情境导读
Mary和Cherry在讨论现在人们用手机频发短信的现象，很多人用这个方式互相问候、拜年，Cherry也是“拇指族”的一员。
英语情景会话
(以下M代表Mary.C代表Cherry)
C: Hi, Mary. happy birthday! Have you received my message?
M: Thank you! Yes, I received.Cherry. I think you are one of "clan of the thumbs" now.
C: What does it mean?
M: That is a newly coined word. It means people send messages with the tip of their fingers, especially thumbs. Now more and more people tent to use short messages.
C: Yeah. It's very convenient and I can do it anywhere.
M: And now many people use short messages to pay a New Year call. We also can download rings and pictures to the cell phone, and send them to our friends.
C: That's multi-media massage. It costs more than text messages.
M: But it's more interesting.
C: I almost can't live without messages now.
M: I can see. You're always busy editing messages.
英语笔记
1.clan of the thumbs 意思为“拇指一族”。
2.of 弱读，只读/v/的音。
3.这里tent to 中的/d/发音省略，to 也发生弱化，读作/tentə/。
4.pay a call 是指“拜访”;pay a New Year call 意思是“打电话拜年”。
5.注意这里的text/tekst/不要和test/test/、tax/tæks/混淆。
英语语音语调
of的弱读(一)
口语中，of前面如果是一个完全阻碍的清辅音时，如/t/，/p/等.of/əv/中的/ə/常会省去;这时，如果of后面接的是一个元音或浊辅音，如/ɔ:/,/ð/,/v/等时，of便只保留/v/，如：
That's my point of /v/ view.
这是我的观点，
tip of /v/ their fingers
他们的指尖
如果后面是个清辅音时，如/θ/，/s/，/k/等，of便发音为/f/，如：
I need a cup of /f/ coffee.
我要一杯咖啡。
