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Please use the following passage to answer questions 8 and 9."When the Spanish Conquistadors came to the Americas in the sixteenth century and destroyed Native American civilizations, one of the greatest civilizations, the Classical Maya, had already disappeared. The archeological evidence shows that a relatively peaceful civilization became more violent with the conquest of Tikal, the greatest Mayan city, in 378 by the mysterious warrior Fire IsBorn. Even though Tikal was rebuilt and remained one of the dominant Mayan city-states for hundreds of years, it and the other Mayan cities fell into disrepair and were eventually abandoned.Researchers have worked for years to identify the causes for this collapse. According to the National Geographic article "The Maya: Glory and Ruin," by Guy Gugliotta, Scholars have looked at various afflictions across the Mayan world, including overpopulation,environmental damage, famine, and drought. They have also focused on the one thing that appears to have happened everywhere during the prolonged decline: As resources grew scarce, the kuhul ajaw lost their divine luster, and, with it, the confidence of their subjects, both noble and commoner. Instability and desperation in turn fueled moredestructive wars. What had been ritualized contests fought for glory or captives turned into spasms of savagery like the one that obliterated Cancuén. Says Simon Martin of the University of Pennsylvania Museum: "The system broke down and ran out of control."9. The Mayan rulers were called the __________.

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