Breaking News English

One of the information [age’s / ages] biggest successes has celebrated its 20th birthday. The very first, [sample / simple] , text message was sent on December 3rd, 1992. It was sent by software engineer Neil Papworth to his boss at the British mobile phone [operation / operator] Vodafone. It read simply, “Merry Christmas”. [Little / Small] did they know that their humble [mode / module] of communication would take the world by [thunder / storm] . SMS (Short Message Service) is today a multi-billion-dollar [industrial / industry] covering every [corner / angle] of the globe. An estimated nine trillion text messages are sent [global / globally] each year. Everyone from presidents to schoolchildren to villagers in remote parts of developing countries [relies / rely] on it to communicate.

SMS is now an [integral / integer] part of daily life for most of us. It is the [preferred / preference] method of communication between family members. One study showed [what / that] the average American teenager sends up to 60 texts a day. It has also [spammed / spawned] countless original and innovative business [strategies / strategy] from sending cash overseas to voting in online [pills / polls] . However, SMS has also been [blameless / blamed] for a decline in language ability and an increase in traffic accidents. A new sub-language has [spared / spread] worldwide as texters find shortcuts to write their messages as quickly as possible using the [fewest / least] possible characters. Texting [shorthand / underhand] such as LOL (laugh out loud) and OMG (oh my god) has even entered the Oxford English Dictionary.