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Table shows the number of first-language speakers (in millions) of the seven most widely spoken languages. Note: there are 3800 known languages worldwide; one-seventh are expected to die out over the next 40 years and 72.5 percent over the next 100 years; three-sevenths of the world's population speak these seven as a first language and a further 1.7 billion speak one as a second language.

LanguageFirst-language Speakers (millions)
English1386
Chinese1000
Spanish280
Russian270
French220
Portuguese160
Arabic140

How many speakers are there currently of the languages predicted to die out?

A7.6 billion
B5.2 billion
C3.8 billion
DCannot tell ✓ Correct
Correct answer: (D) Cannot tell
Explanation

The number cannot be told, so the answer is cannot tell.

The table gives the speakers only of the seven most widely spoken languages.

The languages predicted to die out are among the many others, not listed here.

The data do not say how many people speak those dying languages.

So there is no way to work out their number of speakers.

So the figure cannot be determined from the given data.

So the answer is cannot tell.

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