4a Read the first part of an article about ' Basic English ' and choose the correct verb forms .
The idea of inventing an international language is not a new one . Over the past 180 years , linguists have created / created over ten different languages that 2are based / be based on German , Spanish English and even musical notes . One the most influential of these 3had been / was ' Basic English ' . bookshops in Cambridge . He By 1923 , the First World War Awas / had been over for five years , but Europe was still recovering / recovered from its effects . Charles Kay Ogden , a linguist and writer , was running several had just written / just written published a book which described how we use language . The success of his book Thas inspired / inspired Ogden to design a universal language - one that was much simpler than English , but doesn't / didn't require native English speakers to study a different language . In 1930 ; Ogden's book Basic English : A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar was / were published . It is estimated that , on average , it ¹0takes / took about seven years to become fluent in English . Ogden ¹1believed / was believing that ' Basic English ' could be learned in seven weeks . There 12 had been / were only 850 words , and the grammar was simplified with very few exceptions to each rule .