Lesson 6, ex. 2a, ex. 3

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 514.

Daytime Television

Lesson 4, ex. 1

A newspaper reporter was writing a story about prison life and was interviewing one of the prisoners. "Do you watch much television here?"

"Only the daytime shows," the prisoner said. "At night we're locked in our cells and don't see any television."

"That's too bad," the reporter said, "But I do think it is nice that the warden lets you watch TV in the daytime."

"What do you mean, nice?" the inmate said. "That's part of the punishment."

One day I was standing in line at the local department store. There was a teenage girl in front of me talking on her mobile. As I was in my mid forties, it brought back memories of communications between friends when I was that age.

We had one phone in our house. It was not only wired to the wall, it was on the wall and had a very short cord. In other words, the only "roaming" allowed was within three feet – one metre only. If you wanted to call someone, you stood facing the phone to dialthe number.

Once you made the connection to your friend you had to be careful what you said and how long you said it because this was a "party" line. (For those who don't remember, the word "party" refers to several neighbours having to share the same phone line, not a happy wonderful celebration for some occasion.) You never knew if one or more neighbours were listening as all they had to do is pick up their receiver to eavesdrop on your conversation. Also, if one of them wished to use the phone they could break into your call at any time. Back then teenage conversations weren't so important. Any adult wanting the line could interrupt you.

Unfortunately, there were no other options for communicating. There were no personal computers, no internet, no e-mail, no text messaging or chat rooms. That landline telephone was all we had. I couldn't help thinking how things had changed in the short thirty years since I was a teenager.

Being a polite person, I turned away from the girl in front of me so as not to hear her conversation. As I slowly turned I noticed a teenage girl in line behind me. Not surprisingly, she too was talking on her mobile. Still trying to avoid eavesdropping, I turned sideways trying not to listen to either of them.

You see, I'm old enough to control my behaviour but not old enough to have poor hearing. I could not help hearing their conversation. Both girls were talking about school. Both were talking about teachers they found difficult. A name was said by both which I couldn't quite understand but which sounded the same. I was surprised to hear how similar their conversations were until I realized they were talking to each other!...Now I couldn't help laughing!