Go for your Business English. Новосельцева Н.Н - 29 стр.

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10
English in the Third Millennium
Two thousands years ago English did not exist. A thousand years ago it was a
language used by less than two million people. Now it the most influential language
in the world, spoken by more than a billion people on the planet, as their first,
second or third language. English currently dominates science, business, the mass
media and popular culture. For example, 80 % e-mails on the Internet are in English.
But where will English be at the end of the third millennium?
One view is that English is going to become even more important as a global
lingua franca, dominating the world’s trade and media while most other languages
will become localized or just die out. At present, over half the world’s 6,500
languages are in danger of extinction. Another view is that English is already
breaking up, as Latin did, into separate different languages. There are already
dictionaries of the “New Englishes”, such as Australian English, full of words that a
British English speaker would not recognize.
Hopefully , neither of these things will happen. Although different varieties of
English will continue to develop around the world, standard English will survive for
international communication. In addition, the frightening prospect of a culturally
uniform world totally dominated by one language is impossible. Already, other
languages are fighting back against the iron grip of English on the Net. Governments
around the world are also starting to protect smaller languages and recognize the
importance of cultural and linguistic diversity. Enlgish will probably stay in control
for a long time, at least while the USA remains the top superpower, but it definitely
won’t become the only language in the world.
1 Answer the following questions:
1. Did English exist 2000 years ago?
2. A thousand years ago English was a language used by less than two million
people, wasn’t it?
3. How many people speak English now?
4. What does English currently dominate?
5. What percentage of the world’s e-mails are in English?
6. How many languages are there in the world?
2 On a separate piece of paper write about your experiences of learning a foreign
language. For example, you might like to talk about how you learnt (e.g. in a class,
from a book); what was easy; what was difficult, any problems you had; how you
made progress.
Concentrate, it saves time and money.

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