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Linguistically speaking, it's a whole new world. Non-native speakers of English now
outnumber native speakers 3 to 1, according to English language expert David Crystal, who
says, "There's never before been a language that's been spoken by more people as a second
than a first". In Asia alone, the number of English-users has topped 350 million roughly the
combined populations of the United States, Britain and Canada. There are more Chinese
children studying English about 100 million than there are Britons. The idea of linguistic
globalization seems to be to make everyone bilingual.
Find the words in the text above that have the following meanings in row 2:
1
to outnumber
= to be greater in number
language expert
= a linguist
second language
first language
bilingual
population
to top
= to be higher than
the Britons
Task 2
There is a list on Wikipedia of who has written or edited the most entries, and for a long time
the volunteer at the top of this list was a user known as SimonP. His real name is Simon
Pulsifer. He is 25, unemployed and lives in Ottawa.
Pulsifer has authored somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 Wikipedia articles and edited
roughly 92,000 others. "I've actually fallen to No. 2 in terms of edits," says Pulsifer. "But it's a
fairly meaningless measure, so I don't feel too bad." He first heard about Wikipedia in 2001,
but it wasn't until 2003 that he got serious about contributing. That was the year he got a
really, really boring summer job. At that point Pulsifer got "superinvolved" with Wikipedia.
Why would somebody donate so much of his time? "There's a certain addictive element," he
says. Pulsifer was still in school, and writing Wikipedia entries turned out to be a handy way
of studying for exams. While taking a Russian-history class, he wrote entries about the czars.
He has chipped in pieces on African history and biblical studies. Some he wrote "off the top
of my head." Others took research. "It's a combination of things," Pulsifer says matter-offactly. "It's great to see your writing published onlineit's not that easy to create things that
are read by millions of people." He also liked the prestige that came with being a major player
on Wikipedia.
Wikipedia isn't a paradise of user-generated content. It has plenty of errors in it, and
omissions, although at this point it's considerably larger than the Encyclopaedia
Britannica. Some people enjoy vandalizing iterasing or falsifying entries. Earlier this
year the entire staff of Congress was barred from Wikipedia for sabotaging one another's
profiles. In a way it's as much a litmus test of human nature as it is a reference tool.
As for Pulsifer, he's quietly scaling back his compulsive Wikipediation. He no longer whizzes
through 250 edits a day. "To a degree, I'm moving on," he says. He has had a couple of job
offers; perhaps a well-paying gig will come along that will allow him to leave his parents'
home, where he resides. No doubt a new Wikipedian will arrive to take his place. There are
plenty of boring summer jobs out there.
article
get
donate
handy
chip in
content
compulsive
addictive
vandalize
tool
major
Task 3
Communication
a. Can you explain how the items in the examples below are related?
Examples:
a) face-to-face communication
a) audiovisual
a) multimedia
a) appropriateness
a) real time
a) non-native speakers
a) non-verbal communication
a) transient
a) instant feedback
a) facial expressions
a) body language
a) written communication
a) a medium of communication
a) one-way communication
a) English
a) social skills
a) interactive
a) etiquette
a) a means of communication
a) gestures
a) permanent (fixed)
a) new technologies
Communication
The
new
electronic
interdependence
a means of
communication
to conduct
an image
an observation
an executive
to hammer out
non-native
likely
a Eurocrat
counterparts
a common
denominator
a compatriot
B
definition
a word with a negative prefix
a synonym of probable
to discuss something until everyone agrees
a top manager
European + bureaucrat
a person coming from the same country like you
an expression used in mathematics
a synonym for means of communication
to do (business)
two persons/items that can be easily compared for being in a
similar position etc.
a synonym of picture
a synonym of comment, remark