2014年6月英语四级阅读段落匹配题真题及答案.doc

2014 年6月英语四级阅读段落匹配题真题及答案 The End of the Book? By John Steele Gordon A). Amazon, by far the largest bookseller in the count ry, reported on May 19 that it is now selling more books i n its electronic Kindle format than in the old paper-and-i nk format. That is remarkable, considering that the Kindle has only been around for four years. E-books now account for 14 percent of all book sales in this country and are i ncreasing far faster than overall book sales. E-book sales are up 146 percent over last year, while hardback sales i ncreased 6 percent and paperbacks decreased 8 percent. B). Does this spell the doom of the physical book? Cer tainly not immediately, and perhaps not at all. What it do es mean is that the book business will go through a transf ormation in the next decade or so more profound than any i t has seen since Gutenberg introduced printing from moveab le type in the 1450s. C). Physical books will surely e much rarer in th e marketplace. Mass market paperbacks, which have been dec lining for years anyway, will probably disappear, as will hardbacks for mysteries, thrillers, "romance fiction," etc. Such books, which only rarely end up in permanent collect ions either private or public, will probably only be avail able as e-books within a few years. Hardback and trade pap erbacks for "serious" nonfiction and fiction will surely l ast longer. Perhaps it will e the mar