STEP INTO THE GED
READING PRACTICE:  Early America

RETURN TO H1: Early America

After the Passage into North America

CORRECTED PARAGRAPHS 

(1) People have found some strange structures that they couldn't explain.  They turned out to be mounds, built by early Indians from centuries ago. No one knows exactly why mounds were built. The Adenans were the first Indians to build mounds in the United States. Most of these earth mounds were burial sites and fortifications around 600 B.C. Some mounds from that era were in the shape of birds or serpents, and they probably served religious purposes that we don't completely understand. 

(2) The Adenans were probably taken over by various groups known as Hopewellians. One of the most important centers of their culture was found in southern Ohio where parts of several thousand of these mounds still remain.  The Hopewellians used and exchanged tools and materials across a wide region of hundreds of kilometers. There were supposedly great traders.

(3) By around 500 A.D., the Hopewellians, too, had disappeared. They gave way to a group of tribes making up the Mississippians, or Temple Mound culture. One city, Cahokia, just east of St. Louis, Missouri, probably reached a population of about 20,000 in the early 12th century. A huge earthen mound, flatted at the top, stood at the center of the city. It was 30 meters high and 37 hectares at the base. Eighty other mounds have been found nearby.

Be sure to learn more about periods and capitalization in your Writing Mentor.

(Information taken from the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs: http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/history/ch1.htm)