More and more residences, businesses, and even government agencies are using telephone answering machines to take messages or give information or instructions. Sometimes these machines give (1) instructions, or play messages that are difficult to understand. If you (2) telephone calls, you need to be ready to respond when you get a (3)
The most common machine is the (4) used in residence. If you call a home (5) there is a telephone answering machine (6) you will hear several rings and then a recorded message that (7) says something like this: "Hello. We can’t come to the (8) right now. If you want us to call you back, please leave your name and number after the beep." Then you will hear a "beep", (9) is a brief, high-pitched (10) . After the beep, you can say who you are, whom you want to speak to, and what number the person should call to (11) you, or you can leave a (12) . Some telephone answering machines record for only 20 or 30 seconds after the beep, (13) you must respond quickly.
Some large businesses and government agencies are using telephone answering machines to provide information on (14) about which they receive a large volume of (15) . Generally speaking, using these systems (16) you to have a touch-tone phone ( a phone with buttons rather than a rotary dial). The voice on the machine will tell you to (17) a certain button on your telephone if you want information on Topic A, another button for Topic B, and so on. You listen (18) you hear the topic you want to learn about, and then you push the (19) button. Immediately after making your (20) , you will hear a recorded message on the topic.
9（）
A．type
B．kind
C．sort
D．character
参考答案：A
解析：
词汇辨析题。type主要指某一个团体成员的相似特征，这些特征使得该组与其他组有明显的不同，如：I seem to discern six types of judicial writing which divide themselves from one another with measurable distinctness．(我好像能区分六种法律文书，它们之间可以通过一定的差别区分开来。)此处The most common machine表示一般录音电话的种类，很明显此类产品有共同的特征，因此正确选项是type，表示与别的录音电话有明显的区别。
[避错指导] kind指由于与生俱来的特征联系在一起的成员组成的种类，如：Material objects are of two kinds atoms and compounds of atoms。(物质分两类——原子及原子化合物。)sort表示某一类成员之间的相似之处与关联并不十分明确，如：He's a sort of people who're incapable of deceiving you．(他是那种不会欺骗你的人。)character则是指某类成员所独具的性质，强调种类中单个成员的特别性质。