READING TEST

English as a World Language

Today, when English is one of the major languages in the world, it requires an effort of the imagination to realize that this is a relatively recent thing –that in Shakespeare’s time, for example, only a few million people spoke English, and the language was not thought to be very important by the other nations of Europe, and was unknown to the rest of the world.

English has become a world language because of its establishment as a mother tongue outside England, in all the continents of the world. This exporting of English began in the seventeenth century, with the first settlements in North America. Above all, it is the great growth of population in the United States, assisted by massive immigration in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, that has given the English language its present standing in the world.

People who speak English fall into one of three groups: those who have learned it as their native language; those who have learned it as a second language in a society that is mainly bilingual; and those who are forced to use it for a practical purpose –administrative, professional or educational: One person in seven of the world’s entire population belongs to one of these three groups. Incredibly enough, 75% of the world’s mail and 60% of the world’s telephone calls are in English.

Questions:

1. Why does the text say that we have to make an effort of the imagination?
Because very few people spoke English a few centuries ago and now it is a world language.
2. In what countries was English spoken in Shakespeare’s times?
Only in England.
3. Why did the importance of English started in the seventeenth century?
Because the first English settlers arrived in America.
4. How did the United States contribute to make English a world language?
Because of the great growth of its population and the massive immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries.
5. How many people use English in any way in the world today?
One person in seven.