雅思阅读第015套P3-A LIBRARY AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20minutes on Questions 27 – 40, which are based on Reading Passage 3below.
A LIBRARY AT YOURFINGERTIPS
A few years ago, at the heightof the dotcom boom, it was widely assumed that a publishing revolution, inwhich the printed word would be supplanted by the computer screen, was justaround the corner. It wasn’t: for many, there is still little to match the joyof cracking the spine of a good book and settling down for an hour or two ofreading. A recent flurry of activity by big technology companies – includingGoogle, Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo! – suggests that the dream of bringingbooks online is still very much alive.
The digitising of thousands ofvolumes of print is not without controversy. On Thursday, November 3, Google,the world’s most popular search engine, posted a first instalment of books onGoogle Print, an initiative first mooted a year ago. This collaborative effortbetween Google and several of the world’s leading research libraries aims tomake many thousands of books available to be searched and read online free ofcharge. Although the books included so far are not covered by copyright, theplan has attracted the ire of publishers.
Five large book firms are suingGoogle for violating copyright on material that it has scanned and, althoughout of print, is still protected by law. Google has said that it will onlypublish short extracts from material under copyright unless given expresspermission to publish more, but publishers are unconvinced. Ironically, manypublishers are collaborating with Google on a separate venture, Google PrintPublisher, which aims to give readers an online taste of books that arecommercially available. The searchable collection of extracts and bookinformation is intended to tempt readers to buy the complete books online or inprint form.
Not to be outdone, Amazon, theworld’s largest online retailer, has unveiled plans for its own foray into themass e-book market. The firm, which began ten years ago as an online bookretailer, now sells a vast array of goods. No doubt piqued that Google, arelative newcomer, should impinge upon its central territory, Amazon revealedon Thursday that it would introduce two new services. Amazon Pages will allowcustomers to search for key terms in selected books and then buy and readonline whatever part they wish, from individual pages to chapters or completeworks. Amazon Upgrade will give customers online access to books they havealready purchased as hard copies. Customers are likely to have to pay aroundfive cents a page, with the bulk going to the publisher.
Microsoft, too, has joined theonline-book bandwagon. At the end of October, the software giant said it wouldspend around $200 million to digitise texts, starting with 150,000 that are inthe public domain, to avoid legal problems. It will do so in collaboration withthe Open Content Alliance, a consortium of libraries and universities. (Yahoo!has pledged to make 18,000 books available online in conjunction with the sameorganisation.) On Thursday, coincidentally the same day as Google and Amazonannounced their initiatives, Microsoft released details of a deal with theBritish Library, the country’s main reference library, to digitise some 25million pages; these will be made available through MSN Book Search, which willbe launched next year.
These companies are hoping fora return to the levels of interest in e-books seen when Stephen King, abest-selling horror writer, published “Riding the Bullet” exclusively on theInternet in 2000. Half a million copies were downloaded in the first 48 hoursafter publication. This proved to be a high-water mark rather than a taste ofthings to come. While buyers were reluctant to sit in front of a computerscreen to read the latest novels, dedicated e-book reading gadgets failed tocatch on. Barnes and Noble, a leading American bookshop chain, began sellinge-books with fanfare in 2000 but quietly pulled the plug in 2003 as interestfaded.
The market for e-books isgrowing again, though from a tiny base. According to the International DigitalPublishing Forum, which collates figures from many of the world’s toppublishers, in the third quarter of 2004, worldwide sales were 25% higher thanthe year before. Unfortunately, this only amounted to a paltry $3.2 millionsplit between 23 publishers in an industry that made sales worth over $100billion that year.
Both retailers and publishersreckon they will eventually be able to persuade consumers to do a lot more oftheir reading on the web. Some even hope they can become to online books whatApple’s iTunes is to online music. There are crucial differences betweendownloading fiction and downloading funk. Online music was driven from thebottom up: illegal filesharing services became wildly popular, and legal firmslater took over when the pirates were forced (by a wave of lawsuits) toretreat; the legal providers are confident that more and more consumers willpay small sums for music rather than remain beyond the law. The iPod musicplayer and its like have proved a fashionable and popular new way to listen tosongs. The book world has no equivalent.
So the commercial prospects forsellers of online books do not yet look very bright. They may get a lift fromsome novel innovations. The ability to download mere parts of books could help,for instance: sections of manuals, textbooks or cookery books may tempt somecustomers; students may wish to download the relevant sections of course books;or readers may want a taste of a book that they subsequently buy in hard copy.The ability to download reading matter onto increasingly ubiquitous hand-heldelectronic devices and 3G phones may further encourage uptake. In Japan, thevalue of e-books (mainly manga comic books) delivered to mobile phones hasjumped, though it will be worth only around ¥6 billion ($51 million) in 2005,according to estimates.
SECTION 3: QUESTIONS 27-40
Questions 27 – 30
For each question, only ONE ofthe choices is correct. Write the corresponding letter in the appropriate boxon your answer sheet.
27A few years ago, it was widely thoughtthat
Apeople would read fewer 'paper’books.
Bcompanies like Amazon would gobankrupt.
Cthe dotcom boom would soon end.
28Publishers are unhappy with Google because
AGoogle is only publishingextracts, not complete books.
Bthey think Google is in breachof copyright.
CGoogle is co-operating withleading research libraries.
29Amazon will
Asell books that previously onlyGoogle sold online.
Bbuy the copyright for manybooks it sells online.
Callow people to buy only partsthat they want to read from books.
30It is clear that most readers, if giventhe choice, prefer
A'paper’ books.
Breading from computer screens.
Cusing dedicated e-book readers.
Questions 31-35
Complete the followingsentences using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the text for eachgap.
If companies publish booksonline that are not covered by copyright, they avoid 31 ________________
The 32 ________________ is very small but gettinglarger
The 33 ________________ expect that they will be ableto convince more people to read online.
The 34 ________________ has nothing similar to an iPod.
In Japan, most of thepublications sent to mobile phones are 35 ________________
Questions 36-40
Do the statements on the nextpage agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 36– 40 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE
if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE
if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN
If there is no information on this
36 ________________ Books that are out of print arenot covered by copyright law.
37 ________________ Amazon began by selling booksonline.
38 ________________ Microsoft signed a deal withthe British Library on the same day as Google and Amazon made theirannouncements.
39 ________________ Barnes and Noblepublished Riding the Bullet online.
40 ________________ The ability to sample a bookonline before buying it might help sales.
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9分达人阅读第15套P3-Monkeys and Forestshttp://www.tuonindefu.com/?p=1512雅思阅读第015套P3:A LIBRARY AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
