Modern English is the (1) _________ of the English language (2) ______ since the great
vowel shift, completed in roughly 1550.
Despite some (3) ________ in vocabulary, text from the (4) _______ 17th century, such as
the works of William Shakespeare and the King James Bible, are considered to be in Modern
English, or more specifically, are referred to as using Early Modern English
According to Ethnology, there are (5) ________ 508 million speakers of English as the first
or (6) ________ language as of 1999, a number dwarfed only by the Chinese language (7) _________ terms of the number of the speakers. However, Chinese has a smaller geographical
range and is spoken primarily in mainland China and Taiwan and also by a sizable immigrant
community in North America. (8) _______, English is spoken in a vast number of territories
including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, the United States of America, Australia, New
Zealand, India, Pakistan, and Southern Africa. Its large number of speakers, plus its worldwide
presence, have made English a (9) _______ language for use in such diverse applications as
controlling airplanes, developing software, conducting international diplomacy, and business (10) ________. 1. A. way B. form C. road D. shape
2. A. spoken B. speak C. told D. said
3. A. variety B. difference C. differences D. unlikelihood
4. A. soon B. early C. premature D. earlier
5. A. on B. beyond C. above D. over
6. A. second B. twice C. two D. secondly
7. A. on B. with C. in D. for
8. A. Contrary B. On contrary C. In contrary D. With contrary
9. A. private B. shared C. common D. public
10. A. relations B. relationship C. related D. relationa