English is now the international language for airline pilots, scientists, medical experts, businessmen and many others. 51______, more and more people are learning it. The BBC's English teaching programmes are broadcast daily to four continents and supplied to radio stations in 120 countries. 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 who use English as a second language. The 52______ to learn English has reached even China. The main reason for the upsurge in interest is recent increase in China’s contacts with the outside world.

    Unlike many other widely used languages, English can be correctly used in a very simple form with less than one thousand words and very few grammatical rules. This was pointed out in the 1920's by two Cambridge scholars, Ogden and Richards, who 53______ a system called “Basic English”. Another reason for the popularity of English is that English-speaking countries are spread throughout the world. An 54______ 310 million people in Britain, the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, South Africa, etc. use English as their mother tongue. Also in former British colonial areas in Africa and Asia where many local languages are spoken, no 55______ language has been found which would make a suitable substitute for English.

    In Delhi, although nationalists would prefer to phase out the use of English, the man from South India finds English more 56______ than Hindi, while the northerner 57______ English to any of the southern languages. Tuming 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 58______ effectively.

    The view 59______ spreading the use of English is entirely beneficial has its opponents. Some teachers who have returned from overseas consider it creates a wider gap between those who are educated and those who have little or no education. Nevertheless, in many parts of the world, the technical and scientific knowledgeneeded 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 worldwide sharing of skills and 60______ in science, engineering and medicine.

                            (From English World-Wide)