Text Messages

Can you remember where you 0) were when the first text message … sent in the UK? You can’t? I’m not surprised. Nor … anyone else. But it’s unpredictable world, and nothing has been less predicted … the rise of text messaging. It came from nowhere to become … fastest growing phenomenon … recent times.

Over 2 million text messages are sent … hour in the UK. The mobile phone industry claims … 95% of them arrive within 10 seconds “in normal circumstances”. Texting has opened up an entirely new area … communication that didn’t exist before – brief messages for … there is a huge demand but which don’t need the fuss of a written letter.

Texting has become a means … parents to maintain contact with … children, for grandparents to bond with grandchildren, for television to interact … the audience. It is a marketing tool of huge potential for companies which, for the first time, can build … profiles if individual users and target them for special offers.

Texting has not been successful simply because it enables you to communicate with others … phone without speaking, … because it is brief and no one expects anything of the usual formalities. Its simplicity … ensure its long life.

DISCOVERING LANGUAGE

1. Open the brackets and put the verbs in the proper tense form.

Things are not Always Black or White

When I was in elementary school, I (to get) into a major argument with a boy in my class. I (to forget) what the argument (to be) about, but I never (to forget) the lesson I (to learn) that day.

I (to convince) that I was right and he was wrong - and he was just as convinced that I was wrong and he was right. The teacher (to decide) to teach us a very important lesson. She (to bring) us up to the front of the class and (to place) him on one side of her desk and me on the other. In the middle of her desk there (to be) a large, round object. I (can) clearly see that it (to be) black. She (to ask) the boy what colour the object (to be). "White", he (to answer).

I (can’t) believe he (to say) the object (to be) white, when it (to be) obviously black! Another argument (to start) between my classmate and me, this time about the colour of the object.

The teacher (to tell) me to go stand where the boy (to stand) and (to tell) him to come stand where I (to be).

We (to change) places, and now she (to ask) me what the colour of the object (to be). I (to have) to answer, "White". It was an object with two differently coloured sides, and from his viewpoint it (to be) white. Only from my side was it black.

My teacher (to teach) me a very important lesson that day: You (must) stand in the other person's shoes and look at the situation through their eyes in order to truly understand their perspective.

Paxton, J., 1998.

2. Most of the lines in the text below contain an unnecessary word. Find the unnecessary words and write them in the spaces. If you think a line is correct, put a tick (˅) on the line. The first two lines are done for you.