If you hear the sound of a handset beeping(手机响) in a bag or pocket, you could be forgiven for thinking that someone has received a text message. But nowadays there are so many different ways of messaging someone that it could spell the death of the traditional text as we know it.
Text messaging, or texting, is the art of sending a short, electronic message between two mobile phones or tablets(平板电脑). Users pay a certain amount to send messages via(通过) SMS—short message service. But in the last few years, messaging in this way has been on the decline(下降).
The rise of smartphones and tablets has seen an increase in the use of instant messaging apps(即时通信应用程序) , which take the place of traditional texts. Using wireless Internet connections, people can send limitless numbers of IMs to their friends for very little cost. Unlike traditional mobile texts, the user usually only has to pay to download the app once, after which each message they send is free.
Web developers soon got the message. Instant messaging apps have become popular all over the world. WhatsApp in America and Europe, WeChat in China and Kakao Talk in South Korea are but a few which have attracted hundreds of millions of people, who use the apps to chat to their friends in real time. These apps allow people to send picture messages for free—something which previously was quite costly.
Research company Informa said that almost 19 billion messages were sent per day using chat apps in 2012, compared with 17. 6 billion SMS texts. And it expects the chat app market to grow t0 50 billion per day by 2014. So does this really mean the end for communication by text?
Pamela Clark—Dickson from Informa doesn't think so. She says that there are a large number of people who use normal mobile phones, particularly in developing countries, who prefer the SMS messaging tool. There is an awfully big base of mobile phone users who are still going to find that SMS is the best messaging experience for them for a while.
根据材料内容选择最佳答案，并将其标号填人题前括号内。
According to Paragraph 3 , which of the following is NOT true?

A．Instant messaging apps are becoming more and more popular nowadays.

B．Compared with instant messaging, traditional texts are more popular now.

C．Instant messaging and SMS messaging are both ways we can chat with others.

D．More and more people choose to use smartphones and tablets.

The underlined phrase "got the message" in Paragraph 4 means ______

A．received an SMS message	B．got an instant message
C．understood what was wanted	D．got a piece of information

Which of the following is true?

A．people sent 19 billion SMS texts every day in 2012

B．All the messages sent on mobile phones and computers are free

C．Picture messages can be sent at a high price if you use Wechat

D．To send instant messages , people usually have to download the app first

What can we learn from the last paragragh?

A．p amela Clark-Dickson doesn’t support the SMS messaging

B．Few people like sending messages via SMS at phones

C．Many people are still senging messages on mobile phones

D．SMS messaging has disappeared in developed courtries.

What is the best title for text?

A．the death of text messaging

B．How to send messages via SMS

C．SMS costs less than IMs

D．WeChat in China is popular.