【摘要】
Passage Two
Today it is estimated that some 260 million people speak English as a native language, mainly in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. It is virtually impossible to estimate the number of people in the world who have acquired an adequate working knowledge of English in addition to their own language. The purposes for which English is learned and the situations in which such learning takes place are so varied that it is difficult to define and still more difficult to assess what constitutes an adequate working knowledge for each situation.
The main reason for the widespread demand for English is its present-day importance as a world language. Besides serving the infinite needs of its native speakers, English is a language in which some of the most important works in science, technology, and other fields are being produced, and not always by native speakers. It is widely used for such purposes as meteorological and airport communication, international conferences, and the dissemination of information over the radio and television networks of many nations. It is a language of wider communication for a number of developing countries, especially former British colonies. Many of these countries have multilingual populations and need a language for internal communication in such matters as government, commercial industry, law and education as well as for international communication and for access to scientific and technological development in the West.
Questions 30 to 32 are based on the passage you have just heard.
30. Why is it difficult to estimate the number of people who have acquired an adequate working knowledge of English?
31. According to the passage, which one of the following purposes of English has not been mentioned?
32. Why is a common language necessary for some multi-lingual countries?