English and English Community

　　1　There is no doubt that English is a useful language. The people who speak English today make up the largest speech community in the world with the exception of speakers of Chinese.

　　2　A speech community is similar to other kinds of communities. The people who make up the community share a common language. Often they live side by side, as they-do in a neighborhood (街坊), a village, or a city. More often they form a whole country. National boundaries, however, are not always the same as the boundaries of a speech community. A speech community is any group of people who speak the same language no matter where they happen to live.

　　3　We may say that anyone who speaks English belongs to the English speech community. For convenience (方便), we may divide the speakers into two groups: one ig which the speakers use English as their native language, the other in which the speakers learn [English as a second language for the purpose of education, commerce, and so on.

　　4　Learning a second language extends one's vision and expands the mind. The history and literature of a second language record the real and fictional (虚构的) lives of people and their culture; a knowledge of them adds to our ability to understand and to feel as they feel. Learning English as a second language provides another means of communication through which the window of the entire English speech community becomes a part of our heritage.

　　23 Paragraph 1_________.

　　24 Paragraph 2_________.

　　25 Paragraph 3_________.

　　26 Paragraph 4_________.

　　A　Threat Posed by English

　　B　Definition of a Speech Community

　　C　Benefits of Learning a Second Language

　　D　Advantages of Learning Chinese

　　E　Two Groups of the English Speech Community

　　F　A Widely Used Language

　　27 Overall there are more speakers of Chinese than of_________.

　　28 The boundaries of a speech community may be different from_________.

　　29 People who live in different places may belong to_________.

　　30 Many people learn English as_________.

　　A　a second language

　　B　the same language

　　C　the same speech community

　　D　any other language

　　E　national boundaries

　　F　a part of one's heritage

　　答案:

　　23. F　　24. B　　25. E　　26. C

　　27. D　　28. E　　29. C　　30. A