Unit 3 Activty 5 Read the passage and choose the correct answer．

English was once spoken only by people in a part of Britain. But during the twentieth century，it became a world language-a language used by speakers of many different languages to communicate with each other．

英语曾经只被英国部分地区的人讲。但是在20世纪期间，它成为了一门世界语言——一门被讲许多不同语言的人用来相互交流的语言。

Although it is called a“world language”，more than five billion people-most of the people on the earth-do not speak English as either their first or second language．However，hundreds of millions of people use it，and hundreds of millions are learning it.

尽管它被称为“世界语言”，超过50亿的人——地球上绝大多数人——不把英语作为他们的第一或第二语言来讲。然而，数亿人使用它，数亿人在学习它。

Because so many people learn and use English，it may be hard to imagine that one day English may not be the world's leading language．Remember that there were other important languages in the past which lost their importance or even disappeared. In Europe．Latin was used as a common language for many centuries before people stopped using it．French was once a language known by all well-educated people，and was more popular than English．But since the nineteenth century, English has become more popular than French.

因为那么多人学习和使用英语，可能很难想象有一天英语可能不是世界的主导语言。记住在过去有其他重要的语言，后来它们失去了重要性甚至消失了。在欧洲，拉丁语在人们停止使用它之前的几个世纪里被用作一门通用语言。法语曾经是所有文化人士所认知的语言，而且比英语更流行。但是自从19世纪以来，英语变得比法语更加流行。

Today，many people who want to learn a new language are learning Chinese，Spanish or Arabic．It may be that，one day，instead of English，another language will be used across the world.

现今，许多想学习一门新语言的人都在学习汉语、西班牙语或阿拉伯语。可能有一天，另外一门语言会取代英语在世界各地使用。