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English is fast becoming the language of science around the world, but what is its future among
everyday speakers? One expert points out that the percentage of native English speakers is declining
(降低) while the languages of other rapidly growing regions are being spoken by increasing numbers of
people. But English will continue to remain widespread and important.
However, British language scholar David Graddol says English will probably drop in dominance(主导)
by the middle of this century to rank, after Chinese, about equally with Arabic, Hindi, and Urdu. "The
number of people speaking English as a first language continues to rise, but it isn't rising nearly as fast as the
numbers of many other languages around the world, simply because the main population group has been
largely in the less developed countries where languages other than English have been spoken," he says.
In a recent article in the journalScience, Mr. Graddol noted that three languages that are not near the
top of the list of the most widely spoken now might be there soon. These are Bengali, Tamil and Malay,
spoken in south and southeast Asia.
David Crystal, the author ofThe Cambridge Encyclopedia(百科全书) of the English Language, says
about 1.5 billion of the world's six billion people speak it as a second tongue compared to the 400 million
native speakers. But another expert on the English language says Mr. Graddol underestimates (低估) the
future of its dominance. "All the evidence suggests that the English language snowball is rolling down a hill
and is getting faster,but nobody quite knows what's going to happen because no language has been in this
position before." He said.
1. In David Graddol's opinion, English will _____.
A. remain widespread and important
B. be more important than any other language
C. lose its dominant position
D. die away in the near future.
2. The underlined sentence in the last paragraph implies that _____.
A. snowballs will roll down faster than language balls
B. the English language snowball is rolling down faster than any time in the past
C. the English language will soon drop in dominance
D. more and more language user will choose English
3. According to David Graddol, which of the following will possibly be one of the languages that will be most widely spoken?
A. Malay.
B. Arabic.
C. Urdu.
D. German
4. What should be the best title for the passage?
A. English Remaining the Dominant Position
B. The Future of English? Who Knows?
C. Opinions from Different Experts
D. The English Language Snowball Rolling Down

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