Fill in the gaps with one or two words

1. English is a widely distributed languageoriginating in .........

2. English is currently the primary language of several .............

3. It is extensively used as a second language and as an ........ language in many other countries.

4. English is the most widely taught and understood language in the world, and sometimes is described as a ................

5. Although Modern Standard Chinese has more mother-tongue speakers (approximately 700 million), .......... is unquestionably used by more people as a second or foreign language, putting the total number of English- ......... worldwide at well over one billion.

6. An estimated 354 million people speak English as their first ........ Estimates about second language speakers of English vary greatly between 150 million and 1.5 .........

7. It has been ........... of the official languages of the United Nations since its founding in 1945.

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