More and more residences, businesses, and even government agencies are using telephone answering machines to take messages or give information or instructions. Sometimes these machines give (1)_____ instructions, or play messages that are difficult to understand. If you (2)_____ telephone calls, you need to be ready to respond when you get a (3)_____ The most common machine is the (4)_____ used in residence. If you call a home (5)_____ there is a telephone answering machine (6)_____ you will hear several rings and then a recorded message that (7)_____ says something like this: 'Hello. We can't come to the (8)_____ right now. If you want us to call you back, please leave your name and number after the beep.' Then you will hear a 'beep', (9)_____ is a brief, high-pitched (10)_____. After the beep, you can say who you are, whom you want to speak to, and what number the person should call to (11)_____ you, or you can leave a (12)_____. Some telephone answering machines record for only 20 or 30 seconds after the beep, (13)_____ you must respond quickly. Some large businesses and government agencies are using telephone answering machines to provide information on (14)_____ about which they receive a large volume of (15)_____. Generally speaking, using these systems (16)_____ you to have a touch-tone phone (a phone with buttons rather than a rotary dial). The voice on the machine will tell you to (17)_____ a certain button on your telephone if you want information on Topic A, another button for Topic B, and so on. You listen (18)_____ you hear the topic you want to learn about, and then you push the (19)_____ button. Immediately after making your (20)_____, you will hear a recorded message on the topic.