Passage Four

Snazzy technology is a twist in a narrative already several chapters long. Mass-market retailing has changed the publishing industry: these days books are as likely to be found beside steaks and saucepans as they are to be bought in specialist stores. The story tums on whether broader changes in bookselling will stifle literature. Dan Brown will survive. Would Dante?For most of the past century, governments across Europe protected book prices; many still do. Even in America, apart from dime-store romances, few titles were sold outside bookshops. But in the 1970s stores like Borders and Barnes & Noble applied a supermarket maxim to print: pile therm high and watch them fly. Waterstones did the same thing in Britain and top titles started selling in the hundreds of thousands, even millions.

Just as book superstores forced out many independents, so supermarkets and other mass retailers have since crowded the book chains. In Britain, when price regulation was disbanded in 1997, supermarkets rushed in and now sell a quarter of all books, according to the way that Nielsen, a market-research outfit, calculates it. Belgium and Finland mimicked this trend.

This has been good for readers: in Britain the average price of a book hat fallen by 15% since 2003, reckons BML. Bowker, a book-marketing consultancy. And demand has grown: consumers spend the same amount on books, so they must be buying more. Those independent bookshops that survived the chain war in America and Britain have held sales and prices steady. Meanwhile, mass retailers find books such a draw that they lure in customers by selling some titles at a loss. Higher turnover should also be positive for publishers. But mass retailers demand discounts of up to 60% for bulk orders, shrinking margins. All sides prosper when books sell quickly. But, unlike groceries, if books don't sell, retailers return them to the publisher - and do not pay. So, when a book with a large print run flops, publishers end up with an expensive pile of recycling. That is why some publishers have stopped doing new deals with the likes of Costco, an American warchouse retailer, which likes to order very large print runs.

Few people will mourn publishers' losses from increased price competition and new technology like e-readers. The question is whether these trends undermine the quality of books which arc being published, by breaking a business model that has let firms focus on variety and range. Publishers have good reason to shiver at the decline of traditional bookshops. To fund the discovery and promotion of new authors, they have relied on books that sell steadily over a number of years. Yet mass retailers stock a few hundred new blockbusters.

Questions 16-20 are based on Passage Four.

The supermarket maxim adopted by Borders and Barnes & Noble in the 1970smeans that_____.

Paragraph Ten

Safar's work began to change our perceptions of death —blurring the point that is meant to mark the end of our lives.“We've all been brought up to think death is an absolute moment — when you die you can't come back. It used to be correct, but now we've come to understand that even after you've become a cadaver, you're still retrievable."

The boundary between life and death is less and less c_____.

(46.Camps are either temporary. that is changed from day to day, or they are permanent and may be visited year after year. or they may be used for a few weeks at a time.) Temporary camps are the ones we are considering, and these can be elaborate or very, very simple. I prefer the latter, and I am sure the boys will agree with me.

(47. During the autumn and when the weather is dry and the nights not too cool, the best way to camp is in the open. sleeping on beds of boughs, about a roaring fire. and with one blanket under and another over.)

Small dog tents, like the ones our soldiers carried in the Civil War, are cheap and very convenient. Each man carried a section, and two made a tent, into which two men crawled when it rained, but in dry weather they preferred to sleep in the open, even when it was freezing.

(48.Shelters of boughs. arranged in an A-framed fashion from a ridge pole make good temporary shelters and are first rate as windbreaks at night.)

A shack built of crossed logs requires some time to build and some skill to make, but it is not beyond the reach of any boy who has seen - and who has not - an old-fashioned log shanty.But all boys, even trained foresters, are apt to get lost in strange woods. Every one, however, should know what to do in such a circumstance. As a rule the denser growth of moss on trees is on the north side. This knowledge may help find the direction, but it is better to carry a small pocket compass.

(49.When the sky is clear. the sun and the stars help to guide the course and if they are followed one is saved from traveling in a circle, as the lost are pretty sure to do in a dense forest .)

(50. If twigs are broken from bushes they will serve to show the course to nose out searching, A good plan is to follow down the course of a stream which always flows into a larger body of water and will lead to some abode.) If a hill is accessible, the lay of the land may be had from its summit. 

In any event, should you be lost, do not get ratted. You will be missed in camp and a search will be made by your friends. If you have to stay in the woods all night, make the best of it. Others have made the best of it by sleeping near the foot of a tree or beside a log. It will be more cheery if you can make a fire without anger to the woods.

Paragraph Seven

If you remember learning about the senses in elementary school, you know humans possess five: sense of sight, sense of smell, sense of bearing, sense of touch, and sense of taste. Most scientists agree, however, that you have more like ten to twenty senses, including pain, hunger, thirst, temperature, and more.

More senses than commonly k_____.

Paragraph Eight

Regular poor sleep can raise the risk of serious medical conditions like obesity, heart attack and diabetes - and can even shorten life expectancy. Adequate exposure to natural daylight is known to be crucial for governing the body's circadian rhythm — the built-in clock which dictates our sleeping and waking patterns.

A key factor to improve one's sleep and h_____.

Paragraph Nine

In a new study, a team of neuroscientists and psychologists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) discovered that the harder adults tried to learn an artificial language, the worse they were at deciphering the language's morphology - the structure and deployment of linguistic units such as root words, suffixes, and prefixes.

A scientific discovery on language l_______.

Paragraph Four

It may seem odd to chow down on a garden salad topped with lentils or salmon at 8 am, but who says breakfast meals have to look different than lunch or supper? Give it a try - you may just find that warmed up stir fry, veggie“pasta”, or a crisp entree salad is your new favorite way to start the day.

Suggestion on the f______ meal of the day.

Paragraph Five

Malta is a beautiful southern European country in the Mediterranean Sea, which has a rich history and culture. There are amazing sky-high cliffs to climb, fabulous temples to explore, and lots of wonderful places to go scuba diving. The historic part of Malta has incredible architecture, great walled cities, and many underground tunnels to explore.

An attractive seaside r_____ for tourists.

Paragraph Six

Brushing already acidic teeth can further the erosion of one's enamel. People need to give their teeth time to remineralize after being bathed in an acidic beverage. It's advisable to wait an hour after drinking before lifting a toothbrush.

T______ your time brushing your teeth after drinking.

Paragraph Three

Shorter workdays have made headlines lately in Sweden. On I July, the city began a year-long experiment with six-hour days, enlisting a segment of government employees to work less than their eight-hour-a-day counterparts, for the same pay. The hope is that staffers working shorter days will accomplish just as much, only with more efficiency and less calling in sick.

An experiment on shorter workdays but h_____ productivity.

Paragraph two

The State Council of China issued a guideline to further accelerate household registration reform. A“points system” - mainly based on legal permanent employment and accommodation, seniority in social security and continuous residence - is to be established in cities with over 5m residents. Those who have accumulated certain points are qualified to apply for the cities' permanent household residence for themselves, their spouses, minor children and parents.

A p_____ of household registration reform is underway.