媒体英语会带大家一起学习 BBC 撰稿人在报道世界大事时常用到的单词和短语。

短信问世整整二十年了。1992年12月3日，一位工程师通过沃达丰的英国通信网从一台电脑上向一部手机成功地发出了“圣诞快乐”这一划时代的短信。如今，各种手机之间的短信往来已经司空见惯几乎人人都在使用。以下是 BBC 记者 Grant Ferret 发回的报道。

When Neil Papworth sent the first text message from his computer to a colleague's mobile phone on the 3rd of December 20 years ago, he didn't wait for a response. In those days it wasn't possible to send a message from a phone.

But the spread of mobile technology, combined with the cheapness and brevity of texts, ensured that they became a global phenomenon, changing language in the process.

In the past year though, in a number of countries including the United States and Britain, the volume of text messages has fallen slightly for the first time. The SMS has been hit by the free messaging alternatives available on smartphones.