Задания к газетной статье "E-Book Reading Is Up" для элективного курса.
элективный курс по английскому языку (10 класс) на тему

E-Book Reading Is Up, Study Says

By DAVID STREITFELD

December 27, 2012

A new study says the number of adults who read e-books jumped in the last year to 23 percent from 16 percent.

“The printed page was just half a millennium’s brief wonder,” theorized John Updike in a late poem. Exactly when the old order will be completely overthrown is in some dispute, however.

The original thinking was that digital books would triumph very soon, and in some quarters this notion has persisted. “I’m hearing from publishers that the percent of e-books keeps rising as expected,” said James McQuivey, a Forrester analyst. “They tell me to expect e-books to reach half of all books sold sometime between the end of 2013 and the first half of 2014.” But in recent months there have been frequent reports that e-book sales might be cresting. That would shift the dynamics, giving breathing space to publishers laboring to make the digital transition and perhaps forestalling what some fear will be the total domination of Amazon.

A new report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project will not give much comfort to those who want to hang on, for better or worse, to the printed past.

 Sales of dedicated e-book readers may have peaked last year, but the percentage of Americans owning one rose to 19 percent from 10 percent. Readers of printed books, meanwhile, fell to 67 percent from 72 percent.

Regardless of where they do it, the Pew study presented what seems a fairly upbeat picture of reading. Readers consumed an average of 15 books in the previous year. Fourteen percent of the respondents read 21 or more books. The sample size of respondents was 2,252.

Ex.1: Scan the text and say what the study of reader’s preferences show. 

Ex.2: Translate the paragraph:

“The printed page was just half a millennium’s brief wonder,” theorized John Updike in a late poem. Exactly when the old order will be completely overthrown is in some dispute, however.

Ex3.: Find the sentences with modal verbs. Translate them.

Ex.4: Read the comments:

Comments:

-I would like to know if ebook sales have gone up how many tones of paper has been saved. For those who say they are interested in the touch and feel of paper when they read I would like them to think how many forests have to be cut down either plantation or old forest when you enjoy touch and feel of things. It is high time all text books were digitized to make it available via the net to all the students in the world. If people want printed matter they should be asked to pay twice the amount if the book is already in eBook format. It may sound radical but instead of spending thousands on environmental initiatives with money we don’t have why not change our behavior and save millions. Digitization of books will save the cost of paper, printing, building to house books, cost of transport, labour etc. which can reduce cost of education. We have now got tools for universal education why not spend the money on developing smarter tools such as tablets for education purposes? We don’t worry about records or cassette players why worry about paper books.

-Not only online reading, but online WRITING will come to dominate all other forms - such as using a word processor to compose and then just print out what it produced.

-And that will save the written English Language from being lost to audio, video and telephone talking heads as the only way to 'communicate.'

-In fact I think reading and writing online is already causing an evolution in written English by impatient youngsters writing on smart phone screens in abbreviated form - such as "How RU' for How are you" - which I call "Electronic English"

Ex.5: Use a dictionary and translate the words and phrases: 

crest-                                  digital transition-                                        forestall-

consume-                           sample-

H.W.:

1.Add your comments.

2.Prepare yourself and say: What are the arguments for and against e-Books.