单项选择题The number of speakers of English in Shakespeare’s time is
estimated (估计) to have been about five million. Today it is estimated that some
260 million people speak it as a native language, mainly in the United States,
Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In
addition to the standard varieties of English found in these areas, there are a
great many regional and social varieties of the language as well as various
levels of usage that are employed both in its spoken and written
forms.
In fact, it is impossible to estimate the number
of people in the world who have acquired an adequate (足够的) working knowledge of
English in addition to their own languages. The purpose for English learning and
the situations in which such learning takes place are so varied that it is
difficult to explain and still more difficult to judge what forms an adequate
working knowledge for each situation.
The main reason
for the widespread demand for English is its present-day importance as a world
language. Besides serving the indefinite needs of its native speakers, English
is a language in which some of important works in science, technology, and other
fields are being produced, and not always by native speakers. It is widely used
for such purposes as meteorological and airport communications, international
conferences, and the spread of information over the radio and television
networks of many nations. It is a language of wider communication for a number
of developing countries, especially former British colonies. Many of these
countries have multilingual populations and need a language for internal
communication in such matters as government, commerce, industry, law and
education as well as for international communication and for entrance to the
scientific and technological developments in the West.
