R U online?

In the past month, which of the following have you done online?

1 Used a search engine to find information.
2 Used online banking.
3 Looked up the news.
4 Paid bills.
5 Looked up the weather.
6 Researched a product before buying it.
7 Watched a video clip.
8 Listened to an audio clip.
9 Visited a social networking site.
10 Downloaded music.
11 Looked up sports scores.
12 Shared photos.
13 Viewed or contributed to a blog.
14 Sold something online.

These questions were used in a recent international survey.
Now read the results of the survey in a PAU test.

Time spent online
A recent survey has highlighted the amount of time people spend on line throughout the world. More than 27,000 internet users, aged between 18 and 55, in 16 countries were surveyed by global market information group TNS. The information was also broken down into different sections of society to gain an accurate view of worldwide internet usage.

The findings show that the Chinese spend the largest amount of their leisure time online but also threw up an interesting statistic: While one might expect students (39%) or the unemployed (32%) to spend above average time on the web, the group that spends the highest proportion of their leisure time on the internet is housewives. In this, Britain beats every other country surveyed, with housewives recording almost half (47%) of their free time on the net. The younger the user it seems the more time was spent online. On average under 25s spend 36% of their leisure time online, this rises to an incredible 50% amongst the Chinese.

Another interesting finding was that, on average, internet users had 17 online friends although the Chinese, the biggest web users, were less likely to actually meet any of these friends in person while 76% of Germans topped that poll saying they had arranged to meet people they had first encountered on the net.

What the study also reveals is that a lot of activities which we traditionally did in our spare time are now being done online. Over three quarters of us (76%) have used the internet for banking in the past month and two thirds of us (66%) of us have also paid bills online. General search engine browsing (80%) is the most popular activity. Three quarters of us have used one of the many news sites (75%) in the last month whilst 62% of us have now checked the weather online, all suggesting that the internet has become our ‘one stop shop’ for multi-tasking in minimum time. Interestingly, arguably more pleasurable activities such as using a chatroom (13%) or downloading a film (12%) are far less popular.

Question 1 Indicate whether these sentences are true or false. Justify your answers with evidence from the text:
a) The results of the survey confirmed our suspicions that people who are at school or university use the internet the most.
b) People in China are in contact with people via the internet that they will probably never meet.
c) People are changing their way of banking.
d) There are fewer people who chat on the web than people who access the news on the internet.

Question 2 Answer these questions in your own words:
a) How did TNS analyse its research?
b) How does the text say we can save time by using the internet?

Question 3 Find a word or phrase in the text that means the same as:

a) Result par.2
b) Reveal par. 2
c) Change in opinion par. 5

Question 4 Rewrite the following sentences without changing the meaning
a) More than 27,000 internet users, aged between 18 and 55, in 16 countries were surveyed by global market information group TNS.
TNS, which ………………………………………………………………, surveyed more than 27,000 internet users from 16 countries who ……………………………………
b) The younger the user the more time was spent online.
Older people ………………………………………………………………………………. .
c) “A lot of activities which we traditionally did in our spare time are now being done online”, said TNS.
The survey showed that a lot of ……….

Question 5 Write a short essay (120-150 words) on the following topic:
“The internet is not always a good thing. It is also dangerous.” Do you agree?