Modern means of communication

A. Label the pictures.

mobile phone	electronic mail	pager	Instant messaging
computer	smartphone	blogging	payphone
social networking	traditional telephone	Internet
fax	video chatting	digital cordless telephone

 

1.	2.	3.	4.
5.	6.	7.	8.
9.	10.	11.
12.	13.	14.

B. Which equipment from the box would each of these people use?

Cordless

Fax

Mobile phone

Pager

Public telephone

Videophone

Webcam

1 A lawyer who needs to stay in contact in court, but can't have a ringing phone.

2 A building contractor who works in different places.

3 Someone who wants to stay in touch whilst they are in the garden.

4 A company manager who wants to discuss something with managers in different offices at the same time.

5 A computer enthusiast who wants to see the person she is talking to.

6 Someone who is out but doesn't have a mobile.

7 A bank clerk who wants to transmit some sensitive material.

C. Match the terms with the corresponding definition.

1. E-mail 2. Instant messaging 3. Fax 4. Mobile Phone 5. Wireless communications 6. Personal profile 7. Social Networking website 8. Video chat 9.Videoconferencing 10. Blogging

a. a small electronic device that you can carry with you and use in any placefor a better communication. b. instant transmission of a printed document. c. receiving and sending mails through Internet. d. informal conversation using webcam to enable chatters to see one another. e. a system that makes it possible to have meetings with people in different parts of the world. f. a type of online journaling. g. a place on the Internet where people meet in cyberspace to chat, debate, and network. h. a place on the social networking site where you can express your thoughts and feelings, post photographs and show off your network of friends. i. a type of service available on the Internet that allows you to quickly exchange written messages with people that you know. j. a system of sending and receiving electronic signals that does not use electrical or telephone wires

 

4. READING

Read the text. Do the exercises.

Gadgets

Dave: I see you’ve still got your brick, Ken.

Ken: My what?

Dave: Your brick. Your 1990s mobile. Isn’t it too heavy to carry?

Ken: Ha ha, very funny. It still works fine, you know. It’s not the latest model, like yours, but unlike you I know I don’t need a mobile phone that can take pictures or access the internet. I don’t need to check my emails when I’m on the bus, and nor do you. No one does. Did you feel your life was empty before they invented the phone you have now? Of course you didn’t.

Dave: You’re a dinosaur, Ken. Don’t you think technology’s a good thing?

Ken: That depends. Some stuff’s really useful, like the high tech equipment in hospitals that saves people’s lives, but as for the electronic gadgets people buy in the shops these days, most of them are so unnecessary. Satnav, for example – why do I need a computer to tell me where I am when I’m driving? I can read a map. I can even stop and ask another human being.

Dave: I find satnav very handy. It saves time.

Ken: I bet it’s never saved you more than five minutes. You love wasting your money, don’t you?

Dave: You won’t want to know what I bought at the weekend, then?

Ken: A phone that can make you breakfast?

Dave: No, an e-book reader. It’s amazing. It stores the words of hundreds of books electronically, and you can just hold it in your hands. Now I can have my whole book collection right there in front of me.

Ken: So can I. On the bookshelves in my house.

Dave: No, but with an e-book reader you can access any of your books at the touch of a button.

Ken: And I can access any of my books by getting off the sofa and walking about three metres. It’s not difficult, and it’s a lot cheaper.

Dave: Oh, Ken, you just don’t understand.

Ken: No, you’re right, I don’t.

Answer the questions below.

1. What do you think Dave means when he jokes that Ken’s mobile phone is a ‘brick’?

2. How old does Dave say Ken’s mobile is?

3. What word does Ken use to describe the electronic gadgets people buy in the shops these days?

4. What example of useful technology does Ken give?

5. What two things does Ken suggest people who are driving can do instead of using satnav?

6. Ken jokes that Dave has bought something that doesn’t really exist – what is it?

7. What did Dave really buy at the weekend?

8. Where does Ken say his whole book collection is?

9. What do you think Dave means when he calls Ken a ‘dinosaur’?

10. What do you think Ken means when he says at the end of the conversation that he doesn’t understand?

Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F), or if the text doesn’t say (D).

1. Dave has a mobile phone.

2. Ken would like to have a camera on his mobile.

3. Dave often travels by bus.

4. Ken can drive a car.

5. Ken doesn’t believe satnav saves Dave much time.

6. Dave is unhappy with his new e-book reader.

7. Ken would like an e-book reader too.

8. Dave lives in a house, not a flat.

TELEPHONE ETIQUETTE.