NewsTracker Answers for week of Feb. 05, 2018

Q: Laser scans have revealed more than 60,000 previously unknown Maya structures that were part of a vast network of cities, fortifications, farms, and highways hidden for centuries under the jungles of northern Guatemala. Where is the Central American nation of Guatemala?

Circle the area on this map


Q: Researchers used  high-tech, airplane-based LiDAR (short for “Light Detection And Ranging”) to scan areas in the Maya Biosphere Reserve on Guatemala’s northern border with . . .

A. Belize

B. El Salvador

C. Honduras

D. Mexico


D. The ancient Mayan civilization at its peak 1,200 years ago encompassed all of Guatemala and extended hundreds of miles north and west into what what is now Mexico. Mayans also covered all of Belize to the northeast and ruled parts of Honduras to the east and El Salvador to the southeast of Guatemala.


Q: Archaeologists are calling the discovery a “game changer”  in their study of one of the great native American civilizations that existed before the arrival of Europeans. What modern nation was the center of the Inca Empire?

A. Brazil

B. Mexico

C. Peru

D. United States


C. The administrative, political and military center of the Inca Empire was located in Cusco in modern-day Peru. It was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America, and possibly the largest empire in the world in the early 16th century when European conquerors arrived and destroyed their civilization.


Q: While the Mayan civilization was based in the jungles of Central America, the Incas were based in what mountain range that runs the length of South America?

A. Andes

B. Apennines

C. Appalachians

D. Atlas


A. The Andes are the longest continental mountain range, running about 4,300 miles from north to south in South America. The Inca Empire covered parts of the modern nations of Peru, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina.


Q: The Maya abandoned most of their large cities by the year 900, long before the arrival of Europeans. What happened to the Maya people?

A. They have disappeared

B. They number in the millions


B. There are an estimated 7 million Maya living in the same area once ruled by their ancestors. Some are quite integrated into the majority hispanicized Mestizo cultures of the nations in which they reside, while others continue a more traditional, culturally distinct life, often speaking one of the Mayan languages as a primary language.