新编六级听力练习 第231期

Passage Two
The number of speakers of English in Shakespeare's time is estimated to have been about five million. Today it is estimated that some 300 million people speak it as a native language, mainly in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In addition to the standard varieties of English found in these areas, there are a great many regional and social varieties of the language as well as various levels of usage that are employed both in its spoken and written forms. In fact, [30]it is impossible to estimate the number of people in the world who have acquired an adequate working knowledge of English in addition to their own language. The purpose for English learning and the situations in which such learning takes place are so varied that it is difficult to explain and still more difficult to judge what forms an adequate working knowledge for each situation.
The main reason for the widespread demand for English is its present importance as a world language. Besides serving the indefinite needs of its native speakers, English is a language in which some of important works in science, technology and other fields are being produced, and not always by native speakers. It is widely used for such purposes as airport communications, international conferences, and the spread of information over the radio and television networks of many nations. It is a language of wider communication for a number of developing countries, especially former British colonies. [31]Many of these countries have multilingual populations and need a language for internal communication in such matters as government, commerce, industry, law and education as well as for international communication and for entrance to the scientific and technological developments in the West.

答案解析：
29. What is the speaker mainly talking about?
[B]解析：主旨题。浏览各题选项，关键词language，English提示短文内容与“英语”这门语言有关。通过本文多次出现的English，language，world，wide-spread，importance，widely used等关键词可知，只有选项B完整地概括了本文的主旨，故B正确。
30. According to the passage, what is hard to estimate about English?
[B]解析：细节题。考点是一个结构比较复杂的长句，形式主语it以及真实主语部分的定语从句都会给理解带来难度。但B基本上是原文内容的照搬，听到即能作答。符合“听到什么选什么”的原则。注意长句的听力理解技巧是抓结构。
31. Why do some former British colonies widely use English?
[D]解析：细节题。短文提到，这些国家（许多发展中国家和前英国殖民地国家）的人口是多语型的，这样就需要在某些事务的内部交流上使用一种共同语言。D基本上是照搬原文，故正确。