B. Look at the frequently asked questions on the English club's web page and see if you can guess any of the answers.

1. How many words are there in English? 2. What's the most common letter in English? 3. What's the longest word in English? 4. Where does English come from? 5. Why do people learn English? 6. How many people speak English?

С Match the English club's frequently asked questions in point В with the following answers.

Welcome to the English Club's Frequently Asked Questions

a) We can't answer that question exactly, but here's a recipe we came across the other day: 50 grammes — Greek, 75 grammes — Latin, 400 grammes — Anglo Saxon, 150 grammes — Norse, 300 grammes — French (flavoured with Latin and Greek), 25 grammes — other mixed languages. Mix all the ingredients together. Cook slowly for 1,000 years.

b) English is the main language in 30 countries, and there are about 375 million people who speak it as their first language.

It is also used as an official language in over 70 other countries such as Cameroon, Tanzania, India, Pakistan, Malaysia and Fiji, and is a second language for about 350 million people.

One in two Europeans can speak English quite well and can have a proper conversation, and in the future even more Europeans will be

able to speak it. All in all, there are about 1,000 million (a billion) people who can't speak English, but they're learning it!

c) It's the top language for travel and tourism, and is used in business and science. At the moment, 80 per cent of the world's Internet sites are in English, but this will fall when more countries start using their own language.

d) There are about 300,000 entries in the Oxford English Dictionary. However, there are many scientific and technical words that are not in the dictionary (for example, there are over a million types of insect). An educated English speaker only uses about 30,000 words.

 

e) According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it is the name for a lung disease caused by breathing in dangerous dust and is Pneumo- noultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

f) The letter "e" is used more than any other. Ernest Wright was very interested in this fact, and wanted to see if it was possible to communicate without using this letter at all.

He wasn't able to write very much! In the end, he wrote a 200-page novel, Gadsby, without using any words containing the letter "e". Sadly, it was not a great success, but here is a bit of it:

A glorious full moon sails across a shy without a cloud. A crisp night air has folks turning up coat collars and kids hopping up and down for warmth.

D. Talking about your country. In pairs or small groups, discuss the answers to the following questions.

1. Do you know where your language comes from?

2. Are there any foreign languages that are very similar to yours?

3. What foreign languages do most people learn at colleges?

4. What language do most tourists use when they come to your

country?

5. Is it important to speak the language of a country you are

visiting? Why (not)?

7. Varieties of English

A. Read what an English writer once said about the English and the Americans. Why is what he said unusual? Do you agree?

"The English have really everything in common with the Americans except, of course, the language."

В. The words in I — 12 are all used in American English. Match them with their British English equivalents a) — I).

a) thousand million b) petrol c) checking account d) Inland Revenue e) Ltd. f) ground floor g) town centre h) cheque i) credit account j) cashier k) post code 1) company

1) charge account — кредитный счет

2) bank teller — кассир (в банке)

3) corporation — (крупная) компания

4) billion — миллиард

5) gasoline — бензин

6) Internal Revenue Service — Налоговое управление

7) first floor — первый этаж

8) current account — текущий счет в банке

9) zip code — почтовый индекс

 

10) check (from a bank) — банковый чек

11) downtown — центр города

12) Inc. — общество с ограниченной ответственностью (ООО)

British English equiva-