The Chinese language differs from Western languages in that, instead of an alphabet, it uses characters which stand for ideas, objects or deeds. Chinese words are f (85) by putting together different characters. In many cases, a s (86) character can also make up a word. As one kind of the most ancient characters, Chinese characters have played an important role in the development of Chinese culture. At first, ancient Sumerian and ancient Egyptian symbols existed, but only Chinese characters r (87) today. The history of the Chinese language can be examined by looking at how these characters developed.
Chinese writing began t (88) of years ago. According to an ancient story, a man named Cang Jie invented Chinese writing. One winter day while he was hunting, he saw the footprints of animals in the snow and noticed that the appearance of each one was different. Then he came up with the idea that he could use different shapes to r (89) different objects. The first Chinese characters were drawings of physical objects. Some characters have been simplified and others have been made more d (90) over time.
However, as a whole, the characters have developed from d (91) into standard forms. The character for a mountain was at first three mountaintops together. This became one mountaintop and three lines, and over time turned into the character used nowadays.
Sometimes to express ideas, some characters were made by combining two or more characters together. For example, “r (92) ” was made up of the characters for a man and a tree. The character “prisoner” was formed with a “man” inside a square. Other characters were developed for directions and numbers. It is easy to distinguish their meanings by looking at them. For example, the characters for “u (93) ” and “down”, which are opposites of each other. These characters show meaning but not pronunciation. So, a method was created: one part shows the meaning, the other suggests the s (94) . Many modern Chinese characters use this system.
答案
85. formed
86. single
87. remain
88. thousands
89. represent
90. difficult
91. drawings
92. rest
93. up
94. sound
解析
85. 前文说汉字是表意字符，此处表示“词语由不同字符组合而成”，被动结构，故填 formed。
86. 本句与前一句构成递进：不仅组合可以成词，单个字符也能成词，故填 single。
87. 前面提到古苏美尔和古埃及文字已消失，只有汉字留存至今，动词用 remain，表示“仍然存在”。
88. 描述汉字历史久远，固定搭配 thousands of years ago，表示“数千年前”。
89. 仓颉从动物脚印得到启发，想到用不同形状来“代表”不同事物，填 represent。
90. 与 simplified 形成对比：有些被简化，另一些变得更“难”，填 difficult。
91. 本段讲汉字从图画演变为规范字体，故填 drawings，意为“图画”。
92. “人靠在树旁”即“休息”，汉字“休”对应 rest。
93. 与 down 形成反义对，填 up。
94. 形声字一半表意、一半表音，后半部分提示读音，填 sound。
