what is now southern Mexico, Guatemala and Belize supported one of the most sophisticated civilisations of the pre-modern world. Classic Maya kings ruled tens of cities, raised limestone temples taller than the surrounding canopy and developed an elaborate writing system, astronomy and a calendar accurate to within hours over thousands of years. Then, with surprising speed, the system collapsed. By 950 AD most of the great southern lowland centres — Tikal, Palenque, Copán — had been abandoned, the inscriptions had ceased and the population of the region had fallen by perhaps ninety per cent.
本段重要單字 (3)
- sophisticated — highly developed / 精密的
- inscriptions — carved writings / 銘文
- abandoned — left empty / 廢棄的
Quick Check · 隨堂小測
What happened to the Classic Maya by 950 AD?
- Their cities were rebuilt larger than before.
- Most southern lowland centres had been abandoned and population had crashed.
- They migrated en masse to South America.
看答案 · Show answer
答案：B — Most southern lowland centres had been abandoned and population had crashed.
The text says by 950 AD "most of the great southern lowland centres ... had been abandoned" and population fell "by perhaps ninety per cent".
2
段落 2 — Why single-cause stories fail
Early explanations tended to single out one cause. Soil exhaustion, peasant revolt and military pressure from northern neighbours have all been proposed at various times. Each explanation captures part of what archaeologists now observe in the record but none, considered alone, accounts for the speed and the geographic scope of the collapse, which affected dozens of independent kingdoms more or less simultaneously.
本段重要單字 (3)
- exhaustion — the state of being used up / 耗竭
- revolt — an uprising against authority / 反抗
- simultaneously — at the same time / 同時地
Quick Check · 隨堂小測
Why does the writer say single-cause explanations are not enough?
- Because no archaeological evidence supports any of them.
- Because none alone accounts for the speed and geographic scope of the collapse.
- Because peasant revolt has been proven false.
看答案 · Show answer
答案：B — Because none alone accounts for the speed and geographic scope of the collapse.
The paragraph says each explanation captures something but "none, considered alone, accounts for the speed and the geographic scope" of a collapse hitting dozens of kingdoms at once.
3
段落 3 — Evidence from lake sediment
A breakthrough came from an unexpected source: cores drilled from the bottom of Lake Chichancanab, in northern Yucatán, in the 1990s. The chemical composition of layered sediments preserves a record of past rainfall going back several thousand years. The cores showed that the period 800-1000 AD was the driest the region had experienced in eight millennia, with at least three multi-decade droughts so severe that the lake itself shrank significantly. Subsequent cave-stalagmite records from Belize have confirmed and refined the picture.
本段重要單字 (3)
- cores — cylindrical samples drilled from a deposit / 岩心
- sediments — layered material that has settled / 沉積物
- millennia — thousands of years / 千年
Quick Check · 隨堂小測
What did the Lake Chichancanab cores reveal?
- That the region was unusually wet between 800 and 1000 AD.
- That 800-1000 AD was the driest period in the previous 8,000 years.
- That climate had nothing to do with the Maya collapse.
看答案 · Show answer
答案：B — That 800-1000 AD was the driest period in the previous 8,000 years.
The text states the cores showed 800-1000 AD "was the driest the region had experienced in eight millennia" — eight thousand years.
4
段落 4 — A cascade of pressures
Drought alone, however, does not explain why some Maya regions weathered the same climate while the southern lowlands did not. Northern Yucatán, in fact, recovered after a period of difficulty and produced its own flowering at Chichén Itzá in the tenth century. Most current scholars therefore favour a "cascade" model: prolonged drought stressed agriculture in the densest, most over-extended lowland kingdoms; food shortages weakened royal authority based on rain rituals; warfare between starving rivals accelerated the loss of population; and emigration to better-watered regions deepened the decline.
本段重要單字 (3)
- weathered — survived a hardship / 度過
- cascade — a chain reaction / 連鎖反應
- emigration — leaving one region for another / 移出
Quick Check · 隨堂小測
According to the cascade model, which sequence best fits the collapse?
- Foreign invasion → drought → kingship recovery.
- Drought → agricultural stress → weakened royal authority → warfare and emigration.
- Peasant revolt alone toppled every kingdom simultaneously.
看答案 · Show answer
答案：B — Drought → agricultural stress → weakened royal authority → warfare and emigration.
The paragraph spells out the chain: prolonged drought stresses agriculture, food shortages weaken rain-ritual kingship, warfare and emigration follow.
5
段落 5 — What actually ended
What collapsed, in this view, was not the Maya as a people — millions of their descendants still live in the same region today and speak Mayan languages — but a particular form of political organisation: the divine-king-and-temple-city system of the Classic period. The mystery is no longer why anything ended, but why a sophisticated society that had flourished through earlier difficulties was unable to absorb this particular combination of pressures.
本段重要單字 (3)
- descendants — people descended from earlier ancestors / 後代
- organisation — a structured system / 組織
- flourished — grew well, thrived / 興盛
Quick Check · 隨堂小測
According to the writer, what really collapsed?
- The Maya people themselves disappeared.
- A specific political system — the Classic divine-king-and-temple-city organisation.
- The climate of the entire region permanently.
看答案 · Show answer
答案：B — A specific political system — the Classic divine-king-and-temple-city organisation.
The text says the Maya people remain ("millions of their descendants still live in the same region") and only "a particular form of political organisation" collapsed.
每天 5 分鐘的系統練習
付費版本把這些策略轉成每天一個句子的練習——老師親自批改作文。
看付費版本 →