Student's Book – Dec 2009 (5.9mb) - The Curriculum Project

2.6 THE PEOPLE OF ANCIENT SOUTHEAST ASIAKEY WORDSarchaeological (adj) – related to study of ancient people and cultures by digging up theirremains from the groundbeyond (prep) – further away, outside ofexcavation (n) – digging up from the groundinhabitants (n) – people who live somewhere, residentsmigrate (v) – move from place to placeprehistoric (adj) – before recorded history, very oldshallow (adj) – opposite of deeppreviewpredictingGuess the answers to the following questions:A. When did people first come to Southeast Asia?B. Who were they?C. What did they look like?D. Who were the first people to grow rice in Southeast Asia?E. How did all the different ethnic groups get to Southeast Asia?Read the text and check your answers.1.2.3.The originsPeople have lived in Southeast Asia since prehistoric times; some historians say about 40,000years. The indigenous inhabitants of Southeast Asia were called Negritos (neh-grih-tohs).Many historians agree that they originally migrated from Africa. They were short, hairy andblack-skinned. They were probably related to the Australian Aborigines. We know very littleabout them.Archeological excavations suggest that it is possible that people grew rice in Southeast Asia along time before it was grown anywhere else, but this is not certain. These people were probablysuccessful sailors and sailed between the islands of Southeast Asia and beyond. The indigenousSoutheast Asians used stone tools and lived mostly on the coast and riverbanks.Four or five thousand years ago, new races began to move into Southeast Asia from the north,replacing or driving out the original Negritos in the process. The newcomers traveled to theIndochinese Peninsula along rivers rising in south and southwestern China or followed theshallow coastal waters around China. Others crossed to Taiwan and from there migrated to thePhilippines and on to the islands of Indonesia.exerciseinferringA. How do we know that the information in paragraphs 1, 2, and 3 is really true?B. Did the writer provide evidence?C. What could be the evidence to support the facts in paragraphs 1, 2, and 3?KEY WORDSabundance (n) – a lot of somethingchemical analysis (n) – when objects are studied using special chemicals to find out how old they areclay (n) – material from a type of sticky earth that is used for making pots and other objects; it becomeshard when bakedirrigation (n) – a system of getting water to the fields using streams or special channelsprosperous (adj) – successful, rich17