30篇文章贯通六级词汇30篇文章贯通六级词汇.docVIP

Unit 30 Something about Telephone…………………533 电话点滴 现在，电话已经成为世界上最普通的音频通讯工具，今天的电话较之当时贝尔发明的简陋装置，是无以伦比的精巧和有效，而且，今天使用电话的方式也是贝尔当年不可能预见的…… When imaginative scientists first suggested the possibility that one person could speak directly to another over a long distance, few people took them seriously. Among the few who did was a Scots-born(苏格兰出生的) American named Alexander Graham Bell(亚历山大?格拉海姆?贝尔，美国发明家), who was one of the first to develop a telephone in 1876. Now the most common means of voice communication in the world, the telephone of today, is infinitely more sophisticated and effective than the crude instrument developed by Bell, and it is being used in ways he could not possibly have foreseen. One area that is rapidly expanded is communications service “on the move”. Because America is such a highly mobile society—a society on wheels—telephones in cars and trucks are becoming as essential as those in homes and offices. Industry officials have predicted that mobile communications service will soon be more competitive in many respects than the service provided by telephones that do not move. Another area rapidly developing is overseas telephone service. In 1927, when overseas telephone service was inaugurated(开创) with a radio telephone call between New York and London, the occasion was heralded(宣布) as “thrilling”. Today, many telephone users regard international calls as routine, and overseas service, thanks largely to undersea cables(海底电缆) and communications satellites, has undergone extraordinary improvement. Transmission has been made clearer, charges have been greatly reduced and dependability has been improved. Overseas telephone service has now been extended to nearly 350 countries and areas throughout the world. The introduction of direct distance dialing in 1951was one of the most significant developments in the effort to improve long-distance service. Direct distance dialing is not only fast and convenient for the caller, it has also enabled telephone compa