【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[听力原文]
The number of speakers of English in Shakespeare"s time is about five million. Today it is reported 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. Besides 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 tell the number of people in the world who have known enough working knowledge of English besides their own languages. The purpose for English learning and the situations in which such learning takes place are so different that it is difficult to explain.
The main reason for the wide-spread demand for English is its present-day importance as a world language. Besides serving the indefinite needs of its native speakers, English is a language in which some of important works in science, technology, and other fields are being produced, and not always by native speakers. It is widely used for such purposes as airport communications, international conferences, and the spread of information over the radio and television networks of many nations. It is a language of wider communication for a number of developing countries. Many of these countries have populations that use different languages and need a language for communication in such matters as government, business, industry, law and education as well as for international communication and for entrance to the scientific and technological developments in the West.

How many people take English as a native language?

[解析] 根据定位句可知，现在把英语作为本国语的人有26亿，故答案为D。