ShmoopTube

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Here's your shmoop du jour brought to you by ancient languages like

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how back in the day we used to have way more E's..[mumbling]

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all right check the following passage; the Mayan language...Okay which of the

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following best describes the main idea of this passage and here's the potential

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answers all right .... Okay well the Mayans well they may have

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been a wee bit off about 2012 remember that whole thing yeah it didn't happen [Asteroid striking the Earth]

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but they're still worth listening to after all they speak almost 30 languages

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so that makes option D the main idea right well the existence of 30 languages [Colorful mouth's speaking]

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is just a detail in a longer story about the development of Mayan language kind

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of like how Neanderthal is a detail in the story of the development of man or [A neanderthal holding a club]

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Fred Flintstone yabba dabba doo.. but alas it's a detail not the main idea

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we can also get rid of option C while ethnic pride movements have [Two people discussing ethnic pride movement]

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restored interest in ancient Mayan history this newfound public interest

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isn't the only thing that's kept the Mayan languages alive. Option A also [A spanish flag in the distance]

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isn't the one for us while Spanish may have replaced proto-mayan as the

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language of government and administration that doesn't mean the

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language is extinct six million people still speak it and six millions a long

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way from extinction right well option B is the correct answer here [woman holding a sign to save the jellybeans]

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the main idea is that although Mayan languages originated long ago they are

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still spoken today just because something's old doesn't make it [a clock travelling anti-clockwise]

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irrelevant today.. isn't that right Betty White now aren't ancient languages fun

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anyone want to bring back Latin [a statue outside an ancient building]

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