Reading 1

English is everywhere!
l and scientific documents are in
1 More than half of the world’s technica
s of the world’s mail is written in
English. Approximately three quarter
data in the world’s computers is in
English. About eighty per cent of the
t of the one billion Internet users
English. Around seventy-five per cen
communicate in English.
ak because it is the language of
2 English is a useful language to spe
es people, countries and cultures.
international communication. It unit
el, business, science, technology,
It is the principal language of air trav
competitions, pop music and
diplomacy, sport, international
advertising.
in English today. English constantly
3 There are around two million words
uages, from Latin, Greek, French,
‘borrows’ words from other lang
a. It also quickly invents words to
Spanish. For example, siesta or fiest
le, iPod.
describe new inventions, for examp
the world. The most spoken world
4 There are around 6,800 languages in
over a billion speakers. Spanish is
language is Mandarin Chinese with
e, with about 425 million speakers.
another important world languag
million English speakers around
Estimates say there are a total of 750
really native speakers. So next time
the world, but only 350 million are
ember he or she is opening the
your teacher says ‘Speak English!’ rem
door to a big world!
anthro.palomar.edu/language/language1.htm
Source: British Council website and http://

Read the article and match the headings Read the text again. Match the categories
(a–d) to the paragraphs (1–4). (1–8) to the the figures (a–h).
a. English is the language of international 1. speakers of Mandarin
communication. 2. speakers of Spanish
b. English has got words from many different 3. languages in the world
languages.
4. mail in English
c. There are other languages apart from
5. native English speakers
English.
6. computer data in English
d. English is the language of science and
information  7. speakers of English
technology. 8. words in English

a. approximately ¾
True or false?
b. about 80%
1. English is a common language c. around 2 million
in the Internet.
d. 750,000,000
2. You can use English in many
different situations. e. 350,000,000
3. English doesn’t have many words.  f. around 6,800
4. English doesn’t accept new words. g. over 1 billion
5. There are more Mandarin Chinese h. about 425,000,000
speakers than English speakers.
6. There are more non-native English
speakers than native.
 Reading and Writing 1
Kevin’s friends

> Read

1 Read the text and circle the four adjectives which best describe Kevin.

funny generous hard-working lazy

quiet sociable talkative unsociable

Kevin Crowther likes being with other people and he likes telling them about things. He’s very
popular with his friends because he tells a lot of good jokes. Because he likes his friends’
company, he likes team sports, but that doesn’t mean he’s good at them. For example, he’s
interested in playing basketball because his friends play a lot, but he’s not very tall and also
he’s very bad at it. He enjoys football too, but he’s not exactly Figo. He doesn’t mind playing
tennis and he’s quite good at it, but he prefers playing doubles because there are four people
and not just two. He’s also very good at running, but he doesn’t like it very much because it’s a
solitary sport. He loves cooking, but only when he does it for his friends. He hates cooking for
himself because there’s no one to talk to! He also hates working and he prefers watching videos
to doing his homework, but obviously, if his friends are watching the video too, he loves it!

2 Read the text again and answer these > Write

questions.
3 Write a description of a friend or family
1 Why is he popular with his friends? member. Think about these things:
Because he tells a lot of good jokes.
• What is his / her personality?
2 Why does he like playing team sports?
• What are his / her interests or hobbies?

• Is he / she good at them?
3 Is he good at playing basketball?
My friend Paula likes going to the cinema,
4 In tennis, does he prefer playing singles or but she hates watching horror films.
doubles tennis? She doesn’t mind …

5 What sport is he very good at?

6 When does he like cooking?

7 Does he like working?

8 Does he prefer watching videos with his
friends?

Extra Practice 3  © Pearson