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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.