Words of Irish origin are used, some of which are also common elsewhere in the Irish, such as tucker for "food"， as well as one or two native English words whose meanings have changed under Irish influence, such as paddock for "field"， which has exactly the same meaning as the Australian paddock.

　　5. The main purpose of Paragraph 2 is to show ________.

　　A. the author wasn't familiar with Australian English

　　B. the author found it difficult to understand Australians

　　C. many Australian English words are unique

　　D. Australians are quite friendly to foreigners

　　6. Why did the writer tell his friends Australians only need 24 letters?

　　A. Because Australians speak very easy English.

　　B. Because Australians never use "a" or "i".

　　C. Because there are 3 letters having almost the same pronunciation.

　　D. Because there are different ways to call the same thing.

　　7. What does the underlined word "diverging" in Paragraph 4 mean?

　　A. Drawing apart.　　　　B. Holding back.

　　C. Waking up. D. Mixing up.

　　8. From the passage, we can know that ________.

　　A. the native language of Australia is English

　　B. the first settlers came to Australia in 1827

　　C. American pop culture plays a part in Australian English

　　D. Peter Cunningham went to visit Australia in the 1850s

　　C

　　The number of speakers of English in Shakespeare's time is estimated to have been about five million. Today it is estimated that some 260 million people speak it as a native language, mainly in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In addition to the standard varieties of English found in these areas, there are a great many regional and social varieties of the language as well as various levels of usage that are employed both in its spoken and written forms.

In fact, it is impossible to estimate the number of people in the world who have acquired an adequate working knowledge of English in addition to their own languages. The purpose for English learning and the situations in which such learning takes place are so varied that it is