All over the world, telecommunication companies are thinking wireless. They are spending billions of dollars building transmission towers, launching satellites and developing low cost hand-held phones, all with the goal of ending the century and a half old dominance of the wire.

     Since telegraph service began in 1844, most two-way communications have been not person-to-person but place-to-place. If two people aren’t in the spots that the wire links, they don’t connect.

     Now, with advances in microelectronics and satellite technology, companies are producing systems that seek out people wherever they are, keeping them in touch. The services are coming use rapidly in the United States, Europe and the growing economies of East Asia.

     Mobile phones are the most dramatic example to date. The number in use in the United States passed the 25 million mark last month, with no end to the growth in sight. In little more than a decade, the mobile phone has developed from expensive business tool and status symbol to something used by roughly one in 10 Americans.

     Not everyone welcomes the change. Wireless phones are showing up in churches, courtrooms and airplanes, places where the noise of the outside world was once shut out . Nevertheless, there is no stopping the technology’s advance.

     “It’s coming down to the lower income level,” said Tom Ross of MTA-EMCI, a Washington-based telecommunications company. “It’s slowly becoming a necessity of life.”

     Now authorities in many countries are clearing up new space on the radio spectrum for a new collection of wireless services. They are known as personal communications services, or PCS. In its simplest form, PCS is just another name for pocket phones. But companies are preparing a wide variety of “smart networks” and data services that will do things that ordinary mobile phones can’t.

 

16. The main point discussed in the passage is               .

A. the fast development of wireless communications

B. new developments in the world’s smart networks

C. disagreements over the development of the telecommunications industry

E. New advances in American microelectronics

17. The word “spots” (L.2, Para.2) is closest in meaning to               .

   A. stations      B. grounds          C. locations        D. lines

18. Mobile phones are mentioned as an example of                  .

   A. something that not everyone likes

   B. something that not everyone can afford

   C. the use of the fast-developing wireless systems

D. the rise in people’s living standards in America and Europe

 19. Which of the following is true according to Tom Ross?

A. Mobile phones should not be used in churches.

B. Ordinary American consumers can afford mobiles phones

C. The mobile phone is regarded as a symbol of wealth.

D. Few Americans find it necessary to have a mobile phone.

20. The word “They” (L2, Para 7) refers to                                          .

A. authorities     B. pocket phones       C. companies              D. wireless services