Passage 2
      Languages seem to be   26   a smaller number, as languages like English seem to eat upregional ones. The three languages used the most by first language speakers today are MandarinChinese, English, and Spanish. English is being used more and more as the main language forbusiness, science, and popular culture.Evidence   27   that the dominant languages are   28   out the local tongues of variousregions in the world. Linguists estimate that of the approximately 6,500 languages worldwide, abouthalf are endangered or on the   29    of extinction. According to some linguists, the estimated rateof language extinction is one lost in the world every two weeks. If this sounds like the world islosing a species,   30   a way it is.
26.
(A) alleviating at
(B) connecting with
(C) converging to
(D) oozing with