Interviewer – Why is English so important?

David – Well, English is so important primarily because so many people speak it and use it, so it has now become the lingua franca in the world (1) ____


a way that we.ve never seen before. We(2)____


a world language of this kind before. So people are learning it not just to be able to communicate (3)____


native speakers, but also with speakers of other languages around the world.

Interviewer – And why has it become that dominant language?

David – I think the reason (4)____


that is actually very complicated, although in the twentieth century, we can just see that it.s the rise of the US military and consumer power. I mean the technology, all the big developments in technology largely came from the US. So all of these developments actually (5)____


within the English language, and people had to learn English in order to understand them, or to benefit (6)____


them. The Internet is only one example of that kind. Once a language has (7)____


that position of dominance, it.s actually very difficult (8)____


it. So we could be seeing the emergence of other big languages in the world (9)____


more important than they have been, like Spanish, but it.s unlikely (10)____


they.re going to shift English from its position of dominance.



1. A. on B. in C. with D. to

2. A. never have B. never had

C. have never had D. had never had

3. A. to B. in C. with D. and

4. A. for B. to C. in D. on

5. A. produce B. are produced C. have produced D. were produced

6. A. for B. to C. from D. with

7. A. got into B. got out of C. got in D. got out

8. A. shifted B. to shift C. shifting D. shift

9. A. become B. to become C. becoming D. became

10. A. that B. which C. what D.who

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