Question

If you’ve been joining in chat room conversations, or trading e-mail with net pals(網友), you have become one of the millions who write in a special, short form of English.

Throughout the world, every night children and their elders are “talking” online — many of them are talking at the same time.

It’s fast: trying talking to six people once. It’s convenient: three or four words per exchange. It takes cleverness, concentration and quick fingers.

And it requires very simple language. There’s neither time nor space for explanations. Why waste valuable time telling six friends you have to leave for a moment to take care of your little brother when BRB (=be right back) will do?

Want to enter a conversation? Just type PMFJI (=pardon me for jumping in).

Interested in whom you’re talking to? Type A/S/L, the common request to know your pal’s age, sex and location. You may get 15/M/NY as a reply from your pal.

If something makes you laugh, say you’re OTF (=on the floor), or LOL (=laughing out loud), or join the two into ROTFL (=rolling on the floor laughing).

And when it’s time to get back to work or go to bed, you type GTG (=got to go) or TTYL (=talk to you later).

People want to write as fast as possible, and they want to get their ideas across as quickly as they can. Capital letters are left in the dust, except when expressing feeling, as it takes more time to hold down the “shift” key and use capitals. Punctuation is going too.

1.When people are online, they talk by ______.

A. using body language

B. drawing some strange pictures

C. making phone calls

D. making use of a special short form of English

2.The sentence “There’s neither time nor space for explanations” means that ______.

A. people should use words properly

B. people should know what time it is when they are talking

C. people online have to express themselves in a simple way

D. people should communicate in a funny way

3. If you get 17/F/NY as an answer to your A/S/L, it means ______.

A. the people on the other end is 17 from New York and he is fine

B. you are talking to a girl who is 17 and lives in New York

C. you are talking to 17 girls who are from New York

D. the people you are talking to is a 17-foot tall New York girl

4. Which of the following is a way to save online time?

A. People seldom use capital letters or punctuation marks.

B. Many people draw pictures.

C. People only use the mouse instead of the keyboard.

D. People never use the “shift” key.

Answer 1