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29题答案是（ ）
A、providing
B、serving
C、supposing
D、leaving
【正确答案】：B
【题目解析】：第29题考查的是动词的选择。在原文的上下文中，我们需要找到一个动词来准确地描述英语除了满足其母语者的需求外，还能起到的作用。 A选项“providing”通常用于提供某种东西或服务，但在这里，我们需要的不仅仅是提供，而是强调英语在满足需求方面的作用。 B选项“serving”用于表示满足某种需求或目的，符合这里描述的英语除了满足其母语者的需求外，还能起到的作用。 C选项“supposing”表示假设或猜想，与原文的语境不符。 D选项“leaving”通常表示留下或离开，同样不适用于此处的语境。 因此，根据上下文和每个选项的含义，我们可以确定B选项“serving”是最合适的动词，它准确地描述了英语在满足各种需求方面的作用。所以答案是B。