Pertierra said a 1986 federal law supplies precedent to require completion of a civics component -- such as basic knowledge of English and U.S. history and government -- to grant permanent resident status.

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The room has several placards of basic greetings in English, all spelt phonetically alongside translations in Marathi.

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Since last autumn, people from outside the EU applying for a visa to join their spouse or partner now have to prove they have a basic command of English before their application is approved.

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Instead, the assimilation of elements of French into English produced Middle English and, with it, the basic profile of the language we still speak: a large vocabulary of Germanic and French-derived words organized with a simplified Germanic grammar.

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Thus the Oxford English Dictionary explains one of the most basic institutions in a modern economy.

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"Basic material wealth is a necessity, " observed Zhou, executive editor of the English-language newspaper, China Daily.

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Steve Jenner, from the Plain English Campaign, said punctuation, including the apostrophe, was one of the basic rules of language and he described the council's decision as "nonsensical".

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