原文
The Rise of Classic Maya Civilization
①Prior to the beginning of the Late Preclassic period in 300 B.C., Maya ceremonial centers of relatively substantial size had already appeared in Central America. The ceremonial center was a distinctive feature of Maya culture, acting as a focus for the community. Generally speaking, these centers were not what we would call cities. Although they did consist of a number of large and varied buildings, they did not have a substantial resident population. Some scholars have even labeled these Maya centers “vacant towns”.  Their permanent population consisted mainly of rulers, priests, and their attendants plus a limited number of artisans. The elite lived in big houses or in palaces in and around the center. The bulk of the peasant population lived in much more modest wood and thatch homes in the areas surrounding the centers. At certain times of the year, on the occasion of major religious festivals such as the one at the time of the planting of their crops, scholars hypothesize, by a
nalogy to historical and modern practices, that the peasants would flock to the centers to observe and participate in the ceremonies. At other times of the year, some of the peasants would be called into the centers to help in the construction of new temples and palaces dedicated to the glory of the gods and to the comforts of their earthly representatives, the priestly rulers. The peasants also would provide the food to help sustain the elite in the centers.
②What the peasants received from the elite was certainly not as tangible as the services they provided. In return for food and labor, the peasants were offered a psychologically and spiritually secure and ordered world, as well as access to some trade goods. Apparently, this was enough. Agriculture in the tropical Maya lowlands was at best a chancy business: even slight shifts in the onset of the rainy season or the dry season could mean disaster for that year’s harvest. The religion of the ancient Maya helped the peasants cope with their precarious lives. If the gods were properly propitiated, the crops would be good—as would life in general.
③One archaeologist, William Haviland, argues that it was the centralizing effects of Maya religion that led to the rise of Classic Maya civilization. He believes that the religious centers acted as magnets to peoples living in the surrounding areas. To support the growing populations around the centers, Haviland argues, the agricultural systems became intensified. This led to the evolution of a complex state. Haviland believes that as early as 200 B.C., the “vacant” ceremonial centers at Tikal had begun transformation toward urban centers. Moreover, by this time or even earlier, other centers with huge, labor-intensive buildings had begun to emerge. Sites such as Nakbé, El Mirador, and Lamanai may have approached urban dimensions in the last few centuries of the first millennium B.C.
④Other scholars attribute the growth of the ceremonial centers to trade. William Rathje argues that the basic cause for the rise of Maya civilization was the necessity for the Maya, who lived in resource-poor lowlands, to trade with adjacent highlanders for materials such as obsidian (a rock used to make ornaments and cutting edges), salt, and hard stone for grinding implements. Rathje maintains that lowland sites such as Tikal, which were quite distant from the highland resource areas, were made bigger and architecturally magnificent
to attract highland merchants and their trade. In order to undertake all the building, the elite had to attract more artisans and bring more laborers into the community to do the work. These population increases led in turn to even more building, population growth, greater population density, greater social differentiation, and occupational specialization. Critics have argued, however, that there were local substitutes for the external “necessities” and that foreign trade was present well before the rise of complex architecture.
⑤Yet other factors beyond ideology and trade must have been important in the emerging Classic Maya civilization. Competition among the growing number of centers may also have played a key role in the growth of social, economic, and political complexity, as the organization of the centers grew to meet the pressures of other centers for new agricultural land and control of rising populations.
译文
古典玛雅文明的兴起
①在公元前300年的前古典时期晚期开始之前，中美洲已经出现了规模相对大的玛雅仪式中心。仪式中心是玛雅文化的一个特，是社区的焦点。通常来说，这些中心并不是我们所说的城市。尽管它们确实由许多大型的、各种各样的建筑物组成，但是它们并没有大量居民。一些学者甚至将这些玛雅中心称为“空镇”。他们的永久居民主要由统治者、祭司和他们的随从，以及少数的工匠组成。精英们居住在市中心或周边的豪宅或宫殿里。大量农民住在中心周边地区简陋的茅草屋和木制房子里在一年中的某些时候，在重大的宗教节日，如种植庄稼时，学者们依据历史和现代的做法进行推测，认为农民会聚集到中心观看和参与仪式。在一年中的其他时候，一些农民会被召集到中心去帮忙建造为神的荣耀和他们的世俗代表—祭司统治者的慰藉而建的新的庙宇和宫殿。农民也会提供食物来帮助维持中心的精英阶层。
②农民从精英那里得到的当然不如他们所提供的服务那么具象。作为食物和劳动的回报，农民们得到了一个心理上和精神上安全和有序的世界，同时也获得了一些商品。显然，这些就够了。热带玛雅低地的农业顶多是一项充满风险的业务:甚至是雨季或旱季轻微的变化，都可能对当年的收成造成灾难。古玛雅的宗教帮助农民度过他们岌岌可危的生活。如果神得到适当的供奉，庄稼和生活都会好起来。
③考古学家威廉·哈维兰德(William Haviland)认为，正是玛雅宗教的集中作用导致了玛雅古典时期文明的兴起。他认为这些宗教中心对居住在周围地区的人们很有吸引力。哈维兰德认为，农业系统变得集约化来支持中心周围不断增长的人口。这带来了一个复杂国家的演变。哈维兰德认为，蒂卡尔人员稀少的礼仪中心早在公元前200年就开始向城市中心转变。此外，这时甚至更早之前，其他拥有大型的劳动密集型建筑的中心也陆续出现。像Nakbé、El Mirador和Lamanai这些地方在公元前一千年的最后几个世纪可能已经趋于城市规模。
④其他学者把礼仪中心的发展归因于贸易。William Rathje认为，玛雅文明兴起的根本原因是，生活在低地的玛雅人资源短缺，他们必须与附近的高地人进行贸易来获得黑曜石(一种用来制作装饰品和切割的岩石)、盐和用于研磨的硬石等材料。Rathje坚持认为，像Tikal这样的低地地区，距离高原资源地区相当遥远，它们被修建得更大、建筑更宏伟来吸引高原商人和贸易。为了承担全部的建设工作，精英阶层必须吸引更多的工匠，并把更多的工人带到社区来工作。这些人口增长反过来导致了建筑数量和人口的增加，人口密度的增长以及更细的社会分化和职业专业化。然而，批评者认为，外部“必需品”在本地能到替代品，并且对外贸易在复杂建筑兴起之前就已经存在了。
⑤scholars在新兴的玛雅古典时期文明中，贸易和意识形态之外的一些因素肯定也发挥了重要作用。中心之间越来越多的竞争也会在社会、经济和政治复杂性的发展中发挥着重要作用，由于只有中心组织结构的不断发展才能应对其他中心对新型农业用地和控制不断增长的人口的压力。
题目
1.According to paragraph 1, what important feature of cities did Maya ceremonial centers lack?
A. Large, varied buildings

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