Lesson number 2

Wednesday,19th September 2007

Summary:

.Introducing unit 1: A World Language.

.Reading comprehension "English is everywhere".

English is Everywhere!

1 More than half of the word´s technical and scientific documents are in English. Approximately three quarters of the wors´s mail is wrutten in English. About eighty per cent of the data in the word´s computers is in English. Around seventy-five per cent one billion Internet useres communicate in English.

2 English is a useful language to speak because it is the laguage of international communication. It unites people, countries and cultures. It is the principal language of air travel, business, science, techonology, diplomacy, sport, international competitions, pop music and advertising.

3 There are aroun two million word´s in English today. English constantly "borrows" words from other languages, from Latin, Greek, French, Spanish. For example, siesta or fiesta. It also quikly invents words to describe new inventions, for example, iPod.

4 There are around 6,800 million words in English today. The most spoken world language is Mandarin Chinese with over a billion speakers. Spanish is another important world language, whith about 425 million speakers. Estimates say there are a total of 750 million English speakers around the world, but only 350 million are really native speakers. So next time your teacher says "Speak English!" remenber he or she is opening the door to a big world!