▶ Your Answer : In this set of issues, both the reading passage and the speaker discuss the causes of Angkor’s collapse. To be specific, according to the reading passage, the city was ruined by plague, failed water system, or economical fall. However, the speaker counters these explanations for the following reasons. To begin with, the lecturer argues that the Black Death did not have critical impact on the city. The reason is that the plague was usually traveled by ship. Therefore, its impact was so huge in costal cities, not inland cities such as Angkor. Moreover, the debate whether the plague spread in Southeast Asia is still ongoing. Therefore, the explanation cannot be reliable fully. So, these arguments cast doubt on the reading passage’s insistence that the Black Death might cause the fall of the city. On top of that, the speaker claims that the city might not be ruined due to the faulty in their water system. This is because their irrigation system had only limited amount water for the public. Therefore, the city might have another water resources. Hence, even if their water system had some weak points, those things might not have huge negative impacts on the presence of the city. These claims refute the reading passage’s explanation that since the city relied on the irrigation system with several faulty too much, they could not help but be collapsed. Finally, the professor asserts that the opinion that maritime trade caused the city’s fallen is not true. The reason is that the city was usually based on the trade of agricultural products, not luxury items which were traded in coastal cities. In addition, Angkor still remained the maritime trade rose. Thus, these assertions challenge the reading passage’s opinion that the rise of maritime trade leaded to the city’s collapse. |