Conversation One
M: So, Linzy, do you like to text message on your cell phone?
W: Yeah, I text message a lot.
M: I don't do it so much. I prefer to make a call if I'm in a hurry.
W: Yeah, I go both ways. Sometimes I don’t really want to talk to the person. I just want to ask them one question, so it's much easier for me just to text message. If I call them, I'll have to have a long conversation.
M: Yeah, I can see what you mean. But I get off the phone pretty quickly when I call. I'm not a big talker.
W: Yeah, that's true. You don't talk a lot.
M: So are you fast at writing the messages with your thumb?
W: Well, when I first got a cell phone, I was so slow. I thought I would never text message. But then people kept text messaging me, so I felt obliged to learn how to text message. So now I'm pretty fast. What about you?
M: Actually I have the opposite problem. When I first got my cell phone, I thought it was so cool to text message all my friends who have one, and I was pretty fast with my thumb then. But it seems like now I don't use it so much, I've got slower actually.
W: Yeah, I think text messaging actually is what you have to do with your age. For example, people in high school, they text message a lot. But I ask my father if he texted messages, and guess what he said?
M: What?
W: He said he'd never text message. He thinks it's very childish and unprofessional to text message.
M: Yeah, I can see what he means. It's considered pretty informal to text message to someone.
Questions 8 to 11 are based on the conversation you've just heard.
Q8: What does the man say about himself?
Q9: What does the woman tend to do while she is on the phone?
Q10: Why did the man text message all his friends when he first got his cell phone?
Q11: What does the woman's father think of text messaging?