If you have been joining in chat room conversations, or trading email with web pals （网友）, you have become one of the millions who write in a peculiarly short form of English.
And you’ve got a sense of humor about short forms like SOHF （= sense of humor failure） to describe Internet newcomers who don’t understand you.
Across the globe, every night teenagers and their elders are “talking online”, many of them all talking at the same time.
It’s fast: try talking to six people at once．It’s brief: three or four words per exchange．It takes wit, concentration, and quick fingers.
And it requires tremendous linguistic economy （语言省略）．There’s neither time nor space for explanations．Why consume precious key-strokes （键盘敲击） telling six friends you have to leave for a moment to take care of your little brother when BRB（ = be right back） will do?
Want to enter a conversation? Just type PMFJI （= pardon me for jumping in）.
Interested in whom you are talking to? Type A/S/L, the nearly universal request to know your pal’s age, sex and location．You may get 15/M/NY as a response from your pal.
If something makes you laugh, say you are OTF （= on the floor）, or LOL （= laughing out loud）, or combing the two into ROTFL （= rolling on the floor laughing） .
And when it is time to get back to work or go to bed, you type GTG （= got to go） or TTYL （=talk to you later）.
People want to write as fast as possible, and they want to get their ideas across as quickly as they can．Capital letters are left in the dust, except when expressing emotion, as it takes, more time to hold down the “shift” key and capitals．Punctuation （标点） is going, too．
1．Many people talk on the Internet ______.
A．by sending short emails
B．by using a particular short form of English
C．by using peculiar English words and expression
D．in a funny way
2．In order to talk to several people at the same time on the Internet ______.
A．you have to speak fast and fluently
B．you should speak with wit and humor
C．you have to express your ideas in a brief way
D．one should pay much attention to the accuracy of words
3．If you get 17/F/NY as an answer to your A/S/L, it means______.
A．the person on the other end is 17 from New York and he is fine
B．you are talking to a girl who is 17 and lives in New York
C．you are talking to 17 girls who are from New York
D．the person who you are talking to is a 17-foot tall New York girl
4．To save time on the Internet, __________.
A．some people leave their letters in the dustbin
B．some people never use “shift” in their writing
C．many people leave the capital and punctuation
D．people seldom use capital letters or punctuation