如果你出國旅游，遇到一個英語說得特別好的老外，你可能以為對方是英國人或美國人，實際上，對方也可能是荷蘭人或瑞典人，因為在一些母語非英語的國家，英語說得好的人也比比皆是。除了荷蘭和瑞典，這些國家的人英語說得也不錯。

If you're reading this story, the chances are you've got a pretty good grasp of English.

如果你在讀這篇報道，十有八九你的英語還不錯。

You're not alone -- an estimated 1.5 billion people speak English today, making it the most commonly used language in the world.

不光是你，據(jù)估計現(xiàn)今有15億人會說英語，這使得英語成為世界上最常用的語言。

The majority are non-native speakers with English as their second language, while it serves as a third or fourth language for hundreds of millions more.

大多數(shù)會說英語的人母語都不是英語，英語是第二語言，而對于更多人而言，英語是第三或第四語言。

So which destination holds the most fluent non-native English speakers?

那么在這些母語非英語的國家中，哪些地方的人英語說得最流利呢？

According to a new report by international education company by EF Education First, the Netherlands can lay claim to the best non-native English speakers across the globe.

跨國公司英孚教育集團(tuán)的一份新報告指出，荷蘭是全球母語非英語的國家中英語說得最好的。

The results of its English Proficiency Index, based on a free online test taken by 2.3 million volunteers, indicate that the Dutch are the most fluent.

報告中的英語能力指數(shù)基于230萬志愿者參加的一項免費在線測試，該指數(shù)顯示，荷蘭人的英語最流利。

Sweden was positioned just below, with a score of 68.74 out of 100, while Norway came in third with 67.93 points.

瑞典僅次于荷蘭，得分68.74（滿分為100），挪威排名第三，得分67.93。

Although the destinations with "very high proficiency" were largely made up of European countries, Singapore and South Africa also scored highly, coming in fifth and sixth place respectively.

盡管“英語水平很高”的國家基本都是歐洲國家，但新加坡和南非的得分也很高，分別位居第五名和第六名。

It's worth noting that destinations with greater access to computers and internet will likely have had higher numbers of participants, which may have skewed the results.

值得注意的是，使用電腦和網(wǎng)絡(luò)更方便的地方參與者更多，這可能會讓結(jié)果產(chǎn)生偏差。

skew[skju?]: v. 偏離，歪斜；扭轉(zhuǎn)，偏轉(zhuǎn)；歪曲

The report also found that English was the most widely studied second language in the world by far.

報告還發(fā)現(xiàn)，迄今為止，英語是世界上最多人學(xué)習(xí)的第二語言。

Bilinguality appears to be less of a priority for Americans, if a separate study by non-partisan American think tank Pew Research Center is anything to go by.

如果美國無黨派智庫皮尤研究中心的一項獨立研究結(jié)果值得采信的話，雙語能力似乎對于美國人沒那么重要。

Published last year, the analysis found that just 20% of school students in the United States were studying a foreign language.

這項于去年發(fā)布的分析報告發(fā)現(xiàn)，美國只有20%的在校學(xué)生在學(xué)習(xí)外語。

EF Education First's poll was measured by testing non-native English speakers in 100 countries and over 400 cities and regions who voluntarily agreed to take the test.

英孚集團(tuán)的調(diào)查通過對100個國家、400多個城市和地區(qū)中英語非母語的人進(jìn)行測試得出了結(jié)果。這些人都是自愿參加測試的。

最后來看看英語非母語而說得好的國家有哪些：

1. Netherlands 70.31 荷蘭
2. Sweden 70.72 瑞典
3. Norway 68.38 挪威
4. Denmark 67.34 丹麥
5. Singapore 68.63 新加坡
6. South Africa 66.52 南非
7. Finland 65.86 芬蘭
8. Austria 63.13 奧地利
9. Luxembourg 66.33 盧森堡
10. Germany 63.74 德國
11. Poland 62.45 波蘭
12. Portugal 60.02 葡萄牙
13. Belgium 63.52 比利時
14. Croatia 60.16 克羅地亞

英文來源：CNN

翻譯&編輯：丹妮