Half the world's population will be speaking or learning English by 2015,researchers say.Two billion people are expected to start learning English within a decade and three billion will speak it,says a British Council estimate.

　　Other languages,such as French,risk becoming the casualties of this “l(fā)inguistic globalization”.But the boom will be over by 2050 and the English?language teaching industry will have become a victim of its own success,says David Graddol,author of the report,The Future of English.

　　Mr.Graddol?s research was based on a computer model developed to estimate demand for English?language teaching around the world.The lecturer,who has worked in education and language studies at the Open University for the past 25 years,said the model charted likely student numbers through to 2050.

　　It was compiled by looking at various estimates from the United Nations Education,Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) on education provision,demographic projections,government education policies and international student mobility figures.The impact of educational innovations and other developments affecting the world population including the Chinese government?s policy of one baby per family were also factored in.

　　Based on its findings,Mr.Graddol has predicted that the world is about to be hit by a tidal wave of English.“Many governments,especially in countries which have relatively recently gained independence,are introducing the teaching of English under a utilitarian banner.”

　　“But English predominates in the business world,and for such countries to be able to compete for work,including lucrative (profitable) outsourcing contracts,English is being pushed heavily from kindergarten on.”

　　The potential bonanza (source of wealth) on offer from outsourcing means even maths and science are being taught in English at secondary schools in Malaysia.But demand for English teaching would drop as children progress through academia,and more universities across the world choose to teach in the language.

　　Mr.Graddol also estimated that the boom would be over by 2050.“English?language students will be down from two billion to 500 million then,”he said,“Increasingly,as English spread across the globe,more people will become bilingual,even multi?lingual and such skills are highly prized in business.But Britain has not got the best reputation for learning other languages.”

　　The report also showed that English was not the only language spreading,and the world,far from being dominated by English,was to become more multi?lingual.Mr.Graddol said,“Chinese,Arabic and Spanish are all popular,and likely to be languages of the future.”

　　1. It is estimated that in a decade English will be

　　[A] actively studied by over 200 million people.

　　[B] freely spoken by global English learners.

　　[C] popular with over 80% of world inhabitants.

　　[D] really mastered by 50% of people worldwide.

　　2. According to the text,“l(fā)inguistic globalization” will

　　[A] eliminate French from the globe.

　　[B] defeat other European languages.

　　[C] fail all languages except English.

　　[D] make English the biggest winner.

　　3. David Graddol predicts that the thriving period of English will

　　[A] terminate within half a century.

　　[B] climax in the middle of the century.

　　[C] endure for no less than five decades.

　　[D] quit till the beginning of the 2050s.

　　4. The report “The Future of English” factored in all of the following EXCEPT

　　[A] the educational condition and policy.

　　[B] the directions and designs of Unesco.

　　[C] the statistics about population.

　　[D] the movements of overseas students.

　　5. The writer of the report deems that outsourcing is to

　　[A] result in the increase of English subjects.

　　[B] lead to the drop of interest in English study.

　　[C] account for the further spread of English.

　　[D] bring about transition in college curricula.

　　答案及解析:

　　1. C[解析] 通讀全文可知，此文是對一篇題為The Future of English的研究報(bào)告的介紹，該報(bào)告對英語教學(xué)在世界范圍的發(fā)展做了預(yù)估。據(jù)題干中的“in a decade”可知，此題答 案應(yīng)在第一段。該段第2句說，今后10年中將有20億人學(xué)英語，30億人說英語。我們知道，目前世界人口有60億，50億占其中83%。由此可知，C項(xiàng)中的“over 80%”與此相符，其中popular with意為well liked by people(受人們喜愛的/接受的)涵蓋了learn 和speak,為正確答 案。

　　A項(xiàng)的200 million(2億)與Two billion (20億)相差10倍。B項(xiàng)的global(全球的)未免過分。D項(xiàng)的master(learn or understand sth. completely精通;掌握)并非一般的learn 或speak所能達(dá)到的。故皆不可取。

　　2. D[解析] 題干中的“l(fā)inguistic globalization”(語言全球化運(yùn)動(dòng))出自第2段第1句。該句說，“其他語言，例如法語，有成為‘語言全球化運(yùn)動(dòng)’犧牲品的危險(xiǎn)”。文章末段又說，英語并非是惟一廣泛傳播的語言。據(jù)此判斷，D項(xiàng)說法最為妥當(dāng)。其余3項(xiàng)皆與文意不符。

　　3. A[解析] 題干中的thriving period相當(dāng)于第2段第2句中的boom(風(fēng)靡期)。請注意介詞“by+時(shí)間名詞”意為not later than;before(不遲于;在……之前)。據(jù)此，只有A項(xiàng)與“by 2050”意思相符。其余3項(xiàng)皆超出了此意。

　　4. B[解析] 題干中的factored sth. in(=included sth. in把……因素包括在內(nèi))出現(xiàn)在第4段末，答 案必在該段。該段第1句說，此報(bào)告是compiled by looking at various estimates from the Unesco on…(在仔細(xì)核查了聯(lián)合國科教文組織對……提出的各種估計(jì)數(shù)字的基礎(chǔ)上編寫的)，并未提到B項(xiàng)中的directions(提示)和designs(計(jì)劃)，故B項(xiàng)應(yīng)屬EXCEPT之列。

　　A、C、D三項(xiàng)皆可在該段找到根據(jù)，其中C項(xiàng)相當(dāng)于文中的demographic projections(人口統(tǒng)計(jì)預(yù)測)。

　　5. C[解析] 題干中outsourcing(外購/包)一詞出現(xiàn)在第6、7兩段。第6段說，……由于外包合同有利可圖，一些有包工競爭力的國家，從幼兒園開始就大力推行英語教學(xué)。第7段則進(jìn)一步說，外購所提供的潛在財(cái)源使得馬來西亞中學(xué)里的數(shù)學(xué)和理科課程都在用英語教授。據(jù)此，只有C項(xiàng)體現(xiàn)了此意。

　　A項(xiàng)的English subjects 意為“英語科目”。B項(xiàng)與文意相悖。D項(xiàng)的transition(轉(zhuǎn)變)與文意不符，文中只說有更多的大學(xué)選擇用英語授課。