Passage Two

Many people think a telephone is essential. But I think it is a pest and a time waster. Very often you find it impossible to escape from some idle or inquisitive chatter-box, or from somebody who wants something for nothing. If you have a telephone in your own house, you will admit that it tends to ring when you least want it to ring; when you are asleep, or in the middle of a meal or a conversation, or when you are just going out, or when you are in your bath. Are you strong-minded enough to ignore it, to say to yourself, "Ah, well it will all be the same in a hundred year’s time" You are not. You think there may be some important news or message for you. I can assure you that if a message is really important it will reach you sooner or later. Have you never rushed dripping from the bath, or chewing from the table, or dazed from the bed, only to be told that you are a wrong number But you will say, you need not have your name printed in the telephone directory, and you can have a telephone which is only usable for outgoing calls. Besides, you will say, isn’t it important to have a telephone in case of sudden emergency—illness, accident, or fire Of course, you are right, but here in a thickly populated country like England one is seldom far from a telephone in case of dreadful necessity. I think perhaps I had better try to justify myself by trying to prove that what I like is good. I admit that in different circumstances—if I were a tycoon (实业界巨头), for instance, or bedridden I might find a telephone essential. But then if I were a taxi-driver I should find a car essential. Let me put it another way: there are two things for which the English seem to show particular aptitude: one is mechanical invention, the other is literature. My own business happens to be with the use of words but I see I must now stop using them. For have just been handed a slip of paper to say that somebody is waiting to speak to me on the telephone. I think I had better answer it. After all, one never knows, it may be something important.

The author says he is not strong-minded enough to ignore the telephone because （）