Singapore is well known as a multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-religious nation. And this 【C1】______ is gradually becoming internalized as a special feature of Singaporean culture. Besides, Singapore is at the crossroads 【C2】______ East meets West and enjoys the benefit of the co-existence of 【C3】______ cultures. Two seemingly 【C4】______ incidents that took place recently appeared equally ironical upon closer scrutiny. In the first case, the president of National Technological University found the use of Mandarin 【C5】______ too popular on campus and so urged students to speak more English. In the second case, in response 【C6】______ customer complaints, an expatriate executive of Borders told staff to stick to English at work. For historical reasons, the call by NTU which is located on the site of the former Mandarin-speaking Nantah appears to be an even 【C7】______ irony. At a time when the government is 【C8】______ the use of Mandarin to keep up with changes in the world, such actions that go against the trend provide 【C9】______ for thought. Yes, their 【C10】______ about learning English and about the status of English can be understood. What is 【C11】______ is who then are our multi-lingual society supposed to serve? Is multi-lingualism a burdern, a way to 【C12】______ off, just a symbol, or is it a tool and an advantage to benefit the public? 【C13】______ the interest of the nation, we have made English the official and common language to help foster racial harmony and 【C14】______ us with the world. Yet language in a way is inextricable from considerations such as political correctness, prestige and status. For a long time to come, the 【C15】______ of English as an official language is unlikely to be shaken. The question is: when service departments deal with the public, do they just 【C16】______ to the rules and not exercise any flexibility or do they make full use of our multi-lingual advantage to provide 【C17】______ service to the ordinary people? It is true that most customers at an English bookshop maybe English-educated and speak English 【C18】______ , but if speaking Mandarin makes some people feel more at home or comfortable, do we have to 【C19】______ on speaking English? Even someone who is extremely 【C20】______ in English, which is not his mother tongue, may well enjoy being spoken to in his mother tongue. Can this potentially be a 'win-win' sales strategy? 【C1】