by Cathy Manson

“英語文化隨身帶”是一個英國電臺節(jié)目，文章短小精悍，內(nèi)容包羅萬象。將英語文化裝進口袋里，利用閑散的時間隨身翻閱，英語學(xué)習(xí)者可以在潛移默化中了解當(dāng)代英語世界的生活和文化。

隨著智能手機的興起，一夜間，似乎我們都用上了微信，傳統(tǒng)短信面臨巨大的挑戰(zhàn)。陪伴我們多年的短信真的走到盡頭了嗎？馬上聽聽本期欄目——

If you hear the sound of a handset beeping[嘟嘟響] in a bag or pocket， you could be forgiven for thinking that someone has received a text message. But nowadays there are so many different ways of messaging someone that it could spell[招致] the death of the traditional text as we know it.

Text messaging， or texting， is the art[技術(shù)] of sending a short， electronic[電子的] message between two mobile phones or tablets. Text bundles formed an integral[整體的] part of mobile phone monthly plans， with users paying a certain amount[數(shù)量] to send messages via[通過] SMS—short message service. But in the last few years， messaging in this manner has been on the decline[下降].

The rise of smartphones and tablets has seen an increase in the use of instant messaging apps， which offer a cheap alternative[另一可選擇的] to conventional[常規(guī)的] texts. Using wireless internet connections or mobile data networks， people can send limitless numbers of IMs to their friends for very little cost. Unlike traditional mobile texts， the user usually only has to pay to download the app once， after which each message they send is free.

Web developers soon got the message. Instant messaging apps have become popular all over the world. WhatsApp in America and Europe， WeChat in China and KakaoTalk in South Korea are but a few which have attracted hundreds of millions of people， who use the apps to chat to their friends in real time.

These apps allow people to send picture messages for free—something which previously[先前] was quite costly. Many of these apps also allow users to access[使用，獲取] a huge range of colourful emoticons and stickers， which are fun ways to help people express their emotions.

Research firm Informa said that almost 19 billion messages were sent per day using chat apps in 2012， compared with 17.6 billion SMS texts. And it expects the chat app market to grow to 50 billion per day by 2014. So does this really mean the end for communication by text？

Pamela Clark-Dickson from Informa doesnt think so. She says that there are a considerable[相當(dāng)多的] number of people who use normal mobile phones， particularly in developing countries， who prefer the SMS messaging tool： “They dont have mobile data plans， so there is an awfully big base of mobile phone users who are still going to find that SMS is the best messaging experience for them for a while.”

如果你聽到手袋或口袋里的手機傳出嘟嘟聲，你會認(rèn)為是某人收到短信，這種想法無可厚非。然而現(xiàn)在發(fā)送信息的方式實在太多，我們熟知的傳統(tǒng)短信可能面臨消失的危險。

短信是在兩臺手機或平板電腦之間發(fā)送電子短信息的一種技術(shù)。包月套餐包含了短信套餐，使用者通過支付一定金額的金錢以使用短信服務(wù)（SMS）發(fā)送信息。但在最近幾年，用這種方式發(fā)送的信息數(shù)量在不斷下降。

隨著智能手機和平板電腦的興起，即時通信程序的使用量不斷增加，從而為人們提供了傳統(tǒng)短信的廉價替代品。通過無線網(wǎng)絡(luò)或手機數(shù)據(jù)網(wǎng)絡(luò)，人們花很少的錢就可以向朋友發(fā)送無限量的即時消息。和傳統(tǒng)手機短信不同，使用者往往只需支付一次下載程序的錢，隨后發(fā)送信息就免費了。

網(wǎng)絡(luò)開發(fā)者很快深諳此道，即時消息程序在全世界流行起來。美國和歐洲有“WhatsApp”，中國有微信，韓國有“KakaoTalk”——這只是其中幾個令數(shù)以億計人趨之若鶩的應(yīng)用程序。人們通過這些應(yīng)用程序和朋友進行實時聊天。用戶可以通過這些程序免費發(fā)送彩信，這在以前是很花錢的事。很多程序還允許用戶使用大量彩色表情符號和標(biāo)簽——用這種方式表達情感挺好玩的。

調(diào)查公司英富曼說，在2012年，每天使用聊天程序發(fā)送的信息差不多有190億條，短信則有176億條。該公司預(yù)測，到了2014年，聊天程序的市場將增長至500億條。那么，這真的意味著用短信交流將成為歷史嗎？

英富曼公司的帕梅拉·克里克-迪克森認(rèn)為不會這樣。她說有相當(dāng)一部分人仍在使用傳統(tǒng)手機，特別是在發(fā)展中國家，他們更喜歡用短信這個信息工具：“他們沒有手機流量套餐，因此，在短期內(nèi)還是有數(shù)量很大的手機用戶依然認(rèn)為短信是最佳的通信工具?！?/p>

Quiz小測驗

閱讀短文并回答問題。

1. What type of messaging has been on the decline？

2. Which word means “unlimited”？

3. Is this statement true or false？ Instant messaging is only popular in Asia.

4. How many instant messages will be sent per day in 2014？

5. Where are SMS text messages still popular？