Over the past 600 years, English has grown from a language of few speakers to become the dominant language of international communication. English as we know it today emerged around 1350, after having incorporated many elements of French that were introduced following the Norman invasion off 1066. Until the 1600s, English was, for the most part, spoken only in England and had not expanded even as far as Wales, Scotland, or Ireland. However, during the course of the next two century, English began to spread around the globe as a result of exploration, trade (including slave trade), colonization, and missionary work. Thus, small enclaves of English, speakers became established and grew in various parts of the world. As these communities proliferated, English gradually became the primary language of international business, banking, and diplomacy.

Currently, about 80 percent of the information stored on computer systems worldwide is in English. Two thirds of the world's science writing is in English, and English is the main language of technology, advertising, media, international airport, and air traffic controllers.

Today there are more than 700 million English users in the world, and over half of these are non- native speakers, constituting the largest number of non-native users than any other language in the world.

According to the passage, approximately how many non-native users of English are there in the world today?

Câu hỏi liên quan

• Which of the following volunteer activities is NOT mentioned in the passage?

• Which of the following is NOT true according to the text?

• What is the author's main purpose?

ZUNIA12

• According to the passage, approximately how many non-native users of English are there in the world today?

• The word it in the first paragraph refers to ___.

• The reason why telecommuting has not become popular is that the employees .............

• Why are otters and mussel shells included in the discussion in paragraph 3?

• What is true of Lake Vostok?

• According to the passage, Charlotte Taylor believes that women in 1970s .............

• Of the following steps, which occurs BEFORE the others in making a decision worksheet?

• In order to show that learning to write requires effort, the author gives the example of ....................

• The text is mainly about ___________________.

• The word "they" refers to ........

• The word “forces” in line 9 could best be replaced by:

• The word “odd” refers to which of the following?

• The word “disparage” in the passage mostly means ........

• It can be inferred from the passage that the author ....

• The main difficulty with organ transplants is .............

• In line 1, the author uses the words “human assistance” to mean ............

• What best describes the topic of the passage?