The Reading passage points out some possible causes of the mysterious fall of the powerful Khmer Empire
around Angkor, a big city located on inland area
during the 15th Century in Southeast Asia. On
the other hand, the lecturer 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 would have had an impact mostly on coastal cities and not on inland areas
like Angkor. Furthermore, it is still doubtable doubtful
whether the Black Death had far reached to South Asia.
This rebuffs the passage’s claim that the ancient Khmer Empire has had collapsed due to a plague.
On top of that, the reading passage’s assertion about the failure of the water
system influencing Angkor is not valid according to the lecturer. To elaborate on that, problems with the water system such as canal was not crucial to
terminate the Empire because the water source was limited that only at least half of the population in Angkor would have
survived. Moreover, there would have been other resources that provided water
sources 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.