The English language was first introduced to the Americas by British colonization, beginning in 1607 in Jamestown, Virginia. Similarly, the language spread to numerous other parts of the world as a result of British trade and colonization elsewhere and the spread of the former British Empire, which, by 1921, held sway over a population of 470–570 million people, approximately a quarter of the world's population at that time.
Over the past 400 years the form of the language used in the Americas—especially in the United States—and that used in the United Kingdom have diverged in a few minor ways, leading to the versions now occasionally referred to as American English and British English. Differences between the two include pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, idioms, and formatting of dates and numbers. A small number of words have completely different meanings in the two versions or are even unknown or not used in one of the versions. One particular contribution towards formalizing these differences came from Noah Webster, who wrote the first American dictionary (published 1828) with the intention of showing that people in the United States spoke a different dialect from Britain, much like a regional accent.
It may be the case that increased worldwide communication through radio, television, the Internet and globalization has reduced the tendency towards regional variation. This can result either in some variations becoming extinct (for instance, the wireless, being progressively superseded by the radio) or in the acceptance of wide variations as "perfectly good English" everywhere.
Chief among other native English dialects are Canadian English and Australian English, which rank third and fourth in the number of native speakers. For the most part, Canadian English, while featuring numerous British forms alongside native Canadianisms, shares vocabulary, phonology and syntax with American English, leading many to recognize North American English as an organic grouping of dialects. Australian English likewise shares many American and British English usages alongside plentiful features unique to Australia, and retains a significantly higher degree of distinctiveness from both the larger varieties than does Canadian English. South African English, New Zealand English and the Hiberno-English of Ireland are also distinctive and rank fifth, sixth and seventh in the number of native speakers.
Which of the following native English dialects ranks fifth in the number of native speakers?

A．Canadian English

B．South African English

C．the Hiberno-English of Ireland

D．Australian English

Which of the following is NOT the reason why the English language spread to numerous parts of the world?

A．British colonization

B．the spread of the former English Empire

C．British trade around the world

D．a large British population

It can be inferred from the passage that_____

A．Australian English has developed more characteristics of its own than Canadian English.

B．it is obvious that some variations will become extinct due to worldwide communication.

C．everyone will be speaking “perfectly good English” in the future.

D．almost a quarter of the world’s population spoke British English in 1921.

This passage is intended __________________

A．to persuade us to speak perfectly good English in the future.

B．to draw people’s attention to the extinction of different English dialects.

C．to give the readers some useful information on variation of the English language.

D．to do a research on how the English language has influenced the world.

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