根据短文内容回答问题。(Answer the questions according to the passage．)

　　About one hundred years ago many educated people learned and spoke French when they met people from other countries, Today most people speak English when they meet foreigners．It has become the new international language．There are more people who speak English as a second language than people who speak English as a first language．Why is this?

　　There are many reasons why English has become so popular．One of them is that English has become the language of business．Another important reason is that popular American culture(like movies, music, and McDonald's)has quickly spread throughout the world．It has brought its language with it．

　　Is it good that English has spread to all parts of the world so quickly? I don't know．It's important to have a language that people of the Earth have in common．Our world has become very global and we need to communicate with one another．On the other hand, English is a fairly complicated language to learn and it brings its culture with it．Do we really need that?

　　Scientists have already tried to create an artificial language that isn't too difficult and doesn't include any group's culture．It is called Esperanto．But it hasn't become popular．Maybe the popularity of English won't last that long either．Who knows? There are more people in the world who speak Chinese than any other language．Maybe someday Chinese will be the new international language．

1．What was the international language 100 years ago?

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2．Which group is larger－people who speak English as a first language or people who speak English as a second language?

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3．What are the two reasons why English has become so popular today?

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4．What are the two reasons why English isn't a good international language?

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5．What is Esperanto?

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根据短文内容，完成下列任务。

　　About one hundred years ago, many educated people spoke French when they met people from other countries．Today most people speak English when they meet foreigners．It has become the new international language．There are more people who speak English as a second language than people who speak English as a first language．Why?

　　There are many reasons why English has become so popular．One of them is that English has become the language of business．Another important reason is that popular American culture, like movies, music, and McDonald's has quickly spread throughout the world．It has brought its language with it．

　　Is it good that English has spread to all parts of the world so quickly? I don't know．It's important to have a language that everyone has in common．Our world has become global and we need to communicate with one another．On the other hand, English is a rather hard language to learn and it brings its culture with it．Do we really need that?

　　Scientists have already tried to make an artificial(人造的)language that isn't too difficult and isn't from any one group's culture．It is called Esperanto．But it hasn't become popular．Maybe the popularity of English won't last that long, either．Who knows? There are more people in the world who speak Chinese than any other language．Maybe someday Chinese will be the new international language．

1．What was the world language a century ago?

2．Why has English become an international language today? Give at least two reasons．

3．What can we get from Paragraph 3?

4．In the last paragraph, what do scientists want to tell us?

5．将第三段中划线句子翻译成汉语。

完成句子，阅读短文，根据汉语及首字母提示在文中的空格处填入适当单词，使短文完整、通顺。

　　February 21 is International Mother Language Day．The United Nations(联合国)n　　1　　(命名)it in 1999．The day aims to protect all languages around the world．In China, most people speak Chinese as their mother language．

　　More people speak Chinese than any other language in the world．About one fifth of the world's population(人口)speaks a form of Chinese, the BBC r　　2　　．?

　　The e　　3　　 known written record of Chinese is the oracle bone script(甲骨文)of the Shang Dynasty(17th century BC-11th century BC)．These are animal bones, especially tortoise shells(龟壳)with writing on them．Most Chinese characters are ideograms(表意文字)w　　4　　 combine(组合)two or more words together to make a new one, for example, jia(家)means “a pig under the roof”．This shows that people in ancient(古代的)times t　　5　　(认为)of home as a place to hold treasures(财富)．

　　As time went on, hundreds of thousands of words developed．However, people only use a few thousand of them in everyday life．Today, new words are still being a　　6　　(补充)to the Chinese dictionary, such as dishi(的士)for taxis, xiu(秀)for TV shows and fangnu(房奴)meaning “slave to one's home”．

　　With the fast d　　7　　(发展)of China's economy(经济), more people from other countries are taking i　　8　　(感兴趣)in Chinese．In a survey in the US last December, 2, 007 people were asked：“Which new foreign language would you learn? ” Chinese placed second, a　　9　　 Spanish, with 15 percent of the vote．

　　Confucius Institutes(孔子学院)around the world are more p　　10　　 than ever．More than 300 colleges in over 90 countries have Confucius Institutes, USA Today reported．