Clothes Going Digital
Here is Northeast, winter means coats and sweaters. And that means plenty of pockets for our growing stock of digital gadgets1. Summer, by contrast, is virtually a pock-free zone. No pockets in T-shirts. No pockets in gym shorts. Those few pockets that are available quickly become crammed2 with gadgets. Mobile phone, pagers, personal digital assistant, MP3 player or CD player, digital camera: It's enough to rip3 your pants as you walk down the hallway or through the parking lot. Attempts have been made to help redistribute this load, but with meager4 success.
One approach involves clipping the devices to a belt. Cell phones and pagers often go this way. A belt offers handy access when the phone rings or the pager goes off. But gadgets gathered to belt can become uncomfortable when you sit. A variation on the beltcarrier approach is the"fanny pack". This often involves zippers or clasps that can make it difficult to reach for a ringing telephone. An even bulkier option is the common backpack. Vulnerable5 to theft, it's able to hold quite a pile of electronic gear. Fashion alert: Backpack users look like they're still in college.
Designers have been puzzling over this problem for a while and at last one company has come up with a possible solution. Called the" Scott eVest", it's a lightweight vest with more than a dozen pockets. Wearers have plenty of room for mobile phones, PDAs, CD players and much more. Better yet, a build-in wiring system — called a PAN, for " personal area network"— allows wearers to use their gadgets in addition to carrying them about.
Connect the mobile phone to the PAN, for example, and you can answer a phone call by putting in your earpiece and pressing a button through the vest's fabric. Similarly, the wiring system keeps the headphones for your CD player in place and ready for instant use. Beyond gadgets, the vest has pockets for keys, a pen and even a" cup holder"pocket for beverages.
练习题:
Ⅰ. Answer the following questions with no more than three words:
1. What is our growing stock?
2. What might your digital gadgets do when you walk through the parking lot?
3. What dose PAN stand for?
Ⅱ. Choose answers to the questions:
1. What are the possible methods to hold the digital gadgets?
A. Clipping the devices to a belt. B. Putting them into fanny pack.
C. Putting them into common backpack. D. Wearing a Scott eVest.
2. What are the two functions for Scott eVest?
A. To allow wearer to use digital gadgets. B. To provide electricity.
C. To carry the digital gadgets. D. To fix the digital gadget.