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

exercisesummarisingRead the following four paragraphs. Which one best summarises the main ideas of theprevious pages about the first empires?A.B.C.D.Most ethnic groups that control the countries of Southeast Asia today migrated from China.Throughout the last two thousand years they have been busy fighting each other for the control ofterritories. These groups took turns conquering different territories in Southeast Asia from eachother and establishing empires. Most of these empires had trade relations with India and China.At different times, different ethnic groups dominated the region.The Thai people were the last major ethnic group to come into Southeast Asia from China.As with the other groups, few details are available. Probably, the Thais originally lived inChina’s Sichuan province. Then they migrated south to Yunnan to escape assimilation into thegrowing Chinese empire. Nan Zhao’s best years were in the 9th century. At that time Nan Zhaosuccessfully attacked Burma and Vietnam.Civilisation spread from the coasts to the interiors of Thailand and Malaya. Two Mon states,named Dvaravati and Haripunjaya, were founded around 500 AD in central and northernThailand. They probably relied on agriculture since they did not have access to the sea. In theMalay peninsula, several small states appeared, stretched across the Isthmus of Kra in differentlocations. The Malay states prospered by offering traders a short cut that was both quicker andsafer than the Straits of Malacca.A powerful Burman king named Anawrahta (1044-1077) came to the throne. He conquered mostof the lands that make up present-day Burma. His successors increased the number of monks,the allocation of resources for their support, and the construction of pagodas. All these expensesweakened the government.extensionfree writingSpend 10-15 minutes writing about early Southeast Asian empires and states. You canwrite anything you want as long as you don’t copy directly from the module.2.8 INDIA AND CHINApreviewpredictingThere are many examples in the news today of India and China’s interest andinvolvement in Southeast Asia. This interest and involvement has a long history.A. Why do you think this influence was so strong?B. In what ways do you think India influenced Southeast Asia? What about China?C. Which countries do you think have been influenced by India most of all? By China?D. Think about the present: do India and China still have a strong influence on theregion? Can you describe this influence?E. Have you ever heard about the Harappan (hah-rahp-pahn) civilisation?24