Read the First Part of the Article Very Carefully

UNIT 8

TASK 1 The article below is entitled ”The Text Generation”. Can you guess what is it about?

TASK 2 Read the first part of the article very carefully.

THE TEXT GENERATION Using a mobile phone to pass notes instantly is now a global phenom, to the experts´s surprise By William Underhill

Something strange has happened to the mobile phone. In defiance of all industry forecasts, today’s user seems to want to write, not chat. SMS, Short Message Service, has been around for a decade, but in recent years it began spreading like a virus throughout the globe. Last year the number of messages reached 200 billion. In Finland, the average teenager is now thought to tap out 100 messages a month. A Danish medical clinic recently admitted its first texting addict, a driver who sent up to 200 messages a day.

This phenomenon has surprised everybody. The telecom industry adopted SMS as a standard technology in 1991 as a way to sop up extra network capacity, just in case somebody somewhere might find it useful. Unlike e-mail, text messages arrive almost instantaneously, so that two people can have a text-based conversation as though they were in an Internet chat room. At first, subscribers were able to send messages only within their own networks. The service was neither advertised nor promoted. A year or two ago, teenagers and twenty-somethings spotted potential. Here was an efficient way of communicating that had the powerful charm of novelty. Numbers rose rapidly, especially in the tech-friendly countries of the Far East and Scandinavia, where the mobile-phone boom first took off among young consumers. “This was an accidental revolution,” says Simon Buckingham of the Mobile Lifestreams consultancy. “Consumers just adopted SMS as their own medium. Every generation needs its own way of expressing itself; this is the text generation.”

The service has all the immediacy of a phone call - as well as extra privacy and just a hint of the subversive. “My dad overhears me talking on the phone all the time, but I don’t have to worry about that with text messages,” says Chika Saito, a high-school junior in Japan who sends about 10 messages a day. “I can punch the buttons real quick, using just one hand, and my dad says it drives him crazy just seeing me do it.” Background noise is no problem - ever tried talking on a mobile phone from a crowded bar? - and a reception isn’t an issue. A survey by the British polling firm MORI found that a heartless 13 percent of users have used text messages to break off relationships. Best of all, the text habit doesn’t strain even modest student budget. A brief message - the technology allows maximum length of just 160 characters - won’t usually cost more than 15 cents. “It’s cheap, it’s quick and it’s international,” says 21-year-old Paris student Lara Bourji. “I can send a message anywhere in the world for one franc.” These budget rates encourage constant, informal text conversation.

Popularity now seems to be spreading across the generation gap. “It’s better than answering service.” says 45-year-old Rome housewife Annamaria Lovari, who lives without e-mail or a fixed-line phone. “My sons always let me know when they have arrived at their destination with a text message instead of a call.”

TASK 3 Try to guess the meaning of the following expressions from the context and think of a suitable Slovak equivalent: IN DEFIANCE TAP OUT SOP UP TEXT-BASED CONVERSATION SUBSCRIBER BOOM PUNCH THE BUTTONS SPOTTED POTENTIAL POLLING FIRM MORI BREAK OFF RELATIONSHIPS STRAIN THE BUDGET FIXED-LINED PHONE TECH-FRIENDLY COUNTRY

TASK 4 Work in pairs. Summarise the advantages of the text messages. Feel free to add your own ones.

TASK 5 Read the second part of the article and explain the following words in English (and/or find their synonyms) deriving their meanings from the context.

AFICIONADO SPELL OUT BE FOXED UNINITIATED HANDSET DUE OUT KEEP UP SMART PHONES SCRAMBLING TO DEVELOP

For many texting aficionados, the practical difficulty is just part of the fun. Spelling out a message with a thumb’s edge takes more time than most teenagers or young adults can afford. So users have developed their own high-speed vocabulary, a mix of available icons, snappy acronyms and phonetic shorthand. Although adults may be foxed, youngsters will know just what’s meant by CUL8R (see you later) or QL (cool). Guides are available for uninitiated. In Britain, three of the top best-selling books are English-to-text dictionaries. A full 300-page lexicon is due out next month. But the language is evolving quicker than publishers can keep up. “The whole point is that everyone can invent it; it’s just a visual translation of the spoken word,” says Gabrielle Mander, who compiled “Wan2Tlk? Ltl Bk of Txt Msgs.” Where fashion leads, commerce follows. For the marketers, SMS has some rare and valuable qualities. Sometimes subscribers will be offered a special service - say, news or weather reports - in return for receiving occasional ads. “It provides the kind of access that advertisers can only dream of - zero percent waste and 100 percent reach,” says Heidi Hutchinson of a marketing research company. Already ads for everything from condoms to airlines have begun reaching subscribers through their handsets. The mobile-phone firms are hoping that the success of SMS may help answer one big question about the future of wireless: what (if anything) are customers likely to want from Internet-linked smart phones, which will hit Europe and Asia in the next year or so? Phone companies have spent 100 billion dollars on the third-generation technology that will allow these phones to send and receive vast amounts of data. What’s the point of this fancy technology if customers really just want to send short text messages? Now engineers are scrambling to develop so-called multimedia messaging services, in which users would send text messages enriched with still or video images or sound clips - a sort of voice e-mail. Only when the third generation hits the market will they know for sure whether it’s GR8 (great) or NAGI (not a good idea).

Adopted and abridged from Newsweek, April 2, 2001

TASK 6 Discussion points: Do you think it is necessary to have a mobile? How does it apply to teenagers? Can you list the situations in which a mobile may be embarrassing? Can you formulate some rules regarding the mobile phone use? In the United States, mobile is not as popular as in the countries in Europe. What might be the reason? How does the statement “Where fashion leads, commerce follows” apply to mobiles? What do you think of receiving occasional ads to your mobile? Have you got any experience with similar services? Are you aware of possible health risks due to mobile use? What functions should your ideal mobile have?

TASK 7 Work in pairs. Try to rewrite some words into the SMS language. Then present it to rest of the class if they can understand them.

GRAMMAR PREPOSITIONS

A - Place: in - place as three-dimensional Simon is in his room. - place as an area We went for a walk in the park. at - place as a point I waited at the bus stop for twenty minutes. on - place as a surface What's that on the table? - place as a line Brighton is on the south coast of England. Notes: - With cities, towns and villages, we use at when we think of the place as a point, e.g. a point on a journey: Our train stops at Bratislava. - With cities, towns and villages, we use in when we think of the place itself: She's got a house in Prague. - With buildings we use at or in. We prefer at when we think of the building quite generally as a place where something happens: She works at the post office. We use in when we think of the building itself: She works in the post office opposite your school. - With addresses, we use at when we give the house number; we use in when we just give the name of the street ( we use on in American English): I live at 4 Medicka Street. I live in Medicka Street.

TASK 8 Complete the sentences using the correct prepositions (sometimes there are more possibilities): . They live ….Coronation Street ….number 32. . Jack works ….London ….a primary school. . When we were ….the north we stayed ….a small hotel ….the coast. . Meet me ….the entrance to the cinema. . My book is ….the chair ….the kitchen.

B - Place and movement: into/in  out of Sally fell into/in the river. Peter came out of the house and locked the door. onto/on  off He jumped onto/on the horse. Take your feet off the table. inside/in  outside Sue was sitting inside/in the restaurant. There's a car outside the house. Note: - We use in with cars, but on with public transport like buses, trains: I usually go to work in my car and my wife goes on the bus. Just as I was getting into my car to give her a lift, she got on the bus. over  under- describe a direct vertical relationship above  below - describe a thing that is not directly over or under another thing Notes: - We use over to mean "covering" and under to mean "covered by": He put his hand over his face. What are you hiding under that blanket? - We use over to mean "across": We walked over the fields to the village. - We can use underneath instead of under: What are you wearing underneath your coat? - We use on top of to mean that one thing is "over and touching" another thing: The magazine is on top of the fridge.

TASK 9 Choose the correct preposition: . The house was on a hill above / over the village. . The dog was sleeping below / under the kitchen table. . On your way to the village you shall drive above / over a small bridge. . There are some old things above / on top of the wardrobe. . Ken fell out of / off the ladder when he was changing the light bulb. . When I was in / at my hotel room, I started to take my clothes off / out of my suitcase. . The cat jumped onto / into the roof of the car.

C - Time: in - part of the day in the morning - longer period (month, season) in July, in 1998, in the 5th century at - a time of the day at 2 o'clock, at midnight, at lunchtime - weekends at the weekend - public holiday periods at Christmas, at Easter on - a day on Monday, on Christmas day - a date on 5th June Notes: - We do not use at, on or in before next, last, this, every, all, each, some, any and one: I'll see you this evening. - We do not use at, on or in before tomorrow and yesterday: What did you do yesterday night? - On time means "at exactly the right time": The train arrived on time. - In time means "early enough": We arrived at the cinema in time to buy the tickets and see the film. - At the end means "at the point where something stops": At the end of the day I was very tired. - In the end means "finally" or "after some time": We couldn't decide what to do yesterday evening. In the end we decided to stay at home.

TASK 10 Complete the sentences using the correct prepositon: . Do you enjoy driving ….night? . Did he send you a card ….your wedding day? . I normally come home from work….about 4 o'clock but I come earlier ….Fridays. . She was born ….1910. . The bus service is terrible; the buses are never ….time. . She didn't arrive …. time to say goodbye to him. . I hated school at first, but ….the end I quite enjoyed it. . She's starting work ….the end of April. . We were all exhausted ….the end of the journey. during  in - use both to refer to a period of time It rained during / in the night. - use during, not in to refer to an activity During dinner I spoke about my plans. during  while  for - during says when something happens, we use a noun after duringI met her during my holidays. - while says when something happens, but we use a clause after while I met her while I was on holiday. - for says how long something continues It snowed for three days. by  till / untill - until / till means "up to the time when…" I'll be out till 12 o'clock. - by means "not later than" I'll be home by 12 o'clock. before  ago - ago is an adverb meaning "before now" it comes after an expression of time, we use ago only with a past tense, not with the present perfect She left an hour ago. - before is a preposition meaning "before some time" I'll be home before 5 o'clock. TASK 11 Choose the correct preposition: - Some people were talking in the cinema in / during / while the film. - We visited some interesting places during / while we were in Paris. - I waited to / till half past eight, but she didn't come. - They hope to finish the job by / till next Thursday. - John worked in a travel agency during / for three months. - I started playing the piano nine years before / ago I composed my first song. - He was given his first guitar 20 years ago / before.

TASK 12 Work in groups of 3-4. Write a story using as many of the prepositions as you can.

VOCABULARY admit pripustiť, uznať afford dovoliť (si) destination miesto určenia, cieľ cesty fancy fantastický globe zemeguľa hint of subversive štipka podvratnosti modest skromný phenom jav, úkaz survey odhad, prieskum still pevný, stály valuable cenný vast obrovský wireless bezdrôtový

BIBLIOGRAPHY UNDERHILL, W.; The Text Generation, Newsweek, April2, 2001 HEINEMAN, English Grammar for Intermediate Students