Listen to News with Tara Benwell - Instructions:
1. Preview the vocabulary and read the gapfill text.
2. Play the news report and try to fill in the blanks.
3. Answer the comprehension questions by writing full sentences.
4. Use the discussion question to write an essay or discuss the story with other students.
5. Click "show Answers" to see the full text.
6. Pretend to be a news anchor by reading each story out loud.
dateline: 09 June 2015
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The Decline of Voice Mail
Pre-Listening Vocabulary
- convenient: making life easier
- on the decline: not used or done as often as before
- impolite: rude; not having good manners
- retrieve: to get
- time consuming: taking up a lot of one’s time
- landline: a telephone phone service that transmits communication using physical cable wires
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The Decline of Voice Mail
Comprehension Questions
- How has our opinion of voice mail changed in recent years?
- Why does a voice mail inbox fill up quickly on a mobile phone?
- What other phone feature might save voice mail from dying out completely?
Discussion Questions: Is the decline of voice mail a sign that spoken language is also at risk of dying out?
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The Decline of Voice Mail
It wasn’t long ago that voice mail was considered a convenient feature that you could add to your home phone service in place of an answering machine. Today, this service is on the decline and is often considered inconvenient or even impolite. This is because retrieving voice mail is more time consuming than reading a text message or email. In addition, most mobile phone plans only offer minimal storage for voice mail, which causes a person’s inbox to fill up very quickly. Many people no longer use a landline in their home or office, and mobile phone users admit it often takes 24 hours or more before they check their voice mail. Tech experts say that if more phone service providers begin offering voice-to-text features, they may save voice mail from completely dying out.
- Not long ago, voice mail was thought of as a convenient service. Now it is often viewed as an inconvenience.
- A voice mail inbox fills up quickly on a mobile phone because most phone plans do not offer much storage for voice mail.
- New voice-to-text features may save voice mail from dying out completely.
Written and recorded by Tara Benwell for EnglishClub
Tara Benwell is a Canadian freelance writer and editor who specializes in materials and articles for the ELT industry.
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