The Mường is an ethnic group native to Vietnam; it is the country’s third (1)_____________ of 53 minority groups, with an estimated population of 1.26 million (based on the 2009 census and five years of population growth). The Muong people inhabit the (2)_____________region of northern Vietnam, concentrated in Hoa Binh Province and the mountainous districts of Thanh Hoa Province. They are most closely (3)_____________ to the ethnic Vietnamese (Kinh). The term "muong" of Thai
origin (4)_____________ "district, region". To emphasize their difference (5)_____________the inhabitants of the valleys and highlanders, Muong call themselves "monglong", which means "people living in the centre". While the Muong are believed to be related to the Vietnamese, ethnologists (6)_____________ theorized that the Muong and Kinh (ethnic Vietnamese) separation happened when the proto-Vietnamese became (7) _____________ Sinicised, beginning from the 111 BC invasion (8)
_____________ Chinese Han dynasty Emperor Wu Ti, while the Muong, living the mountains and developed independently. The Muong (9)_____________ the Tai have had a mutual influence on each other's culture, so today the Muong are ethnically and linguistically close to the Vietnamese, but culturally and socially (10)_____________to the Tai.
1. largest
2. mountainous
3. related
4. means
5. between
6. have
7.
8. of
9. and
10. close
