OPEN CLOZE TEST
Complete each gap with one word.
A 300-year drought (1) ________ have caused the decline of several Mediterranean cultures, including ancient Greece, (2) ________ to new research.
A sharp drop in rainfall may have led to the collapse of several eastern Mediterranean civilizations, around 3,200 years ago. The resulting famine and conflict may help explain (3) ________ the entire Hittite culture, chariot-riding people who ruled most of the region of Anatolia, disappeared from the planet.
Even (4) ________ the peak of Classical Greek civilization, there were hints of an earlier culture that was lost. Homer's "Iliad," written in the eighth century B.C. about a legendary war (5) ________ Sparta and Troy, tells a story of advanced Greek city-states, with archaeological evidence to (6) ________ it up.
"The classical Greek people knew from the start that they were coming out of a dark age," said Brandon Lee Drake, an archaeologist at the University of New Mexico.
The ancient Hittite empire of Anatolia began a precipitous decline around 3,300 B.C. Around the same time, the Egyptian empire (7) ________ invaded by sea bandits, called the Sea People, and the ancient Mycenaean culture of Greece collapsed. Over the next 400 years, ancient cities were burned to the (8) ________.
Alternatively, do it in interactive form here:
modal verbs
Study the theory here:
Try out what you have learnt by doing the following interactive exercises: