单选题 In the case of mobile phones, change is everything. Recent research indicates that the mobile phone is changing not only our culture, but our very bodies as well.
First, let"s talk about culture. The difference between the mobile phone and its parent, the fixed-line phone, is that a mobile number corresponds to a person, while a landline goes to a place. If you call my mobile, you get me. If you call my fixed-line phone, you get whoever answers it.
This has several implications. The most common one, however, and perhaps the thing that has changed our culture forever, is the "meeting" influence. People no longer need to make firm plans about when and where to meet. Twenty years ago, a Friday night would need to be arranged in advance. You needed enough time to allow everyone to get from their place of work to the first meeting place. Now, however, a night our can be arranged on the run. It is no longer "see you there at 8", but "text me around 8 and we"ll see where we all are".
Texting changes people as well. In their paper, "Insights into the Social and Psychological Effects of SMS Text Messaging", two British researchers distinguished between two types of mobile phone users: the "talkers" and the "texters"—those who prefer voice to text messages and those who prefer text to voice.
They found that the mobile phone"s individuality and privacy gave texters the ability to express a whole new outer personality. Texters were likely to report that their family would be surprised if they were to read their texts. This suggests that texting allowed texters to present a self-image that differed from the one familiar to those who knew them well.
Another scientist wrote of the changes that mobiles have brought to body language. There are two kinds that people use while speaking on the phone. There is the "speakeasy": the head is held high, in a self-confident way, chatting away. And there is the "spacemaker": these people focus on themselves and keep out other people.
Who can blame them? Phone meetings get cancelled or reformed and camera-phones intrude on people"s privacy. So, it is understandable if your mobile makes you nervous. But perhaps you needn"t worry so much. After all, it is good to talk.
单选题 When people plan to meet nowadays, they ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 细节事实题。根据题干关键词plan,meet定位到第三段第三句。原句中的no longer与选项C中的seldom对应,原句中的when and where to meet与选项C重现。故答案为C。
单选题 According to the two British researchers, the social and psychological effects are mostly likely to be seen on ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 细节推理题。根据题干关键词psychological effects定位到原文第四、五两段。根据第五段首句可知,手机的个体性和隐私性赋予短信用户以呈现崭新外向个性的能力。故答案为D项“短信用户”。
单选题 We can infer from the passage that the texts sent by texters are ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 细节推理题。根据原文第五段最后两句可知,短信让使用者展现自我,家人收到用户所发短信会surprised(惊奇),而A项“相当明显”;C项“不能被别人接受”;D项shocking意指坏的事情给别人以震惊而不是惊奇,故均可排除。B项(字斟句酌)符合题意。故答案为B。
单选题 According to the passage, who is afraid of being heard while talking on the mobile?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 细节事实题。根据原文第六段尾句可知spacemaker远离别人窃窃私语。故答案为C。
单选题 An appropriate title for the passage might be ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 主旨题。通读全文可知手机带给我们习惯的改变,如文中所述开会通知和短信用户,以及肢体语言的变化。C、D两项片面概括文意,B项(使用手机所带来的文化变化)概括文意。故答案为B。