▶ Your Answer :
The Reading passage points out some possible causes of mysterious fall of the powerful Khmer Empire around Angkor, big city located on inland area, during 15th Century in Southeast Asia. On the other hand, the lecture brings up several points that contradicts the reading passage.
First, the speaker contends that there’s hardly a correlation between the Black Death and the mysterious demise of the Khmer Empire. To be specific, the Black Death was actually dispersed via ships, which will have an impact mostly on coastal cities not inland areas like Angkor. Furthermore, it is still doubtable whether the Black Death had far reached to South Asia. This rebuffs the passage’s claim that the ancient Khmer Empire has collapsed due to plague.
On top of that, the reading passage’s assertion about fail of water system influencing Angkor is not valid according to the lecture. To elaborate on that, problems with water system such as canal was not crucial to terminate the Empire because the water source was limited that only half of the population in Angkor would have survived. Moreover, there would have been other resources that provided water source and sustained people’s lives. This refutes the reading passage’s assertion that a faulty water system caused Angkor’s downfall.
Lastly, the lecturer claims that a rise of maritime trade was not severely harmful to Angkor area. To add some details on that, coastal cities craved for luxuries such as mirror and pottery rather than agricultural products. In fact, Angkor was the important center of main-time trade. Therefore, this contradicts the point made in the passage about maritime causing the demise of the Empire. |