2021年全国乙卷 B
When almost everyone has a mobile phone, why are more than half of Australian homes still paying for a landline (座机)?
These days you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in Australia over the age of 15 who doesn’t own a mobile phone. In fact plenty of younger kids have one in their pocket. Practically everyone can make and receive calls anywhere, anytime.
Still, 55 percent of Australians have a landline phone at home and only just over a quarter (29%) rely only on their smartphones, according to a survey (调查). Of those Australians who still have a landline, a third concede that it’s not really necessary and they’re keeping it as a security blanket—19 percent say they never use it while a further 13 percent keep it in case of emergencies. I think my home falls into that category.
More than half of Australian homes are still choosing to stick with their home phone. Age is naturally a factor (因素)—only 58 percent of generation Ys still use landlines now and then, compared to 84 percent of Baby Boomers who’ve perhaps had the same home number for 50 years. Age isn’t the only factor; I’d say it’s also to do with the makeup of your household.
Generation Xers with young families, like my wife and I, can still find it convenient to have a home phone rather than providing a mobile phone for every family member. That said, to be honest the only people who ever ring our home phone are our Baby Boomers parents, to the point where we play a game and guess who is calling before we pick up the phone (using Caller ID would take the fun out of it).
How attached are you to your landline? How long until they go the way of gas street lamps and morning milk deliveries?
24. What does paragraph 2 mainly tell us about mobile phones?
A. Their target users.
B. Their wide popularity.
C. Their major functions.
D. Their complex design.
25. What does the underlined word “concede” in paragraph 3 mean?
A. Admit. B. Argue.
C. Remember. D. Remark.
26. What can we say about Baby Boomers?
A. They like smartphone games.
B. They enjoy guessing callers’ identity.
C. They keep using landline phones.
D. They are attached to their family.
27. What can be inferred about the landline from the last paragraph?
A. It remains a family necessity.
B. It will fall out of use some day.
C. It may increase daily expenses.
D. It is as important as the gas light.
答案及解析：
24.B. Their wide popularity.
第二段提到在澳大利亚，几乎每个超过15岁的人都拥有手机，很多更年轻的孩子也有手机，几乎每个人都可以随时随地打电话和接电话，这说明手机在澳大利亚非常普及。
25. A. Admit.
解析：在第三段中，“concede”这个词用在一个承认座机不是真正必要的语境中，因此它的意思是“承认”。
26. C. They keep using landline phones.
解析：根据第四段的内容，与只有58%的Y世代偶尔使用座机相比，84%的婴儿潮一代可能已经使用同一个家庭电话号码50年了，这说明婴儿潮一代仍然坚持使用座机。
27. B. It will fall out of use some day.
解析：最后一段提到，作者想知道人们对于座机的依赖程度，以及座机会不会像煤气路灯和早晨送牛奶的服务一样最终被淘汰。这暗示了座机可能会在未来某一天不再被使用。
