I was talking to John when the line suddenly went dead.

我正和约翰谈话，突然电话断了。

《牛津词典》

How horrible it would be if the patient couldn't communicate yet could understand the people standing around his hospital bed, talking about him as if he were dead.

当人们围着他把他当死人一般谈论着时，如果病人只是无法交流，却能理解谈话，这该是多么糟糕啊！

youdao

One woman reported talking on the phone to her boyfriend when the line went dead.

一名女性说，她正和男朋友煲电话粥，线路突然断了。

youdao

"The difference is you're talking about somebody dead in the vehicle or dying very quickly, or somebody being able to get out of the vehicle themselves, " said David Ward, director general of the London-based FIA Foundation for auto safety, which supports the Euro and Latin NCAP programs.

NPR: AP IMPACT: Cars Made In Brazil Are Deadly

In others, they are installing playful prompts, like trivia games, to get workers talking in traditional conversational dead zones, such as elevators.

WSJ: The Science of Serendipity in the Workplace

By the time the two got talking, Chrysler was no longer the funky Detroit company that in the 1980s had come back from the dead through then chief executive Lee Iacocca's sheer flair.

ECONOMIST: The DaimlerChrysler emulsion