Where, when and how languages began is still a 1 ........... Many people think that language grewfrom human beings imitating animal sounds and that they learned to use these indistinguishable sounds to
2 ............... with each other. 3 .............. the language of primitive people consisted of a complicated 4
.............. of sounds. However, we can only 5 ................ the history of languages to the time when they
were first written and by then they were well 6 .............................
Today, there are more than 3.000 different spoken tongues in the world. English is the most 7
................... spoken language; over 315 million people speak it while about 530 million people speak
Chinese-Mandarin. You may say 8 ................. why English is more widely spoken although more people
speak Chinese-Mandarin. This is because Chinese-speaking peoples are more or less 9 ................ to China
and Chinese communities but English-speaking people are found in almost every 10 ..................... of the
world.
Other, 11 ................... languages are Russian, Spanish, German, Japanese, French, Italian and
Portuguese. Besides these there are various native tongues which are spoken 12 .................... within their
own countries – for example, Hindustani, Arabic and Korean.
1. A. mystery b. riddle c. secret d. puzzle
2. A. declare b. disclose c. inform d. communicate
3. A. probably b. likely c. reasonably d. thoughtfully
4. A. scheme b. system c. method d. plan
5. A. track b. pursue c. trace d. follow
6. A. matured b. developed c. grown d. expanded
7. A. widely b. vastly c. broadly d. largely
8. A. wonder b. ponder c. marvel d. think
9. A. restrained b. imprisoned c. limited d. confined
10. A. angle b. corner c. bend d. nook
11. A. well-known b. distinguish c. celebrated d. famous
12. A. purposely b. greatly c. mainly d. usually​