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 in which the speakers use English as their native language， the other in which the speakers 1earn 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

　　答案解析

　　23 F 文章第一段介绍说世界上除了汉语之外，应用最广的就是英语了。

　　24 B 文章第二段主要讲的是什么是“a speech community”，即“a speech community”的定义。

　　25 E 文章第三段进而将“the English speech community”分为两组，即以英语为母语的人为一组和以英语为第二语言的人为一组。

　　26 C 文章第四段主要讲学习第二语言的益处。

　　27 D 从文章第一段可以得知，说汉语的人比说任何其他语言的人都要多。

　　28 E 从文章第二段可以得知，“a speech community”的边界与一个国家的边界有可能不同。

　　29 C 从文章第二段可以得知，居住在不同地区的人们却有可能同属一个“speech community”。

　　30 A 从文章第二段可以推断，许多人将英语作为第二语言来学。

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（编辑：杨帆）