Imagine that the Spanish-speaking world was a single country which is called Hispanidad. It covers a
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perhaps one-and-a-half times the size of China. Its population is nearly 500m, making it the world"s third most
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country, behind China and India. Among these people, the number of native Spanish-speakers is rising towards 400m; as a
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, only
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is bigger. Only English and Chinese are more widely used on the internet than Spanish.
So if you are in business, into the arts or just want to join a conversation, the
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size of Hispanidad is a powerful reason to learn Spanish. But Hispanidad is not a single country. The fact that it
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across the Americas, Spain and even parts of Africa and Asia makes the case for Spanish stronger still. After English, it is the most used
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language. For tourists it
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and enriches travel in the 20-plus countries where Spanish is a main language.
Not forgetting the United States, the country with the second-largest number of Spanish-speakers (about 50m and rising) after Mexico.
Latinos
(拉丁美裔) are growing in influence culturally,
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and politically. Nowadays, would-be presidents make sure to advertise in Spanish.
Even for those with no political ambitions, there is another
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reason to pick Spanish as your second language: it"s easy (certainly compared with, say, Mandarin). And once you"ve got Spanish, you"re half-way to Italian, French and Portuguese too.
A. territory B. sheer C. populous D. vast
E. mother tongue F. spreads G. Mandarin Chinese H. conquer
I. economy J. commercially K. defending L. compelling
M. eases N. causes O. international
答案:A[解析] 根据下文的one-and-a-half times the size of China可知这里要填一个表示地...