Passage 5 When I asked my daughter which item she would keep: the phone, the car, the cooker, the computer, the TV, or her boyfriend, she said “the phone”. Personally, I could do without the phone entirely, which makes me unusual, because the telephone is changing our lives more than any other piece of technology. Point 1 The telephone creates the need to communicate, in the same way that more roads create more traffic. My daughter comes home from school at 4:00 p.m. and then spends an hour on the phone talking to the very people she has been at school with all day. If the phone did not exist, would she have anything to talk about? Point 2 The mobile phone means that we are never alone. “The mobile saved my life,” says Crystal Johnstone. She had an accident in her Volvo on the A45 between Otley and Skipton. Trapped inside, she managed to make the call that brought the ambulance to her rescue. Point 3 The mobile removes our secrets. It allows marketing manager of Haba Deutsch, Carl Nicolaisen, to ring his sales staff all round the world at any time of the day to ask where they are, where they are going, and how their last meeting went. Point 4 The telephone separates us Antonella Bramante in Rome says, “We worked in separate offices but I could see him through the window. It was easy to get his number. We were so near— but we didn’t meet for the first two weeks!” Point 5 The telephone allows us to reach out beyond our own lives. Today we can talk to several complete strangers simultaneously on chat lines. We can talk across the world. We can even talk to astronauts while they are spacewalking. And, with the phone line hooked up to the computer, we can access the Internet, the biggest library on Earth. Multiple Choice 1. How do you understand “Point 1: The telephone creates the need to communicate”? A. People don’t communicate without a telephone. B. People communicate more because it is so cheap to do so with the telephone. C. People communicate more because of the convenience brought by the telephone. D. People communicate more because of more traffic. 2. Which of the following best shows people’s attitude towards the mobile phone? A. It helps people deal with emergencies. B. It brings convenience to them but removes their secrets. C. It is so important that everyone should use it. D. It keeps them company so that they are not alone. 3. Which points do you think support the idea that the phone improves people’s life? A. Points 3 and 4. B. Points 1 and 5. C. Points 1 and 3. D. Points 2 and 5. 4. It is possible to talk to several complete strangers simultaneously through ______. A. a TV screen B. an answering machine C. a phone line hooked up to a computer D. a microphone 5. The best title for the passage is ________. A. Phone Power B. Kinds of Phones C. How to Use Phones D. Advantage of Phones