1)
Which statement best summarises the article?
Which word best describes the writing?
The Immobile Phone
Nowadays, it’s hard for the young to imagine, but many years ago, people used to ‘text’ on their ‘mobile telephones’. Historians tell us that it was a very long process which now seems incredibly primitive.
First of all, you needed to find your ‘mobile phone’. This in itself could take some time. You should remember that these were the days before telephones were attached to the wall, so the chances of losing them were very high. Once you found your phone, you had to use your fingers to type a message into a tiny window. The messages often came out wrong, because everyone’s fingers were bigger than the keys, and even when they came out right it was hard to work out what they meant, as it became traditional to leave out all the vowels in order to save time. You would then send, or ‘snd’, your message, or ‘msg’ to your reader.
But - and this is what seems so strange - you had absolutely no way of knowing whether the text had reached its destination, or whether the recipient had read it. Only if the recipient texted back - a process which could also take time - did you know whether your original message got through. This process, of course, became longer and even more drawn out if any form of ‘conversation’, texting to and fro, for such lengthy periods that they developed a form of repetitive strain injury.
Then came the invention of a telephone that allowed people to speak and be spoken to. Suddenly, conversations could take place between two people without any need for the tedious process of type, send, wait, read, type, send, and so on. It goes without saying that ‘texting’ soon turned into a thing of the past, though today you can sometimes still see people doing it in old movies and period dramas, and there is even a Museum of Texting in the town of Sutton Coldfield, in which performers dress up as old-fashioned teenagers in period costume (‘jeans’, ’T-shirts’ and trainers) and ‘text’ one another.
After the invention of the ‘speaking’ mobile phone, people started to long for a phone that would be impossible to lose. Thankfully, someone came up with the bright idea of inventing a telephone with a wire linking it to the wall, so that it always remained in the same place.
‘The invention of the Immobile Phone was one of the great breakthroughs of the age,’ says a leading historian. ‘For the first time, people could speak on the telephone without worrying about losing it or its battery running down.’ Another veteran of the period recalls, the sense of freedom people felt at the invention of the Immobile Phone.
‘You should remember that before the Immobile Phone, people felt chained to their mobile. They were unable to leave their home or office without it, and felt the need to carry it with them even when they were shopping, or going for a walk.
‘You even saw people walking around with them on their heads. The Immobile Phone changed all that, and gave the opportunity, for the very first time, to relax and switch off.’
Yet, there was still room to make more progress. Was it possible to come up with a way of talking to other people that did not involve talking into a machine? Some of the greatest scientists of their day set their minds to coming up with a solution.
And then - out of the blue - came the discovery of face-to-face conversation. ‘It was extraordinary,’ remembers someone who was there at the time. ‘The human race was suddenly given this marvellous gift of talking to one another without needing to use a machine or a gadget.’
‘The world suddenly seemed to fresh. We had become so used to texting, and then to talking through mobiles, and then to talking through Immobiles, that we had no idea just how exciting it would be to talk to each other face-to-face. And there was no cost involved, no batteries, no problem with reception - it was all great!’
Since then, PFC, or ‘phone-free conversation’ has taken off all over the world. It seemed a bit strange at first, but now people are completely used to talking ‘face to face’m and the wouldn’t have it any other way.