Thenumber of speakers of English in Shakespeare′s time is estima

Thenumber of speakers of English in Shakespeare′s time is estimated to have beenabout five million.Today it is estimated that some 260 million people speak itas a(an)21?language,mainlyin the United States,Canada,Great Britain,Ireland,South Africa,Australiaand New Zealand.In addition to the standard varieties of English found inthese areas,22?are a greatmany regional and social varieties of the language as well as?23?levels of usage that are employedboth in its spoken and written forms. In fact,it is?24?to estimate the numberof people in the world who have acquired an adequate working knowledge ofEnglish in addition to their own languages.The?25?for English learningand the situations in which such learning takes place are so varied that itis 26 to explain and still moredifficult to judge?27?forms an adequateworking knowledge for each situation. The main reason forthe widespread?28?for English is its present dayimportance as a world language.Besides 29 the indefinite needs of its nativespeakers,English is a language in which some of important works inscience,technology,and other?30 are beingproduced,and not always by native speakers.It is widely used for 31 purposes as meteorological(气象的)and airport communications,international conferences,and the?32?of information over the radio andtelevision networks of many?33.It is a language of widercommunication for a number of developing countries,specially former Britishcolonies.Many of these countries have multilingual?34.and need a language for internalcommunication in such matters as government,commerce,industry,,law and 35 as well as for internationalcommunication and for entrance to the scientific and techno-logicaldevelopments in the West. 第21题答案是（ ）
A、foreign
B、native
C、second
D、official
【正确答案】：B
【题目解析】：根据题目所给的语境，第21题需要填入的词用来描述英语作为哪种语言被大约2.6亿人使用。 A选项“foreign”意为“外国的”，通常用来指某人的母语之外的语言。 B选项“native”意为“本国的，本土的”，通常用来指某人的母语。 C选项“second”意为“第二的”，虽然可以表示除母语外的另一种语言，但在这个语境中不如“native”直接和准确。 D选项“official”意为“官方的”，虽然英语在某些国家可能是官方语言，但这并不符合此处描述英语作为被广泛使用的语言的语境。 根据句子“Today it is estimated that some 260 million people speak it as a(an)21?language”，这里强调的是有大约2.6亿人将其作为某种语言来说，而不是作为外语或官方语言。因此，最合适的描述应该是他们的“母语”。 因此，正确答案是B，“native”。