If you've been joining in chat room conversation, or trading e-mail with your e-pals, you have become one of the millions who write in a special short form of English.
And you've got a sense of humor about short forms like SOHF(=sense of humor failure) to describe Internet newcomers who understand you. Across the globe, every night teenagers and their elders are "talking" online - many of them all talking at the same time.
It's fast: try talking to six people at once. It's brief: three or four words per exchange. It takes wit(詼諧), and quick fingers.
Want to enter a conversation? Just type PMFJI(=pardon me for jumping in).
Interested in whom you're talking to? A/S/L, the nearly universal request to know your pal's age, sex and location. You may get 15/M/NY as a response from your pal.
If something makes you laugh, say you're OTF(=on the floor), or LOL(=laughing out loud), or combine 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(大寫字母) are left in the dust, except when expressing strong feelings, as it takes more time to hold down the "shift" key and use capitals. Punctuation (標點) is going, too.
1. In order to talk to several people at the same time on the Internet, _______.
A. you have to speak fast and fluently
B. you should speak with wit and humor
C. one should pay much attention to the use of exact words
D. you have to express your ideas in a brief way
2. If you get 17/F/NY as an answer to your A/S/L, it means ______.
A. you are talking to a girl who is 17 and lives in New York
B. the person who is talking to you is a 17-foot-tall New York girl
C. you are talking to 17 girls who are from New York
D. the person on the other end is 17 from New York and he is fine
3.To save time on the Internet, ______.
A. some people leave their letters in the dustbin
B. some people never use "shift" in their writing
C. people seldom use capital letters and punctuation
D. many people only use the capital or punctuation
4.The passage is probably written for ______.
A. young students
B. parents
C. teachers
D. web chatters
