A Debate on theEnglish Language

A measure declaringEnglish the national language is under intense debate in the United States.The US Senate passed two declarations last week.One calls English the

nation's officiallanguage and the other says it is the "common and unifying（统一的）"tongue. But Americans foundthemselves divided on the issue.

Since peopleworldwide know that most Americans speak only English,many can't understand whythe issue is so controversial（有争议的）.

"The discussionis related to fears of immigration issues,"says Dick Tucker,a socialscientist at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University."It'srelated to a worry about the

changing demography （人口统计）of the US. It's a worry about whowill continue to have political and economic influence".

In fact,the notionof protecting the language has been kicked around almost since the nation'sfounding. John Adams lobbied（游说）in 1780 for the creation of a national

academy to correctand improve the English language. But his proposal died, since lawmakers saw itas a royalist（保皇主义者）attemptto define personal behavior.

Since then,thecountry hasn't had a national language,but the idea of recognizing the specialstatus of English lived on.

The emotionssurrounding language resurface（再次浮现）not because people feel comfortable with English.It is more aboutthe discomfort many Americans feel with the

new languages,saysWalt Wolfram,a professor at North Carolina State University.

"Language isnever about language,"he says.

According to the2000 US Census Bureau report,of 209 million Americans over 18 years old, 172million speak only English at home.About 37 million speak languages other

than English. Amongthem,6.5 million speak poor English and 3.1 million don't speak English at all.What are the twodeclarations concerned with?

A.The status of theEnglish language.

B.The protection ofnew languages.

C.The rights tospeak one's mother tongue.

D.The improvement ofthe English language.