Not so long ago, it was the stuff of nightmares: you pick up the landline telephone and th

eres no dialing tone. Nothing. The phone is useless,【C1】______in your hand. For most of the 20th century, this was a horror film stereotype, a symbol of isolation and【C2】______foretold. But just 15 years later, the death of the landline is close to being a【C3】______—and one entirely of our own making. BT has announced plans to【C4】______charges for landline calls, in a bid to maintain commercial feasibility for landline services. The move suggests that BT—which has long【C5】______landlines over mobile calls—may have given up on turning back the clock. In the US, the【C6】______of households that have mobile phone connection but no landline has risen to a quarter. The most recent research in the UK, put the【C7】______figure at 15%. For millions of todays twentysomethings, who have had a mobile number since their teens and for whom a landline makes no【C8】______sense during the transient years before they settle down, the moment of【C9】______into land-line-owning may never come【C10】______it becomes an expensive extra. The death of the landline has gone almost unnoticed. After all, the noise of phone chatting is all around us. What【C11】______does it make whether the cables lie underground or not？ A lot,【C12】______. The death of the landline is a cultural【C13】______that affects our personal and public lives. It has separated us【C14】______our groupings—in the office, where email has disconnected us from what the people who sit three feet away do all day, and even more【C15】______, at home. In any household in the days before mobiles【C16】______, the landline served as a switchboard for everyones connections outside the home.【C17】______families, couples, roommates, it was a kind of【C18】______knowledge map about the state of everyones romantic and social lives, and one we took for granted. And【C19】______though we are to our mobiles, most of the time we arent talking but typing. With its arrogant "ignore" button, we all become a little more untouchable in our individual worlds, and less【C20】______.

【C1】

A．honest

B．crucial

C．tireless

D．dead