ShmoopTube

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Holy Shmoop, Batman!

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Which words could fill in the blanks so that

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the sentence below makes sense?

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After a blank wave of conquistadors defeated the pre-Columbian civilizations of the Aztecs,

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Mayas, and Incas, Spain organized a huge imperial system to blank the land, labor, and mineral

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wealth of the New World.

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Let's kick this off by seeing what the first blank has to tell us.

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(A) doesn't work because the conquistador's invasion was definitely not brief. They hung

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around like annoying relatives who just won't take a hint.

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(B),"jocund," doesn't fit either. Jocund means cheerful, and conquistadors weren't

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exactly cheerful, at least when it came to the way they treated Native Americans.

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(E) catches our eye as being wrong as well. The conquistadors weren't exactly youthful,

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though they did spend a lot of time searching for that Fountain.

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The first blank isn't all that helpful when it comes to choosing between (C) and (D)...

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...because both "initial" and "ferocious" would fit in that slot. So we'll see what

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the second blank can tell us. Oh, here, we go. (D) doesn't work at all.

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Why would the conquistadors try to undermine the land, labor, and mineral wealth of the

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New World?

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Those are the very reasons they got their conquering on in the first place.

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Looks like (C) wins this battle for domination.

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After the initial wave, the conquistadors exploited the New World like crazy. What do

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you have to say for yourself, conquistador?

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