【英语语言学习】还在发简讯吗？太老套了

LYNN NEARY, HOST:

 

If you have teenagers in your house, you may find this hard to believe, but texting - at least the kind you do through your cellphone provider - is on the decline¹. This news comes from the British consulting firm Deloitte, which reported that the number of texts sent in Britain last year decreased by seven billion. Of course, that doesn't mean we are retreating² to snail³ mail or even email. And don't think for a minute that anyone is abandoning texting language - those lovely acronyms⁴ like OMG and LOL. No, of course not. And here to tell us what is replacing good old-fashioned⁵ texting is David Gerzof Richard, a professor of digital media and marketing⁶ at Emerson College in Boston. Good to have you with us, David.

 

DAVID GERZOF RICHARD: Always good to be with you.

 

NEARY: Now, according to Deloitte's technology predictions report, there were 160 billion instant messages sent in the U.K. last year, and that's compared to only 145 billion texts. Now, that is still an awful lot of texts, but can you explain why there has been such a drop? I mean, is it more expensive to text?

 

RICHARD: It depends on what network you're on, and what country you're in. The cellphone products, the service products that companies offer sometimes include text messaging and sometimes they don't. And if they don't, then they charge for it. So, what people have been doing in cases where they are being billed for the texts that they're sending, they're moving over to apps, apps on smartphones.

 

NEARY: OK. So, apps like what? Like Facebook and Snapchat? Is that what we're talking about?

 

RICHARD: So, Snapchat, Facebook would be two of them. Some of the most popular ones are an app called WhatsApp or a Chinese program called WeChat. And between Apple's iMessage, WhatsApp and WeChat, they're sending 50 billion messages globally each day.

 

NEARY: OK. And what's better for people? Why is it better for people to use those apps?

 

RICHARD: Well, there's a couple of reasons. One is it's free. You're using the data portion⁷ of your cellphone plan, so it doesn't cost you anything to send a text over there. And there's a lot more sort of multimedia⁸ richness that can be built in. You can have these chats with all kinds of friends from all over the place based on a user⁹ ID, not a cellphone number. And there's all kinds of interesting things that can be added into this.

 

NEARY: So, they really are still texting, just using a different means, right?

 

RICHARD: Yeah. So, the texting language is still being used. It's just instead of going over the traditional cellphone networks through the texting app that's built into your phone when you get it from the store, you're using an app you're downloading through, say, the Apple App Store and using that to be able to connect with your friends.

 

NEARY: David Gerzof Richard is a professor of digital media and marketing at Emerson College. Thanks for being with us, Professor Richard.

 

RICHARD: Always good to be with you.

 

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NEARY: This is NPR News.

1 decline   

n.衰微，跌落，下降；vt.使降低，婉谢；vi.下降，衰落，偏斜

参考例句：

• I must decline to show favour to any of the candidates.我必须拒绝偏袒任何一位候选人。
• The birthrate is on the decline.出生率在下降。

2 retreating   

撤退( retreat的现在分词 )； 隐退； 离开； 规避

参考例句：

• They watched his retreating figure. 他们看着他走远的身影。
• Why didn't he hold the Yankees instead of everlastingly retreating? 他为什么不将北军挡住，反而节节败退呢？

3 snail   

n.蜗牛

参考例句：

• Snail is a small plant-eating creature with a soft body.蜗牛是一种软体草食动物。
• Time moved at a snail's pace before the holidays.放假前的时间过得很慢。

4 acronyms   

n.首字母缩略词( acronym的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Scratch the subject of defence and acronyms, abbreviations, and buzzwords fly out. 话题触及国防，缩合字，缩写字和行话就满天飞。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Some acronyms as scientific terminology are used as a lexical item. 一些科学术语缩写用作词汇项目。 来自互联网

5 old-fashioned   

adj.旧式的，保守的，挑剔的

参考例句：

• Why do you still dress in an old-fashioned mode?你为什么还穿款式陈旧的衣服？
• Here is an old-fashioned pump for drawing water from a well.这里有一个旧式水泵可从井里抽水。

6 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

7 portion   

n.部分，份，命运；v.将...分配，分配

参考例句：

• You are paid your portion not later than a week. 不会晚于一周你就可以得到你那一部分报酬。
• Three thousand dollars is no more than a portion.3000美元只不过是一部分。

8 multimedia   

adj.多种手段的，多媒体的；n.多媒体

参考例句：

• Multimedia is the combination of computer and video technology.多媒体是计算机和视频技术的结合。
• Adam raised the issue of multimedia applications and much useful discussion ensued.亚当提出了多媒体应用的问题，从而引发了许多有益的讨论。

9 user   

n.用户，使用者

参考例句：

• The company is the biggest user of oil.该公司是最大的石油用户。
• The umbrella keeps the rains off the user.雨伞使撑伞人免受雨淋。