21世纪大学英语读写教程 第一册第2单元B篇 课件（含课后答案）.pptVIP

Text B 2 Today there are about 1 billion English speakers in the world. By the year 2000, that figure is likely to exceed 1.5 billion. 3 The world’s most taught language, English is not taking the place of other languages; it is supplementing them: Two hundred and fifty million Chinese — more than the entire population of the United States — study English. In eighty-nine countries, English is either a common second language or widely studied. In France, state-run secondary schools require students to study four years of English or German; most — at least 85 percent — choose English. In Japan, secondary students are required to take six years of English before graduation. Media and Transportation 5 English prevails in transportation and the media. The travel and communication language of the international airwaves is English. Pilots and air traffic controllers speak English at all international airports. Maritime traffic uses flag and light signals, but if vessels needed to communicate verbally, they would find a common language, which would probably be English. 6 Five of the largest broadcasters — CBS, NBC, ABC, the BBC, and the CBC — reach a potential audience of about 300 million people through English broadcast. It is also the language of satellite TV. Text B The Information Age 8 The language of the information age is English. 9 Computers talk to each other mostly in English. More than 80 percent of all the information stored in the more than 100 million computers around the world is in English. 10 Eighty-five percent of international telephone conversations are conducted in English, as are three-fourths of the world’s mail, telexes, and cables. Computer program instructions and the software itself are often supplied only in English. 11 German was once the language of science. Today more than 80 percent of all scientific papers are published first in English. Over half the world’s technical and scientific periodicals are in English, which is also the language o