2021年高考英语b卷

When almost everyone has a mobile phone, why are more than half of Australian homes still paying for a landline? 几乎每个人都有手机，那为什么超过一半的澳大利亚家庭仍在为座机付费？ 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. 如今，在澳大利亚很难15岁以上的人几乎个个有手机。实际上，很多小孩子口袋里都有。几乎每个人都可以随时随地拨打和接听电话。 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. 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. 然而，根据一项调查，55%的澳大利亚人家里有座机，只有略高于四分之一（29%）的人只依赖智能手机。在那些仍有座机的澳大利亚人中，三分之一的人认为不是真的需要座机，只是把它当作一条安全毯——19%的人说他们从来不用，另有13%的人保留它是为了应付紧急情况。我认为我的家庭属于这一类。 More than half of Australian homes are still choosing to stick with their home phone. Age is naturally a factor - 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. 超过一半的澳大利亚家庭仍然选择使用座机。年龄自然是一个因素——Y一代中只有58%仍然偶尔使用座机，而婴儿潮一代中有84%的人可能50年来一直拥有相同的家庭号码。年龄不是唯一的因素；我想这也和你的家庭构成有关。 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). 这样拥有年轻家庭的X一代，比如我和我的妻子还是认为拥有一部座机比为每个家庭成员提供一部手机更方便。说实话，只有婴儿潮一代的父母会打我们的座机，在我们拿起电话之前，我们会玩一个游戏，猜猜谁在打电话（来电显示会让我们失去乐趣）。 How attached are you to your landline? How long until they go the way of gas street lamps and morning milk deliveries? 你有多喜欢你的座机？它们还要多久才能走上煤气路灯和早上送牛奶的老路？