Many people think a telephone is a necessity. But I think it is of great harm and a time waste. Very often you find it impossible to escape from it. If you have a telephone in your own house, you will admit that it tends to ring when you least want it to ring: when you are asleep or in the middle of a meal or a conversation, or when you are just going out, or when you are in your bath. Are you strong-minded enough to ignore it? You are not. You think there may be some important news or message for you. I can assure you that if a message is really important it will reach you sooner or later. Have you ever gone to answer a telephone in a hurry from the bath, or from the table, or from the bed, only to be told that you are a wrong number?
But you will say, you need not have your name printed in the telephone directory, and you can have a telephone which is only usable for outgoing calls. Besides, you will say, isn’t it important to have a telephone in case of sudden emergency---illness, accident, or fire? Of course, you are right, but here in a thickly populated country like England one is seldom far from a telephone in case of dreadful necessity.
I think perhaps I had better try to justify myself by trying to prove that what I like is good. I admit that in different circumstances---if I were a wealthy and powerful businessperson, for instance, or badly ill and had to lie in bed. I might find a telephone a necessity. But then if I were a taxi-driver I should find a car a necessity. Let me put it another way: there are two things for which the English seem to show particular talent: one is mechanical invention, the other literature. My own business happens to be with the use of words but I see I must now stop using them. For I have had just been handed a piece of paper to say that somebody is waiting to speak to me on the telephone. I think I had better answer it. After all, one never knows, it may be something important.
Title: The |
|
Different towards it |
Many people: It is when one wants to make a call, especially in time of emergency. The author: It can time and even be . Not everyone, a businessperson or a sick person who has to stay in bed, needs it. |
Problems with it |
It to ring when one doesn’t want it to ring. Almost can ignore it even if they want to. One to answer it only to find that he is a wrong number. Anyway, one has to answer it, because it may be something . |