17．
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 21is International Mother Language Day．The United Nations （联合国） （76）named （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 （77）reported．?
The （78）earliest 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） （79）which 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 （80）thought（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 （81）added（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 （82）development（发展）of China's economy （经济），more people from other countries are taking （83）interest（感兴趣）in Chinese．In a survey in the US last December，2，007people were asked："Which new foreign language would you learn？"Chinese placed second，（84）after Spanish，with 15percent of the vote．
Confucius Institutes （孔子学院） around the world are more （85）popular than ever．More than 300colleges in over 90countries have Confucius Institutes，USA Today reported．
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