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34题答案是（ ）
A、languages
B、populations
C、accents
D、customs
【正确答案】：B
【题目解析】：在文本中，第34题所在的句子是：“Many of these countries have multilingual _______ and need a language for internal communication in such matters as government, commerce, industry, law and _______ as well as for international communication and for entrance to the scientific and technological developments in the West.” 根据句子结构和上下文，我们可以推断出第一个空格应该填入一个能与“multilingual”（多语言的）搭配的名词，而第二个空格则与“internal communication”（内部交流）和“international communication”（国际交流）相关。 现在，我们来看选项： A. languages（语言） - 这个选项虽然与“multilingual”相关，但文本中强调的是这些国家有多种语言，而不是单一的语言，因此这个选项可能不是最佳选择。 B. populations（人口） - 这个选项与“multilingual”搭配得很好，表示这些国家有多语种的人口，这符合句子的意思。 C. accents（口音） - “多口音”的表述不太符合逻辑，因为“口音”是语言的一个方面，而不是语言本身，因此这个选项不适合。 D. customs（习俗） - “多习俗”与“multilingual”没有直接关联，因此这个选项也不适合。 综上所述，选项B“populations”是最合适的答案，因为它与“multilingual”搭配得很好，并且符合句子的整体意思。因此，答案是B。