1 . Four Cool Languages

Chinese

Around 1.4 billion people speak Chinese. Chinese is a tonal (声调的) language, meaning that changing the tone of just one syllable (音节) can affect a word’s meaning. Chinese writing has ancient roots, which is thought to have developed starting around 2000 B. C.

Arabic

Over 370 million people speak Arabic. Written Arabic uses a cursive-style font (连笔) that looks more like artworks than writing. Arabic is written from right to left rather than left to right, making it different from many other languages.

English

Around 379 million people speak English as a native language. It’s an official language in a huge number of other countries.

English is the most widely spoken second language, with over a billion people speaking it as a non-native language. That means around twice as many people speak English as a second language than people who speak it as a first language.

Italian

Nearly 68 million people speak Italian. If you play music or sing, chances are that you already know a lot of Italian because many familiar musical terms are actually Italian.

Not only will learning Italian help you pick up vocabulary, but it will also help you understand the meanings of musical terms in greater depth.

1. What is a feature of Arabic?

A．It doesn’t have cursive-style fonts.	B．It helps artists with their artworks.
C．It is written from right to left.	D．It is closely related to music.

2. Which language is the most widely used as a second language in the world?

A．Arabic.

B．English.

C．Chinese.

D．Italian.

3. What’s the number of people who speak Italian?

A．Nearly 68 million.	B．Around 370 million.
C．Over 379 million.	D．Around 1.4 billion.