时间:2019-01-23 作者:英语课 分类:一起听英语


英语课

随着手机的更新换代,固定电话逐步退出居民的生活,人人都有手机。除了办公室还在用固定电话外,很少有家庭还会安装固定电话了。


Rob: Hello, I'm Rob, welcome to 6 Minute English. With me in the studio today is


Feifei.


Feifei: Hi Rob.


Rob: The star of today's programme is not Feifei. But an item of office equipment,


which normally doesn't get much attention – it's the landline telephone.


Feifei: I guess we don't really give much of a thought to landline phones. Before mobile


phones, we didn't even call them 'landlines'. They were just phones.


Rob: They were just phones – phones with a curly 1 wire coming out of them, plugged


into the wall. Millions of people had them. Millions more couldn't afford one, or


didn't live near a phone network - or were on a waiting list to have one installed.


In India even today, in the age of the mobile phone, there are still 50,000 people


on the waiting list for a landline. But now, all over the world, the number of


people with a landline is falling, because people prefer to use mobile phones.


Worldwide, four in every five phone numbers are mobile phone numbers. In


India, that means there are 614 mobile phones for every thousand people. But


how many landlines do you think there are, for every thousand people?


a) 2.9


b) 29


c) 290


Feifei: I'll go for b) 29.


Rob: We'll find out if you're right at the end of the programme. Now, the landline


might disappear one day, but it hasn't gone yet. A big landline phone sits on


many office desks round the world. For decades, a landline phone came with a


white collar job.


6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2013


Page 2 of 5


Feifei: A white collar job, meaning an office job.


Rob: Exactly. English journalist Lucy Kellaway has a landline phone on her desk. It's


big, grey and it doesn't ring very often. And even when it does ring, she doesn't


answer it.


Feifei: A lot of people don't answer their landlines these days. You can leave a message


as a voicemail, but you don't know whether it will be listened to.


Rob: Well I think maybe it won't. Lucy Kellaway hasn't answered her landline phone


for a year, or checked her voicemail. And she told the BBC what happened when


she found her password, and checked her voicemail after all that time:


Lucy Kellaway:


Until about a decade ago, the office phone was the symbol of white collar work. It was the


most important thing on any desk. But now these clumping 2 phones sit largely silent. My own


large grey telephone sits quietly on my desk and when it occasionally decides to ring I don't


usually answer. Just now I decided 3 to see what I'd been missing. It took a while as I couldn't


remember my password, and then I found more than 100 messages were waiting patiently to


be heard.


Rob: Lucy Kellaway checking her voicemail messages after 12 months.


Feifei: She had 100 messages. That's bad, all those people must wonder why she didn't


reply to them.


Rob: Well, actually she found none of the messages were important – they were all


duplicates 4 or copies of messages she'd also received by email or text.


Feifei: Text as in text message – or SMS.


Rob: That's right. Let's hear what she found. Here's Lucy again:


Lucy Kellaway:


The first voicemail went like this: 'Hi Lucy this is Marcia – just following up on an email I sent.'


I pressed delete. The second: 'Hello Lucy, just a quick call, I'm from such-and-such, we just


wanted to update our contact details'. And on it went. All either useless or duplicates of


information I got by email or text. By not answering the phone for a year I'd lost nothing and 


6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2013


Page 3 of 5


gained much in terms of efficiency and control. It has allowed me to talk only to the people I


want to talk to, at a time that suits me.


Feifei: Hmm, so people were just emailing her and then following up on the emails with


a call to her landline. Sometimes if people don't answer an email, I follow it up


with a phone call as well.


Rob: So maybe Lucy doesn't answer her emails either! She says not answering her


landline means she's gained in efficiency and control.


Feifei: She's more efficient because she says it doesn't interrupt her work.


Rob: And in control because she only talks to people she wants to talk to, at a time


when she wants to talk.


Feifei: I agree with her, I like to screen calls.


Rob: Screening calls – you like to check who's calling and decide whether to


answer? I hope you don't do that to me!


Feifei: You'll never know! But really, email and texting is more private. I don't like


talking on the phone in a busy office.


Rob: Well lots of people agree with you, Feifei. But although she doesn't answer hers,


Lucy Kellaway misses the atmosphere of a busy office. She explains why.


Lucy Kellaway:


The death of the landline may be better for us individually but it's worse for the bonds between


us. The saddest thing is what the decline 5 has done to the atmosphere in offices. There are no


noisy phones creating buzz 6 and urgency. Once upon a time I found these calls annoying but


now the door into the private lives of my workmates is closed. I wish I could open it again.


Feifei: She's a journalist, so I imagine her newspaper office used to be very noisy, with


lots of phones ringing and urgent phone conversations. That must have been an


exciting atmosphere.


Rob: Yes, you heard she used the word 'buzz' for that exciting atmosphere. But she


also says some of the calls were annoying. 


6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2013


Page 4 of 5


Feifei: And it sounds like they weren't all about important newspaper business, because


she mentioned hearing about her colleagues' private lives.


Rob: Okay so now to our question. Earlier I asked you about landline phones in India.


How many landlines are there for each thousand people?


Feifei: And I said 29.


Rob: And you were right. The answer is 29 landlines for every thousand people. Well,


we're out of time. Please join us again soon for 6 Minute English from


bbclearningenglish.


Both: Bye.



adj.卷曲的,卷缩的
  • The little boy has curly hair.这小男孩长着一头卷发。
  • She is tall and dark with curly hair.她高高的个子,黑皮肤,卷头发。
v.(树、灌木、植物等的)丛、簇( clump的现在分词 );(土、泥等)团;块;笨重的脚步声
  • Wipe the wand off before the first coat to prevent clumping. 把睫毛棒刷干净,避免结块。 来自互联网
  • Fighting gravitational clumping would take a wavelength of a few dozen light-years. 为了对抗重力造成的聚集,这些粒子的波长可能会长达好几十光年的距离。 来自互联网
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
n.完全一样的东西,复制品( duplicate的名词复数 );抄件,副本;摹本;翻版v.[遗传学]重复,被复制,复制( duplicate的第三人称单数 );复印;使成双
  • Breathing hard from the sprint. Shoot again Repeat twice for duplicates. 跑得气喘吁吁,再拍一次,重复两次以便留底。 来自英汉文学 - 廊桥遗梦
  • He now corresponded with them and swamped duplicates. 现在他和那些人互通信件,互相交换复制品。 来自辞典例句
n.衰微,跌落,下降;vt.使降低,婉谢;vi.下降,衰落,偏斜
  • I must decline to show favour to any of the candidates.我必须拒绝偏袒任何一位候选人。
  • The birthrate is on the decline.出生率在下降。
v.充满了激动或活动的声音,发出低沉的声音
  • My brain was in buzz.我的脑袋嗡嗡响。
  • A buzz went through the crowded courtroom.拥挤的法庭里响起了一片乱哄哄的说话声。
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agrarianizes
aircured
Alexandroff compactification
anantherate
anti-isomorphic algebra
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appropriate public authority
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dog tied up
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F-actinF
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fuzzy production system
Fëdora I Aleksandra, Ostrova
hansen-woodyard end-fire linear array
heatabsorbent surface
incrementor
integrated services network
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laser fusion experimental device
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leapfroging
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Lyon King of Arms
magnetic belt
marakkanam (merkanam)
Microula forrestii
mining area communication
mohorita
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No rose without a thorn
no-load jet
number-theoretical method
olsens
PCOP
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pin-fire
potter oscillator
preferential attack
present speed
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protonatable
pump noise monitor
puppily
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raisining
red deadnettle
reduced form disturbance
register,arithmetic and logic unit
release connection
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rich-bound
salahaddin
salicylic acid filter
shamas
simulated interview
skeleton key
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SSL certificate
St Mary Pk.
steam gauge stand
stockroom
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tangerine trees
Teviot
Therems
throw yourself at sb
tongue and groove labyrinth
trigonum dorsale
triphenyl tetrazolium chloride method
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ungallantry
universal rolling mill
wet dust extraction