Fill in each numbered blank with one suitable word or phrase.
The Philippines, officially known (1) _____ the Republic of the Philippines, is (2) _____ in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. The Philippine (3) ____ 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean, sharing borders with Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The Philippines is the world's 12th most populous country with a population approaching 90 million people. Its national (4) _____ is the 37th largest in the world with a 2006 gross domestic product (GDP) of over 117.562 billion USD. There are (5) _____ 11 million overseas Filipinos worldwide. The Philippines became a Spanish colony in the 16th century and an American territory at the (6) _____ of the 20th century. The Philippines won independence from Spain in 1896. The Philippines (7) _____ its independence from the United States on July 4, 1946 after World War II. Spanish was (8) _____ official language of the Philippines until 1973. Since then, the two official languages are Filipino and English. The Philippines had cultural ties with Malaysia, Indonesia, and India in the ancient time, and trade (9) _____ with China and Japan as early as the 9th century. The late 1960s and early 1970s its economic development was second in Asia, (10) _____ to Japan. The Philippines is a founding and active member of the United Nations and is a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)/ The Philippines is also a member of the East Asia Summit (EAS) and an active member in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
(3)........................
