Phone books have white, blue and yellow pages. The white pages list people with phones by last name. The blue pages contain numbers of city services, government services and public services. Businesses and professional services are listed in a special classified directory-the Yellow Pages.
It is generally very easy to find a public telephone in the developed countries. Public phones are located in bus and railroad stations, airports, stores, hotels,
restaurants, gasoline stations, on numerous street corners and in most office buildings. From a corner pay-call, you pick up the phone, listen for a dial tone (a buzzing sound), deposits a coin or coins (depending on the cost in the area) and then dial the number.
A person-to-person call can only be accepted by the particular person you are calling. Thus, if that person is not there, you will not be charged. However,
person-to-person and collect calls are more expensive than calls dialed directly because they involve the additional labor cost of an operator. The person being
called pays for a " collect" call rather than by the person making the call. If you make a long distance call and get a wrong number, call the operator and explain
what happened. This means that you can make the call again to the right number without having to pay more money; or you can have the phone company mail you a credit coupon that has the same value as the phone call.
电话簿有白页、蓝页和黄页。白页刊登用户个人的电话号码，是按姓氏排列的。蓝页刊登市政机构、政府机构和公共服务的电话号码。黄页是商业和专业机构的分类电话号码。
想在发达国家找到一部公用电话是非常容易的。公用电话经常安装在以下场所：公共汽车站、火车站、飞机场、商店、旅馆、饭店、加油站、许多街角以及大多数的写字楼。 在街角的付费电话亭，你拿起电话，听到拨号声音（嗡嗡声），投入硬币（数量视地区而定），然后拨号。
叫人电话只能是你叫的那个人接听。所以，如果那个人不在，你就不需付费。叫人电话和对方付费的电话较自拨电话要贵一些，因为接线员得付出额外劳动。在对方付费的电话中，交钱的是接听电话的人而非打电话的人。 如果你打长途时拨错了电话号码，可以给接线员打电话解释一下情况，你就可以再打正确的号码而不用另外付费；你也可以让电话公司寄给你退回电话费用的付款证。
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