English is now the international language for
airline pilots, scientists, medical experts, businessmen and many others.
Consequently, more and more people are learning it. The BBC’s English teaching
programs are broadcast daily to four continents 1
. Films and video are on the air or used in institutions in over
100 countries. All this helps to add more speakers to the estimated 100 million
2 . The rush to learn English has
reached even China. The main reason for the upsurge (上升) in interest is
3 . Unlike many other
widely used languages, English can be correctly used in a very simple form with
less than one thousand words and 4 .
This was pointed out in the 1920’s by two Cambridge scholars, Ogden and
Richards, 5 . Another reason for the
popularity of English is that English-speaking countries are spread throughout
the world. An estimated 310 million people in Britain, the U.S.A., Canada,
Australia, South Africa, etc. 6 . Also
in former British colonial areas in Africa and Asia 7
, no common language has been found which would make a suitable
substitute for English. In Delhi, although nationalists would
prefer to phase out (逐步停止) the use of English, the man from South India finds
English more acceptable than Hindi, 8 .
Turning from India to Africa, a similar problem exists. However reluctant
African nations are to use English and, as it were, subject themselves to a kind
of "cultural imperialism", there seems to be no alternative language which will
do the job of communication effectively. The view 9 . Some teachers who have returned from overseas
consider it creates a wider gap between those who are educated 10 . Nevertheless, in many parts of the world,
the technical and scientific knowledge needed to develop a country’s-resources
and improve people’s living conditions, is just not available in the mother
tongue. A second language opens the door to the world-wide sharing of skills and
discoveries in science, engineering and medicine. A. and
supplied to radio stations in 120 countries B. very few
grammatical rules C. who use English as a second
language D. recent increase in China’s contacts with the
outside world E. use English as their mother tongue
F. who devised a system called "Basic English" G. while
the northerner prefers English to any of the southern languages
H. where many local languages are spoken I. that spreading the
use of English is entirely beneficial has its opponents J.
English in one form or another will be spoken by far more people
K. and those who have little or no education L. it will
doubtless continue to change and develop