Text messaging

You want to talk to your friend. What do you usually prefer to do, phone or text message him or her? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? Listen to Jake and Lindsay talking about how they feel about text messaging and choose the correct answers for the questions that appear on the screen. If you want, you can listen again and click on 'text view ON' to read the script at the same time.

Here are a few text messages for you. Write the complete sentences in the box - but pay attention to the time!

More Practice? Try:

Text messaging in English

Leonardo's 'Last Supper' at 16 billion pixels

Not many people are lucky enough to visit Italy and see Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper up close. The 15th century mural underwent a major restoration process which took over 20 years and aimed to restore the masterpiece to its original form and colours. Until now, if you wanted to see it, you would have to book well in advance, as only a limited number of visitors are allowed in the room at one time, and would only be able to stay there for about 15 minutes.

Now, however, you can take a virtual look at one of Leonardo's most famous art works, and observe details that would be impossible to notice in person - all that in high definition, at 16 billion pixels. You can zoom in and out and 'move' the image up and down and to the sides to see, for example, details of very small objects on the table and outside the window.

Just imagine what Dan Brown would have written in his 'The da Vinci Code' if he had seen this website before... :-)



Watch also
Michelangelo, the Pope and the Last Supper - a Monty Python sketch

Text messaging in English

Sending instant messages (using AOL or MSN, for example) or text messages (using your cellphone) means being economical with words. There is a maximum number of characters we can use, so people have been finding very creative ways of writing words, combining letters, numbers and punctuation. Here is a BBC article about instant messaging in Britain (you can listen too, if you have Real Audio installed in your computer).

Can you read "text message English"? Try this multiple choice quiz and find out! Then take a look at this list of text messages and see how many you can read (pass the mouse over the icon to get the correct sentence).

Still having problems? NetLingo is a great dictionary of internet terms, so I bookmarked it on our del.icio.us page.

Try also:

Text messaging

From desktop to tabletop

Remember the huge computer screen that Tom Cruise manipulated with the touch of a finger in the film 'Minority Report'? We may not be quite there yet, but technology is definitely one step closer. Take a look at this video about the latest Microsoft product, 'Microsoft Surface', and read an article about it. What will it look like? What will you be able to do with Surface? How much will it cost? When will it be on the market? Which companies are already interested in the product?

What do you think will happen - will Surface be a hit or will it be yet another Microsoft product that will not catch on?