hey everybody welcome to this b1 english listening practice video you can use this video to practice your listening and comprehension as i speak before we start remember to sign up for our one dollar listening practice seminars at polyglossa.com and download the free listening time podcast so you can practice your listening skills [Music] so today i'm going to talk about phones i was talking about this topic the other day and i got to thinking about how important phones are in our everyday lives so let's talk a little bit about this let's go briefly through the history
of phones even though some basic versions of the telephone had been invented earlier alexander graham bell is usually credited with the invention since he won the first u.s patent for it a patent is a government license given to someone who comes up with an idea for an invention it excludes other people from making or selling this invention for a certain number of years so alexander graham bell received a patent for the telephone in 1876. prior to that people couldn't talk over long distances they could only send messages through telegraph or some other means you can
imagine how revolutionary this invention was when suddenly people could talk and have their voice heard in a different location it must have seemed like really advanced technology at the time but obviously telephones didn't just become common household items overnight it would be decades before this device became commonplace and at the turn of the century there were still fewer than a million phones in use one big milestone in the development of phones was the first transcontinental phone call which was made from new york to san francisco in 1915. nowadays this might not seem like a huge
feat but this type of long distance communication was completely unheard of at that time the telephone was changing the way people thought about communication over the next few decades many more millions of households installed landlines and the telephone became the king of communication then fast forward to 1973 in the world saw the introduction of the first cell phone made by motorola but if you're thinking that this cell phone bore any resemblance to today's phones think again the first mobile phone was a monster it definitely couldn't fit in anyone's pocket later on in 1989 the first
flip phone appeared on the market a flip phone is a phone that you open like this the type of phone that i had growing up in 1992 the first text message was sent between phones obviously today text messages are an essential function of all cell phones and people communicate more through messages than they do through calls come to think of it it seems like people try to avoid calling and instead send text messages whenever possible another cell phone feature that we take for granted nowadays is the camera the first camera phone came out in japan
in 1999 and then later on in the rest of the world and then finally in 2007 the first iphone came out stunning the world with its revolutionary design and touch screen display even though there were already smartphones in existence at that time the iphone really brought smartphones onto the scene after that other companies followed suit and started releasing smartphone after smartphone nowadays it seems like practically everyone who can afford it has a smartphone this device has become a necessity in many people's lives and most people spend many hours every week using it actually a lot
of people don't even use their computer that much anymore because they can do everything from their phone if you had told people just a few decades ago about the cell phones of today they probably wouldn't have believed you who knows what type of innovation we might see with phones in the future i guess we'll have to wait and see okay now i'm going to ask you three questions about today's video write your answers in a comment down below number one in what year was the first transcontinental phone call made number two which company made the
world's first cell phone and number three what important cell phone feature was first added in 1992 all right before we go remember to sign up for our 1 listening practice seminars and download the free listening time podcast so you can practice your listening skills and of course subscribe to the channel click on the bell and follow us on instagram i'll see you next time
