短文填空（10个空，每小题1.5 分，共计15分）
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（不多于3个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。
At the end of the 16th century, English was only spoken by people from England. They were native speakers. They can understand each other ______ ____not all the speakers speak the same kind of English. Today, China may have the largest number of people ____________(speak) English. _____________ large number of Chinese people speak English            their foreign language.
The English language               (change) greatly over the last four centuries. Old English sounded more like German for it   ___            (base) on German, but            English sounds more like French than German                 the fact that England was once ruled by the French. Two great men had great effects on the English changes. One was Shakespeare, who              (rich) the English vocabulary; the other was Noah Webster, who wrote a dictionary            gave American English its own identity.