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 (31) ______. 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 (32) ______. The rush to learn English has reached even China. The main reason for the upsurge (上升) in interest is (33) ______.

Unlike many other widely used languages, English can be correctly used in a very simple form with less than one thousand words and (34) ______. This was pointed out in the 1920's by two Cambridge scholars, Ogden and Richards, (35) ______. 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. (36) ______. Also in former British colonial areas in Africa and Asia (37) ______, 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, (38) ______. 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 (39) ______. Some teachers who have returned from overseas consider it creates a wider gap between those who are educated (40) ______. 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. (From English World-wide)

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

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