| 2 | English Is the No 1 World Language (Level 1)
Hover cursor above figures to see dynamic keys. Click to go.  More than six billion people In the autumn* of 1999 the population* of the world was six billion*. That's six thousand million. How many zeros are there in six billion? The population of the world is growing very fast. New babies are born every second. Since 1999 the world population has increased by several hundred million. How fast is the world growing? All the babies that are born into this world are ready learn any of the world's more than 6,000 languages.  6,000 languages Some of these 6,000 languages are more important than others because so many people speak them. Try to write a list of the 10 biggest languages, and then have a look. Compare your list with a list of the countries that play very important roles in politics, and in world economy. The people who speak these ten languages have a lot to say, haven't they?  One world language More than twice as many people speak Chinese as English. On the other hand English is the official* language of more than one country in each of the continents*. English is the official, or semi-official, language of nearly one hundred countries. You probably know the major* English-speaking countries, Australia, Canada, Ireland, England, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, Wales, and the USA,  but do you know how many people consider* English their first language, or use English daily in India? Can you name another five countries where there are at least one million people who consider English to be their mother tongue* or their second language? It is estimated* that hundreds of millions of people are currently* studying English in one way or another, maybe even as many as one billion. That's one sixth of the world's population, or in other words one in six. So you are not alone. From science to entertainment More and more information is stored* electronically, for instance on the Internet. More than 80% of all that information is in English.  A majority of all the scientists in the world use English in their daily work to find information and to read articles and books.  Much of all the popular music that is produced around the world is written in English.