Three factors contribute to the miraculous spread of English 【B1】 an international language: English usage in science, technology and commerce; the ability to 【B2】 vocabulary from other languages; and the acceptability of various English dialects. In science, English 【B3】German after World War Ⅱ With this technical and scientific dominance 【B4】the beginning of overall dominance by the language, 【B5】in Europe and then globally. Today, the information 【B6】 has replaced the industrial age and has 【B7】 time and distance. This is transforming world economies from industrial production to information-based goods and services. 【B8】 geography and borders, the information revolution is reflecting our world. In less than twenty years, information processing, 【B9】 limited to the printed work, has given way to computers and the Internet. Computer-aided communication is closing the gap between spoken and written English. It encourages more 【B10】 conversational language and a tolerance for diversity and individual style. English. 【B11】 many languages, uses a phonetic alphabet and fairly basic grammar. But most importantly, it has a large and extensive vocabulary, 【B12】 about 80 is foreign. It has borrowed and continues to borrow words from Spanish and French, Hebrew and Arabic, Hindi Urdu and Bengali, Malay and Chinese, 【B13】from languages from West Africa and Polynesia. This language characteristic makes it unique 【B14】 history. Finally, 【B15】 English language central authority guards the standards of the language; therefore, many 【B16】 have developed: American, British, Canadian, Indian, and Australian, 【B17】a few. There is no standard pronunciation. But within this diversity is a 【B18】 of grammar and one set of core vocabulary. 【B19】 , each country that speaks the language can introduce 【B50】 of its own culture into the usage and vocabulary.
A. aspects
B. standards
C. essences
D. varieties
Passage One Although no one is certain why migration occurs, there are several theories. One theory claims that prehistoric birds of the Northern Hemisphere were forced south during the Ice Age. As the glaciers melted, the birds came back to their homelands, spent the summer, and then went south again as the ice advanced in winter. In time, the migration became a habit in spite of the disappearance of glaciers. Another theory proposes that the ancestral home of all modern birds was the tropics. When the region became overpopulated, many species were crowded north. During the summer, there was plenty of food, but during the winter, scarcity forced them to return to the tropics. A more recent theory suggests a relationship between increasing daylight and the stimulation of certain glands(腺)in the birds’ bodies that may prepare them for migration. One scientist has been able to cause midwinter migrations by exposing birds to artificial periods of daylight. He has concluded that changes occur in the bodies of birds due to seasonal changes in the length of daylight. This passage supports the belief that ______.
A. exact reasons for migration are not known
B. birds migrate because of changes in temperature
C. the ancestral home of all birds was the tropics
D. glaciers caused birds to migrate