Today making a phone call is as common as having a glass of water, but when telephones were invented over 140 years ago, people believed that they were dangerous.
In 1876, electricity was still little understood and many people died when working with electricity, so most people didn’t accept that it was safe to hear a human voice through the phone. In fact, they thought that it might kill them.
Alexander Bell and his assistant Thomas Watson has no such fears. On the morning of March 10, 1876, Bell sent Thomas to the next room. Then, Bell spoke into his invention. “Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you.” These simple words changed the world forever. Mr. Watson did hear these words on his receiving machine in the next room and he quickly ran to tell the good news to Bell. Can you imagine the excitement in the lab that day?
However, it took a few more years for the talking machine to win people’s hearts. At first Bell had to help people overcome the fears about electricity. He also had to convince people that there was a need for such a machine. We can laugh at this now, but in 1876, people seriously asked, “But what use could it possibly have?”
Today, as we walk along a busy street talking with friends on the phone, it’s hard to believe that not long ago telephones were thought to be dangerous and useless. Our world has surely changed, hasn’t it?
【小题1】How did Mr. Watson probably feel when he heard Bell’s words?| A．Worried. | B．Excited. | C．Upset. | D．Angry. |
| A．The experiment (实验) took place on a spring day. |
| B．Bell and Thomas were always in the same room. |
| C．Mr. Watson was one of Bell’s closest friends. |
| D．The laboratory was filled with people every day. |
| A．make...talk about | B．make...think why | C．make...believe | D．make...know when |
| A．people think it was too heavy | B．people didn’t have enough money to buy it |
| C．people preferred to talk face to face | D．people thought it was dangerous and useless |
