Diane Szulecki 王曉彤

One of the problems with communicating through the Internet is that you don't get the nonverbal cues （提示） that help you know what someone really means. Emoticons， or smilies were developed to help solve that problem. Emoticons are symbols consisting of keyboard characters that look like something else and are used to improve conversation over the? Internet.? For? example，? take? ?the? ?old-fashioned smiley face ： -）. When you include one after a joke， you can be more confident your reader knows you are kidding. Here's a guide to making emoticons and understanding their meanings.

Instructions

Decide what emotion you want to express. It sounds simple， but using an emoticon makes the tone of your conversation stronger， so make sure you choose the right one. Smilies are especially good for adding a friendly touch to words that might seem a little cold. They're also signs of playfulness when joking， since the recipient can't pick up on the tone of your voice or the expression on your face. Pick a combination of eyes， nose， and mouth that you like best and it will become your signature emoticon.

Start by making the emoticon's eyes. The colon （：） is the traditional symbol of eyes used in a smiley， but the equal sign （=） is also commonly used. A semicolon （;） means a wink.

Choose a nose. This step is optional — the nose is often ignored， since it is not necessary for expressing an emotion. The hyphen （-） is the original emoticon nose. A capital or lower case letter O will give your smiley a round nose， while the carrot key （^） will make it pointy （尖的）.

Select a mouth that corresponds with the emotion. An emoticon's mouth is its most expressive part. Parentheses （圓括號(hào)） are the most common way to express basic happiness or sadness. Square brackets （方括號(hào)） are a similar alternative. A capital letter D expresses joyfulness or excitement， while a slash （/） conveys uncertainty. Capital O means shock， and Capital P means silliness or irony （諷刺）. A star （*） signifies a kiss.

Add extras if you would like to make an even more expressive emoticon. Adding a zero above the eyes of a smiley will create an angel， while an ampersand （&） as a mouth makes your emoticon look confused. Experiment with different letters， numbers and symbols to express different emotions. There is no right way to make an emoticon， so be creative！

Writing Task：

Write a summary of the above passage.

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