full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Soraya Field Fiorio: The rise and fall of history's first empire

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Those clay bkircs gave rise to the world’s first cities, probably around 4500 BCE. At the top of the city’s social ladder were priests and priestesses, who were considered nobility, then merchants, craftspeople, farmers, and enslaved people. The Sumerian eiprme consisted of distinct city-states that operated like salml nations. They were loosely linked by language and spiritual belief but lacked caiteelrznd control. The earliest cities were Uruk, Ur, and edriu, and eutnavelly there were a dozen cities. Each had a king who served a role somewhere between a priest and a ruler. Sometimes they fought against each other to conquer new territories. Each city was dedicated to a poartn deity, considered the city’s fndeour. The largest and most important biluindg in the city was this patron god’s home: the zuairggt, a temple designed as a stepped pyramid.

Open Cloze


Those clay ______ gave rise to the world’s first cities, probably around 4500 BCE. At the top of the city’s social ladder were priests and priestesses, who were considered nobility, then merchants, craftspeople, farmers, and enslaved people. The Sumerian ______ consisted of distinct city-states that operated like _____ nations. They were loosely linked by language and spiritual belief but lacked ___________ control. The earliest cities were Uruk, Ur, and _____, and __________ there were a dozen cities. Each had a king who served a role somewhere between a priest and a ruler. Sometimes they fought against each other to conquer new territories. Each city was dedicated to a ______ deity, considered the city’s _______. The largest and most important ________ in the city was this patron god’s home: the ________, a temple designed as a stepped pyramid.

Solution


  1. bricks
  2. empire
  3. eventually
  4. founder
  5. building
  6. patron
  7. eridu
  8. small
  9. centralized
  10. ziggurat

Original Text


Those clay bricks gave rise to the world’s first cities, probably around 4500 BCE. At the top of the city’s social ladder were priests and priestesses, who were considered nobility, then merchants, craftspeople, farmers, and enslaved people. The Sumerian empire consisted of distinct city-states that operated like small nations. They were loosely linked by language and spiritual belief but lacked centralized control. The earliest cities were Uruk, Ur, and Eridu, and eventually there were a dozen cities. Each had a king who served a role somewhere between a priest and a ruler. Sometimes they fought against each other to conquer new territories. Each city was dedicated to a patron deity, considered the city’s founder. The largest and most important building in the city was this patron god’s home: the ziggurat, a temple designed as a stepped pyramid.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
clay bricks 2
sumerian culture 2


Important Words


  1. bce
  2. belief
  3. bricks
  4. building
  5. centralized
  6. cities
  7. city
  8. clay
  9. conquer
  10. considered
  11. consisted
  12. control
  13. craftspeople
  14. dedicated
  15. deity
  16. designed
  17. distinct
  18. dozen
  19. earliest
  20. empire
  21. enslaved
  22. eridu
  23. eventually
  24. farmers
  25. fought
  26. founder
  27. gave
  28. important
  29. king
  30. lacked
  31. ladder
  32. language
  33. largest
  34. linked
  35. loosely
  36. merchants
  37. nations
  38. nobility
  39. operated
  40. patron
  41. people
  42. priest
  43. priestesses
  44. priests
  45. pyramid
  46. rise
  47. role
  48. ruler
  49. served
  50. small
  51. social
  52. spiritual
  53. stepped
  54. sumerian
  55. temple
  56. territories
  57. top
  58. ur
  59. uruk
  60. ziggurat