1. Phubbing: the war against anti-social phone use
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/shortcuts/2013/aug/05/phubbing-anti-social-phone-campaign
Don't you just hate it when someone snubs you by looking at their phone instead of paying attention?
The Stop Phubbing campaign group certainly does
Age: A distinctly 21st-century problem.
Appearance: A friend's face buried in a screen.
What are we talking about? We're talking about phubbing.
Never heard of it. That's because the word was first used about a month ago.
To describe what? To describe the kind of person who bursts out laughing mid-conversation, making
you think you've made a brilliant joke, and then says: "Sorry, I wasn't laughing at you, I just saw
something really funny on Twitter." Or the sort who think it's appropriate to check their emails in the
pub when you only have each other for company. Or the tedious people who live-tweet weddings.
Those people are the worst. So what does "phubbing" actually mean? It means "The act of
snubbing someone in a social setting by looking at your phone instead of paying attention."
According to whom? According to the website of the international Stop Phubbing campaign group.
There's a campaign against it? There is. Or a website for a campaign anyway, set up last month by
23-year-old Alex Haigh from Melbourne. They haven't actually done all that much campaigning so far.
How can I get involved? You can download "Stop Phubbing" posters for restaurants and "Stop
Phubbing" place cards for weddings, browse a gallery of celebrity "phubbers" caught texting instead of
talking – including Victoria Beckham and Elton John – and even "Shame a Phubber" from your own
social circle by uploading an incriminating photograph to the site.
Sounds pretty serious. Not really. There's also a list of "Disturbing Phubbing Stats" that includes "If
phubbing were a plague it would decimate six Chinas", "97% of people claim their food tasted worse
while being a victim of phubbing" and "92% of repeat phubbers go on to become politicians".
Ah. So it's really just a joke site? Well, a joke site with a serious message about our growing
estrangement from our fellow human beings. But mostly a joke site, yes.
Do say: "Don't you hate it when people don't pay attention?"
Don't say: "Sorry, I didn't hear that, I just found this really funny website about phubbing."
1. Write the concept for the definitions below.
_______: to insult someone by not giving them any attention or treating them as if they are not
important:
__________: to kill a large number of something, or to reduce something severely:
____________: a period when you are estranged from someone, or the fact of being estranged

2. 2. Based on the text, write something related to the topics in the box.
“Stop Phubbing
Campaign”
Phubbers' behavior How to join? Phubbing
3. Elicit words from the text that have the following stress patterns.
Oo oO Ooo oOo
oOoo ooOo oOooo ooOoo
4. Answer the following questions.
a. What is stress?
b. How can you identify
stress?
c. Which sound never
appears within a stressed
syllable?
d. How many levels of stress
are there in English?
e. What are the types of
stress?