Vocabulary

5 Find the words and phrases in the text that mean:

1 clear and exact (paragraph 2)

2 put into similar groups (2)

3 to bring back (2)

4 make smaller (4)

5 mathematical words (4)

6 does not use (4)

6 Are the words in the groups below listed from general to specific or specific to general? Write G->S or S->G.

1 telephone -> mobile phone-> Nokia ________

2 mother -> family -> humans __________

3 writing -> essay -> sentence __________

4 Big Ben-> London -> UK ___________

5 cars -> vehicles -> transport ___________

6 cars -> German cars -> BMW ___________

Speaking

Talk about the keywords you should use to find information on the following topics.

• information on cheap hotels in the UK

• what the weather will be like tomorrow

• an essay on the history of the European Economic Union

• mobile phones that connect to the Internet

• a nice present for your mother's birthday.

Get real

Carry out the searches in Exercise 7. Then:

• note the words you used in the search

• note the top five results for each search

• visit each site and find out if it is useful.

Do the search using a different search engine. Bring the list of keywords and your notes on the search results back to class.

9. E-mail, telephones and the post

Before you start

1 Compare how many e-mails, phone calls and letters you make/send and receive each week.

Reading

2 Read the different opinions. Which one do you most agree with?

Which do our readers like using most: e-mail, telephones or the post?Here are three typical responses from last week's survey.

Lida,28

For me it has to be e-mail. It's very fast, cheap and modern - you can download music and video, send letters and pictures, and it's informal, which I like. I know privacy and security can be problems but who sends important documents by e-mail? I get annoyed if I get hundreds of e-mails at work and they all expect an instant response, and obviously I hate getting spam, or even worse, a virus.

Jarec, 65

Well, I use all three, but I prefer the phone. It's more expensive, especially for long-distance calls, but I like the instant interaction and I think you can understand more when you hear a person's voice. I like the informality and speed and you can also use your mobile phone for e-mail and sending images. With mobile phones you don't get a lot of unwanted communication, apart from the occasional wrong number.

Andrea, 39

I like modern things, but I still prefer the post. I know postal delivery is slow, but it's cheap, and you can be sure no one will read your mail or listen to your conversations. You can send anything by post, which you can't do with e-mail. Personally, I like receiving handwritten letters - they look, feel and smell different from e-mails. I think it's sad that young people don't write letters now - they're usually more formal than e-mail and students can practice their grammar and spelling. Now, what I don't like is getting is bills and junk mail!

3 Read the quotes again. Tick (\/) the features of each type of communication.

E-mail Telephones Post

cheap □ □ □

send pictures/images □ □ □

instant delivery □ □ □

instant reply □ □ □

interactive □ □ □

modern □ □ □

private □ □ □

secure □ □ □

slow □ □ □

send sound □ □ □

unwanted

communication □ □ □

usually formal □ □ □