久しぶりのサマリーの問題です。
この記事を要約する課題です。


【問題】
Summarize the passage in 80 words.


[Paragraph 1]
Long before European explorers set foot in North America, a thriving, sophisticated pre-Columbian civilization flourished along the Mississippi River. At the center of this society was Cahokia, a sprawling urban metropolis located just east of present-day St. Louis, Missouri. Reaching its peak between 1050 and 1200 CE, Cahokia was larger than many European cities of the same era, including London. Covering an area of roughly six square miles, the city was home to an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 residents, with tens of thousands more living in surrounding agricultural farmsteads and smaller satellite settlements.

[Paragraph 2]
The most striking architectural features of Cahokia are its massive earthen mounds, which gave the Mississippian culture its name. Monks Mound, the largest prehistoric earthen construction in the Americas, stands an impressive 100 feet tall and covers 14 acres at its base. Constructing such monumental architecture required an extraordinary amount of organized labor. Workers transported millions of baskets of soil, silt, and clay—weighing tens of thousands of tons in total—on their backs. These mounds served various purposes: some functioned as elevated platforms for elite residences and council houses, while others were utilized for elaborate religious rituals and elite burials.

[Paragraph 3]
Cahokia’s strategic geographic location played a critical role in its rise to prominence. Situated near the confluence of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois rivers, the city sat at the center of an extensive regional trade network. Merchants and traders exchanged a wide variety of goods, ranging from copper from the Great Lakes region and conch shells from the Gulf Coast to mica from the Appalachian Mountains and shark teeth from the Atlantic. This commercial dominance allowed Cahokia's ruling elite to accumulate wealth, solidify political power, and cement their status as a regional powerhouse.

[Paragraph 4]
Despite its immense success, Cahokia experienced a rapid decline, and by the 14th century, the city was virtually abandoned. While scholars once debated a single catastrophic cause, contemporary consensus points to a complex convergence of environmental and social stressors. Decades of intensive agriculture, combined with the massive timber demands required to fuel cooking fires, heat homes, and construct defensive palisades, led to severe deforestation. This ecological degradation triggered localized soil erosion, game depletion, and vulnerability to prolonged droughts. Consequently, food shortages and political unrest likely fractured the population, prompting residents to migrate away from the urban center.



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