Russian, also called Great Russian, is a member of the Indo-European family of languages. As Russian is a(1) widespread _ language, it is considered to be one of the (2) major _ world languages. Knowledge of the Russian language opens the door to the study of Russian's rich tradition of literature, art and music. Russian literature (3) ranks_ among the most beautiful and exciting national literatures in the world. Russian is the (4) native _ language of the greatest people known (5) throughout _ the world:
L. Tolstoy, P. Tchaikovsky, I. Pavlov, A. Sakharov, to name just a few. Russian (6) is recognized_ as a very difficult language. If you speak Italian, French, or German, you will learn Russian vocabulary even more easily as many words (7) were borrowed_ in the 18th and 19th countries from these languages. If you neither travel regularly to Russia nor have a Russian pen friend, you should (8) practice _ your Russian on other ways. There is a wealth of books and DVDs waiting for you, and many are (9) available _ at local Russian shops. If you study Russian one hour a day regularly, you will probably be (10) fluent _ in three years. Being able to read a newspaper article with a dictionary can be (11) achieved _ in a year.
