就算你認(rèn)為實(shí)體書永遠(yuǎn)都有存在的必要,但是一年內(nèi)你自己又真的買了幾本呢?不管怎樣,在酷愛看書的英國(guó)市場(chǎng),實(shí)體書終于實(shí)現(xiàn)了四年里的第一次增長(zhǎng)。
測(cè)試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識(shí):
understate 低估了[?nd?'ste?t]
Enchanted Forest 繪本《魔法森林》
rebound 回彈[r?'ba?nd]
intricate 復(fù)雜的;錯(cuò)綜的
aesthetic 美學(xué)的;審美的[i?s'θet?k; es-]
revamp 修補(bǔ);翻新[ri?'v?mp]
閱讀馬上開始,建議您計(jì)算一下閱讀整篇文章所用的時(shí)間,對(duì)照下方的參考值就可以評(píng)估出您的英文閱讀水平。
5分55秒 母語(yǔ)為英語(yǔ)者的朗讀速度 140
3分0秒 母語(yǔ)為英語(yǔ)的中學(xué)生的閱讀速度 250
2分34秒 母語(yǔ)為英語(yǔ)的大學(xué)生的閱讀速度 350
0分15秒 母語(yǔ)為英語(yǔ)的速讀高手 1000
UK physical book sales rise for first time in 4 years(750words)
By Robert Cookson
-----------------------------------------------------
UK sales of physical books rose for the first time in four years in 2015 on the back of the craze for adult colouring books, while ebook sales by large British publishers fell for the first time on record.
The Publishers Association said the figures showed that “those who made predictions about the death of the book may have underestimated just how much people love paper”.
Physical sales were up 0.4 per cent to £2.76bn in 2015, while digital sales fell 1.6 per cent to £554m, the first drop since the trade body started recording ebook sales seven years ago.
However, the figures do not include sales of self-published titles or those published by Amazon or certain other digital media companies, so they understate total British ebook sales.
Adult colouring books, such as Johanna Basford’s Enchanted Forest and Millie Marotta’s Animal Kingdom, helped power the rebound in physical sales.
Six of the top seven non-fiction paperbacks in 2015 were colouring books, which feature intricate designs and have been embraced by people looking to take a break from digital media.
Publishers have also boosted physical book sales by investing more money in the production values of their titles, such as the special edition of Alice In Wonderland on its 150th anniversary.
“There remains a special place in the consumer’s heart for the aesthetic pleasure that printed books can bring,” said Stephen Lotinga, chief executive of the Publishers Association.
The fall in ebook sales came after Waterstones, the UK’s biggest book retailer, revamped its sales strategy and last year decided to stop selling the Kindle, Amazon’s ereader.
The Publishers Association, whose members include HarperCollins and Penguin Random House, said the decline in ebook sales in 2015 was “too small for us to make any claims for big shifts in consumer behaviour or make predictions for what lies ahead”.
Joseph Evans, analyst at Enders, predicted that ebook sales would increase in the years ahead as a growing number of books are being made available only in digital formats. “Self-publishing is only going to get more popular among authors and more accepted by readers,” he said.
請(qǐng)根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內(nèi)容,完成以下自測(cè)題目:
1. When did the trade body start to record ebook sales?
A. 2005
B. 2010
C. 2008
D. 2014
2. How about the actual ebook sales, comparing with the trade body’s figures?
A. identical
B. more
C. less
D. not mentioned
3. What kind of books were popular among British as mentioned?
A. colouring books
B. encyclopaedias
C. dictionaries
D. detective fictions
4. Which book retailer r decided to stop selling the Kindle?
A. HarperCollins
B. Penguin Random House
C. Enders
D. Waterstones
[1] 答案 C. 2008
解釋:2015年電子書銷量出現(xiàn)有記錄以來(lái)的首次下滑,7年前開始正式記錄。
[2] 答案 B. more
解釋:由于這個(gè)數(shù)據(jù)沒有包含作者自行出版的電子書作品或亞馬遜和數(shù)字媒體公司的產(chǎn)品,所以實(shí)際銷量是比數(shù)據(jù)多的。
[3] 答案 A. colouring books
解釋:通讀全文可知,去年繪本的盛行對(duì)實(shí)體書的銷量回暖有重要作用。
[4] 答案 D. Waterstones
解釋:在去年調(diào)整了策略的是英國(guó)最大連鎖書店的Waterstonesz。