The first person I came across who'd got the measure of e-mall was an American friend who was

high up in a big corporation. Some years ago, when this method of communication first seeped into business life from academia, his company in New Yor and its satellites across the globe were among the first to get it. In the world's great seats of learning, e-mail had for some years allowed researchers to share !ital new "o es. And if there was cutting-edge wit to be had, there was no way my friend's corporation would be without it. #ne e!ening in New Yor , he was late for a drin we'd arranged. $Sorry,$ he said, $I'!e been away and had to deal with %%& e-mails in my 'ueue.$ $(ow,$ I said, $I'm really surprised you made it before midnight.$ $It doesn't really ta e that tong,$ be e)plained, $if you simply delete them all.$ True to form, he had de!eloped a strategy before most of us had e!en heard of e-mail. If any information he was sent was sufficiently !ital, his lac of response would ensure the sender rang him up. If the sender wasn't important enough to ha!e his pri!ate number, the communication couldn't be sufficiently important. *y frien is now e!en more senior in the same company, so the strategy must wor , although these days, I don't tend to send him many e-mails. Almost e!ery wee now, there seems to be another report suggesting that we are all being dri!en cra+y by the torment of e-mall. ,ut if this is the case, it's only because we ha!en't de!eloped the same discrimination in dealing with e-mail as we do with post. -a!e you e!er mista en an important letter for a piece of unsolicited ad!ertising and thrown it out. #f course you ha!en't. This is because of the obliging stupidity of %% per cent of ad!ertisers, who "ust can't help ma ing their mailshots loo li e the "un mail that they are. /un e-mail loo s e'ually unnecessary to read. (hy anyone would feel the slightest compulsion to open the sort of thing entitled $S012IA3#44156"un .com$ I cannot begin to understand. 1!en !iruses, those snea y messages that contain a bug which can corrupt your whole computer system, come helpfully labelled with pac aging that shrie s $danger, do not open$. -andling e-mail is an art. 4irstly, you "un anything with an e)clamation mar or a string of capital letters, or from any address you don't recognise or feel confident about. Secondly, while I can't 'uite support my American friend7s radical policy, e-mails don't all ha!e to be answered. ,ecause emailing is so easy, there's a tendency for correspondence to carry on for e!er, but it is permissible to end a strand of discussion by simply not discussing it any longer8 or to accept a point of information sent by a colleague without ac nowledging it. Thirdly, a reply e-mail doesn't ha!e to be the same length as the original. (e all ha!e e-mail buddies who send long, chatty e-mails, which are nice to recei!e, but who then e)pect an e'ually long reply. Tough. The charm of e-mail can lie in the simple, suspended sentence, with total disregard for the formalities of the letter sent by post. You are perfectly within the bounds of politeness in responding to a marathon e-mail with a terse one-liner, li e9 $-ow distressing. I'm sure it will clear up.$

:. According to the writer, the company he mentions decided to adopt the e-mall system ;;;;;;. A. <A= so that employees could contact academics more easily. ,. <,= to a!oid missing out on any musing no!elty. 2. <2= because it had been tried and tested in uni!ersities. >. <>= to cope with the !ast mount of correspondence they recei!ed.

?. The $strategy$ <para9 @= is a way of ;;;;;;. A. <A= ensuring that important matters are dealt with. ,. <,= prioritising which messages to respond to. 2. <2= limiting e-mail correspondence to urgent matters. >. <>= encouraging a more efficient use of e-mail. A. According to the writer, what is causing the $torment of e-mail$ <0ara.B= described in reports. A. <A= The persistence of ad!ertisers. ,. <,= 0roblems caused by computer !iruses. 2. <2= The attitude of those recei!ing e-malls. >. <>= 3essons learnt from dealing with "un mall. @. In paragraph C, which of the following pieces of ad!ice is gi!en. A. <A= 4orget about e-mails which you do not intend to ac nowledge. ,. <,= Dse e-mall as a way of a!oiding unnecessary con!ersations. 2. <2= ,e prepared to brea off o!erlong e-mail communications. >. <>= 5ead your e-mails e!en if you're not going to answer them. B. According to the writer, what ad!antage does e-mall correspondence ha!e o!er the traditional letter. A. <A= It is more con!enient to send. ,. <,= It causes fewer misunderstandings. 2. <2= It can be written in a less con!ersational style. >. <>= It does not ha!e the same time-consuming con!entions.