III. Read the article about the Mandarin Chinese language and complete the notes below. Use a maximum of TWO words or a number in each gap.
The World’s Most Spoken Language
There are about 6,900 languages spoken in the world. The number of speakers of these languages goes from tiny to very large. One of those languages which have a very large number of speakers is Mandarin Chinese with nearly 1 billion speakers! It’s only one of 297 languages that people speak in China, but it’s by far the biggest. About 70% of the population speak it, compared to the 6.5% that speak the next biggest language, Wu.
Language experts think that it spread to so many people in China because it’s a language from the north of the country. There aren’t as many mountains in the north so it was easier for people to travel and for the language to travel too.
The Chinese government uses Mandarin in most of the country, especially in the capital city, Beijing. In Hong Kong and Macau, however, government officials can also use Cantonese. No other languages are used by the government.
The Mandarin vocabulary is quite large. It has more words than French, for example (370,000 words compared to around 350,000), but fewer than English, which has around 470,000 words.
Many students of Mandarin find the grammar quite easy, but the pronunciation is more of a problem.
The Mandarin Language
Almost 1________________ people have Mandarin as a native language.
There are 2________________ languages spoken in China.
Around 3________________% of Chinese people speak Mandarin Chinese.
Geography of China: The south of China has more 4________________ than the north.
The Government uses 5________________ official languages.
The vocabulary of Mandarin contains around 6________________ words
1.For the spoken language, students are taught by native speaker.
2.I found it difficult to understand them at first because of their accent.
3.The loch contains many species of fish, such as salmon and trout.
4.We are running our family cattle station where we have hundreds of cows and bulls.
5.Hong Kong became Chinese territory in 1997.
6.Koalas are the national Symbol of Australia’s unique wildlife.
7.Is English an official language in Singapore?
8.Windsor castle has been the family home of British kings and queens for almost 1,000 years.
9.It’s really awesome time to be part of AMCK summer dance camp.
10.The kilt is still worn as formal and ceremonial dress by Scottish men.