Review Vocabulary

Key Vocabulary and Concepts

• Commodity: A valuable substance that can be bought or sold, such as oil or grain.
  • Valuable commodity: A particularly important or rare resource.
• Grid: An organized system, like a road or energy network.
• Tremendous: Extremely large or impressive.
• To pinpoint: To identify or locate something with precision.
• For instance: Used to introduce an example.
• As a shrine: Like a place of worship or religious center.
• Shrine: A place associated with religious worship.
• Ingenuity: The quality of being clever, original, and inventive.
• Foresightedness: The ability to predict the future and plan accordingly.
• Relatively modest towns: Towns that are small in size or importance.
• Might have emerged: A hypothesis about something that may have happened in the past.
• Edge: A competitive advantage or a boundary.
• Demand: The desire and ability to purchase a product.
• Apparently: As far as one can tell.
• Prosperous life: A life with a high standard of living.
• Magnet: Something that attracts people (e.g., a city).
• Emerges: Appears or becomes visible.
• Necessitate: To make something necessary.
• The thriving: A process of active growth and development.
• Wealth: An abundance of resources or money.
• Coerce: To force someone through the use of threats.
• Rival: A competitor or opponent.
• A competitive edge over its neighbors: A superior position in the market or economy compared to others.
• Well-exploited: Used to advantage.
• Readily available: Easily accessible.
• Sophisticated toolmakers: People who create complex tools.
• Obtained by access to exotic goods: Resources gained through trade with other regions.
• Relatively prosperous life: Not luxurious, but stable and sufficient.
• Its shrine (or shrines) that emerges: Religious structures appearing in a culture.
• Irrigation: A system of watering for agriculture.
• Introductory: Serving as an introduction.
• The demise: The end or downfall.
• Alterations: Changes in forms or structure.
• Preserved in seafloor sediments: Geological evidence found in marine deposits.
• Seaways retreated: The receding of water from coastal areas.
• Extinct: No longer in existence.
• Shallow seaways: Shallow bodies of water between land masses.
• Dissatisfaction: A feeling of discontent.
• Extinction: The complete disappearance of a species.
• Abruptly: Suddenly or unexpectedly.