New Impact 1 Tests

5 When Tina tried to talk about their relationship, Phil ………… the subject.
Total: 20 marks

5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Look who’s talking … New research shows that children and teenagers are spending up to two hours a day on mobile phones. Many parents are struggling to pay bills of over £500 a year. And as phone companies try to sell mobiles to children as young as three, the situation can only get worse. Children’s mobile phones became popular last year when manufacturers started to produce phones for kids. These new phones have extra things, such as coloured covers that can be matched to clothes, musical ringtones and smiley-face icons on the phone display. As a result, over four million British children and teenagers now have mobile phones, and manufacturers say they will sell a further two million this Christmas. The most popular feature of these new mobiles is text messages. This means that children in classrooms can send each other notes, or that club-goers can communicate with each other across a crowded room. Last month, more than eighty million text messages were sent. Nearly all were between children. ‘Adults have no idea that children are communicating in this way,’ says a mobile phone company employee. ‘That’s why it’s so popular with kids.’ Children often use their pocket money and lunch money to pay for phone calls. Girls aged 13–16 usually have the biggest bills. One 15-year-old girl spent £560 on calls to a friend in Cyprus in just three weeks. But surprisingly, one of the most expensive bills was run up by a 16-year-old boy. He spent an amazing £1,000 a month phoning abroad. Parentline, the family advice service, advises parents to take care: ‘When you buy your child a phone, you should establish how often they are allowed to use it before you lose control.’ © Times Newspapers Limited