不管是電影里，還是小說中，煲電話粥似乎永遠都是女人的專利。天哪！這可是天大的冤枉！男人可比女人煲電話粥的時間長多了。

If you're wondering where the man of the house has got to, he's probably on the phone. Men have swopped places with women as the family chatterbox, a survey has found. They dominate the house phone as well as constantly chatting on their mobiles.

如果你想在家里找到男人，那么他很可能在電話機旁邊。一項調查發現，男人和女人掉了個位置，他們更喜歡在家里打電話閑聊。他們霸占家里的電話，或者通過手機滔滔不絕。

The average man is on the phone for 32 minutes a day, up from 22 five years ago. Women, on the other hand, spend a daily average of 26 minutes on the phone, down from 35 in 2002.

男人平均打電話的時間由五年前的每天通話22分鐘增至了如今的32分鐘。與此同時，女人每天打電話的時間從2002年的35分鐘降至26分鐘。

But it's not because they suddenly have less to say. Women appear to prefer to share their gossip using e-mail and text messages, said the study of 3,500 adults.

這份對3500個成年人的調查顯示，女人電話時間縮短并不表示她們突然變得無話可說，而是她們更偏好通過電子郵件和短信的方式來閑聊。

Calling banks or insurance companies, buying tickets and booking restaurant tables were included in the conversations used to calculate the time spent on the phone. Work calls, however, were not.

這份調查不包括涉及工作的電話，但是包括了與銀行或保險公司通話，或是買票和餐館訂座等電話。

Almost three in ten men (29 per cent) said that sport was their favourite topic, followed by 22 per cent who discussed the mysteries of women and 20 per cent the even greater mysteries of money.

將近3/10（29%）的男人表示，運動是他們最喜歡的話題，緊隨其后的話題是神秘的女人（22&）和比女人更撲朔迷離的金錢（20%）。

A third of women (32 per cent) said they chatted most about men. A similar number said what (and what not) to wear was their main topic of conversation. Other top subjects were mutual friends and making plans to socialise.

1/3（32%）的女人表示，她們談論最多的是男人。另有大約1/3的人則在談論穿什么衣服。其余的一些熱門話題則與朋友、社交計劃有關。

（來源：網絡 實習生許雅寧 英語點津Jennifer編輯）