Section B Directions:In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attachedto it.Each statement contains information given in one of theparagraphs.Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived.You maychoose a paragraph more than once.Each paragraph is marked with a letter.Answerthe questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2. The End of theBook? A.Amazon, by far the largest bookseller in thecountry, reported on May 19 that it is now selling more books in its electronicKindle format than in the old paper-and-ink format.That isremarkable,considering that the Kindle has only been around for fouryears.E-books now account for 14 percent of all book sales in this country andare increasing far faster than overall book sales.E-book sales are up 146percent over last year, while hardback sales increased 6 percent and paperbacksdecreased 8 percent. B.Does this spell the doom of the physical book?Certainly not immediately, and perhaps not at all.What it does mean is that thebook business will go through a transformation in the next decade or so moreprofound than any it has seen since Gutenberg introduced printing from moveabletype in the 1450s. C.Physical books will surely become much rarer inthe marketplace.Mass market paperbacks, which have been declining for yearsanyway, will probably disappear, as will hardbacks formysteries,thrillers, “omancefiction,”etc.Such books, which only rarely end up inpermanent collections,either private or public, will probably only be availableas e-books within a few years.Hardback and trade paperbacks for “serious” nonfiction and fiction will surely last longer.Perhaps it willbecome the mark of an author to reckon with that he or she is Still publishedin hard copy. D.As for children's books, who knows? Children's_books are like dog food in that the purchasers are not the consumers, so themarket (and the marketing) is inherently strange. E.For clues to the book's future, let's look atsome examples of technological change and see what happened to the oldtechnology. F.One technology replaces another only because thenew technology is better, cheaper, or both.The greater the difference, thesooner and more thoroughly the new technology replaces the old.Printing with moveabletype on paper dramatically reduced the cost of producing a book compared withthe old-fashioned ones handwritten on vellum, which comes from sheepskin.ABible--to be sure, a long book--required vellum made from 300 sheepskins andcountless man-hours of labor.Before printing arrived, a Bible cost more than amiddle-class house.There were perhaps 50,000 books in all of Europe in 1450.By1500 there were 10 million. G.But while printing quickly caused the handwrittenbook to die out, handwriting lingered on ( 继续存在) wellinto the 16th century.Very special books are still occasionally produced onvellum, but they are one-of-a-kind show pieces. H.Sometimes a new technology doesn't drive the oldone out, but only parts of it while forcing the rest to evolve.The movies werewidely predicted to drive live theater out of the marketplace, but they didn't,because theater turned out to have qualities movies could notreproduce.Equally, TV was supposed to replace movies but, again, did not. I.Movies did, however, fatally impact some parts oflive theater.And while TV didn't kill movies, it did kill second-rate pictures,shorts, and cartoons. J.Nor did TV kill radio.Comedy and drama shows ( “JackBenny,” “Amos and Andy,” “TheShadow”)all migrated to television.But because youcan't drive a car and watch television at the same time,rush hour becameradio's prime time, while music, talk, and news radio greatly enlarged theiraudiences.Radio is today a very different business than in the late 1940s and amuch larger one. K.Sometimes old technology lingers for centtmesbecause of its symbolic power.Mounted cavalry ( 骑兵)replaced thechariot (二轮战车)on the battlefield around 1000 BC.But chariots maintained their place inparades and triumphs right up until the end of the Roman Empire 1,500 yearslater.The sword hasn't had a military function for a hundred years, but isstill part of an officer's full-dress uniform, precisely because a sword alwayssymbolized “an officer and a gentleman.” L.Sometimes new technology is a little cranky ( 不稳定的) at first.Televisionrepairman was a common occupation in the 1950s, for instance.And so the oldtechnology remains as a backup.Steamships captured the North Atlantic passengerbusiness from sail in the 1840s because of its much greater speed.Butsteamships didn't lose their sails until the 1880s, because early marineengines had a nasty habit of breaking down.Until ships became large enough (andengines small enough) to mount two engines side by side, they needed to keepsails.(The high cost of steam and the lesser need for speed kept the majorityof the world's ocean freight moving by sail until the early years of the 20thcentury.) M.Then there is the fireplace.Central heating waspresent in upper- and middle-class home by the second half of the 19thcentury.But functioning fireplaces remain to this day a powerful selling pointin a house or apartment.I suspect the reason is a deep-rooted love of fire.Firewas one of the earliest major technological advances for humankind, providingheat, protection, and cooked food (which is much easier to eat anddigest).Human control of fire goes back far enough (over a million years) thatevolution could have produced a genetic leaning towards fire as a centralaspect of human life. N.Books--especially books the average person couldafford--haven't been around long enough to produce evolutionary change inhumans.But they have a powerful hold on many people nonetheless,a holdextending far beyond their literary content.At their best, they are works ofart and there is a tactile ( 触觉的) pleasure in books necessarilylost in e-book versions.The ability to quickly thumb through pages is alsolost.And a room with books in it induces, at least in some, a feeling notdissimilar to that of a fire in the fireplace on a cold winter's night. O.For these reasons I think physical books willhave a longer existence as a commercial product than some currentlypredict.Like swords, books have symbolic power.Like fireplaces, they induce asense of comfort and warmth.And, perhaps, similar to sails, they make a usefulbackup for when the lights go out. 注意:此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答. 46.Authors still published in printed versions willbe considered important ones. 47.Some people are still in favor of printed booksbecause of the sense of touch they can provide. 48.The radio business has changed greatly and nowattracts more listeners. 49.Contrary to many people's prediction ofitsdeath, the film industry survived. 50.Remarkable changes have taken place in the bookbusiness. 51.Old technology sometimes continues to existbecause of its reliability. 52.The increase of e-book sales will force the bookbusiness to make changes not seen.for centuries. 53.A new technology is unlikely to take the placeof an old one without a clear advantage. 54.Paperbacks of popular literature are more likelyto be replaced by e-books. 55.A house with a fireplacehas a stronger appeal to buyers.