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English Around the World
Nowadays, there are around 400 million speakers of English as a first language in countries such as Australia, Britain, Canada, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States. In addition, there are many more millions of people who speak English as a second language, that is, when English is used in government, business and education. Many countries where English is used as a second language are ex-British colonies such as India, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, and Srilanks. Furthermore, English is the most widely studied foreign language in the world. Sixteen hundred years ago, the ancestor of "English" was a language spoken by a few barbaric tribes who had not even arrived in Britain. How did it eventually become a world language?
British English
It was in Shakespeare's lifetime that English began to spread around the world. In 1607, British rulers established a colony in Virginia-the first permanent English- speaking settlement in North America. By the time the Americans won their independence from Britain in the 1780s,there were thirteen colonies and four million English-speaking people!
n. 增加，附加物，加法
