TEST 5

English is the most international of languages. A Dane and a Dutch person meeting in Rome will almost automatically find themselves speaking to each other English. The pilots of Soviet planes approaching Cairo will use English to ask for landing instructions. Malaysian lecturers use English when addressing their Malaysian students in Kuala Lumpur. To people in Africa, Asia and South America, English is an important language to master, not merely because it is the language of Britain, of the United States but because it provides ready access to world scholarship and world trade. It is understood more widely than any other languages. It is true then, that a great many people – and a great many peoples – are involved in the use of English. Millions of men and women in four continents have English as their first language, and millions in every part of the world use it as their second or foreign language.

Why is English important to people in Africa, Asia and South America?