急需外研版初三英语 Module9 unit2 课文原文《Who owns English?》和 Around the world 急需呀！！

Who owns English?

English is spoken byabout 400 million peoplein Australia, Britain,

 Canada, Ireland, NewZealand, South Africaand the USA.

 In Ghana, India, Nigeriaand Singapore, Englishis used for government,

 education and trade,although there are manyother languages foreveryday use.

 In China and most othercountries,

 it's the most importantforeign language thatchildren will learn atschool,

 because it's essentialfor tourism,international business,

 entertainment, radio,television, newspapers,and the Internet.

 So English is now usedby about 1.5 billionpeople--or a quarter ofthe world's population,

 and wherever you go inthe world, there is agood chance that someonewill speak English.

 How did this happen?English has not alwaysbeen the most commonlanguage.

 Until English becameimportant in the 20thcentury, people who hadany education spokeFrench.

 What's more, Englishspelling doesn't givemuch help withpronunciation,

 and its grammar isdifficult, especiallythe word order.

 The reason is that inthe 18th century,

 the UK was a countrywhose industrialproducts were sold allover the world.

 In the 20th century, theUSA spread English allover the world throughnewspapers,

 television, films andadvertising.

 It's now the commonlanguage for internat-ional travel,

 science, industry and inrecent years,informationtechnology and theInternet.

 But it's also impor-tant to remember thatEnglish has borrowedmany words from otherlanguages,

 either exactly the sameword or very similar.

 It uses restaurant fromFrench, zero fromArabic, piano fromItalian,

 and typhoon, china andmany others words fromChinese.

 Will the importance ofEnglish last?

 Many people think that,if China continues togrow in importance,

 Chinese will become ascommon as English by themiddle of the 21stcentury.

 More and more schools inEurope are teachingChinese as a foreignlanguage,

 in place of otherEuropean languages.

 And tourism puts Chinainto the top 10countries for visitors.But at least for thenext 20 or 30 years,

 English will be thelanguage used mostwidely.

 So who owns English?The answer is everyonewho speaks it--theEnglish,

 the Indians and theChinese all help makeit a rich language.

 It changes every yearwith new words andexpressions.

 Even though there aredifferences in grammar,vocabulary,pronunciation andspelling,

 we all belong to theinternational Englishspeaking world. We allown English.