Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1
START SPEAKING
• Adapt: change your ideas or behavior to make them suitable for a new situation.
• A wall phone with a cord was popular in the U.S. in the 1970s and early 1980s. In the U.S.,
people stopped using them in the mid-1990s.
• People in the U.S. used cassette tapes in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. People stopped
using them first because of CDs, and then because of digital music players.
• Remote controls for TVs didn’t become common in the U.S. until the mid-1980s. Before
then, you had to get up to change the channel.
Answers
Expressions used in the blog:
• frustrating (some things from the past)
• Verb phrases: be a waste of time, be hard to operate, drive somebody crazy, get on
somebody’s nerves, lose patience
• Annoying: drive you crazy, frustrating, get on somebody’s nerves, infuriating, lose patience
• 2A: Generally speaking, / Looking at the big picture, / Overall, texting is the best way to communicate
with [your friends].
• 2B: You can say that again. / I couldn’t agree more. /That’s so true!
• 3A: Generally speaking, / Looking at the big picture, / Overall, I think video calls are better for work
than personal communication.
• 3B: You can say that again. / I couldn’t agree more. / That’s so true! / Have it your way!