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  3. Like a tired marriage, the relationship between libraries and publishers has long been reassuringly dull. E-books, however, are

Like a tired marriage, the relationship between libraries and publishers has long been reassuringly dull. E-books, however, are

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问题    Like a tired marriage, the relationship between libraries and publishers has long been reassuringly dull. E-books, however, are causing heartache. Libraries know they need digital wares if they are to remain valuable, but many publishers are too wary of piracy and lost sales to co-operate. A-mong the big six, only Random House and HarperCollins license e-books with most libraries. The others have either denied requests or are reluctantly experimenting. In August, for example, Penguin will start a pilot with public libraries in New York.
   Electronic borrowing is awfully convenient. Unlike printed books, which must be checked out and returned to a physical library miles from where you live, electronic book files can be downloaded at home. Digital library catalogues are often browsed at night, from a comfy sofa. The files disappear from the device when they are due(which means no late fees, nor angst about lost or damaged tomes).
   E-lending is not simple, however. There are lots of different and often incompatible e-book formats, devices and licences. Most libraries use a company called OverDrive, a global distributor that secures rights from publishers and provides e-books and audio files in every format. Some 35 million titles were checked out through OverDrive in 2011, and the company now sends useful data on borrowing behavior to participating publishers. Yet publishers and libraries are worried by Over-Drive’ s market dominance, as the company can increasingly dictate fees and conditions.
   Publishers were miffed when OverDrive teamed up with Amazon, the world’ s biggest online bookseller, last year. Owners of Amazon’ s Kindle e-reader who want to borrow e-books from libraries are now redirected to Amazon’ s website, where they must use their Amazon account to secure a loan. Amazon then follows up with library patrons directly, letting them know they can "Buy this book" when the loan falls due.
   So publishers keep tweaking their lending arrangements in search of the right balance. Random House raised its licensing prices earlier this year, and HarperCollins limits libraries to lending its titles 26 times. Penguin plans to keep new releases out of libraries for at least six months, and each book will expire after a year. Hachette is engaged in some secret experiments, and the others are watching with bated breath. In Britain the government will soon announce a review of the matter. The story of the library e-book is a nail-biter.
The introduction of Random House, HarperCollins, Penguin, Hachette in the last paragraph is to______.
选项 A、find the most appropriate balance
B、adjust their lending arrangements
C、contribute to the Britain government
D、show the story of the library e-book
答案A
解析 细节题。根据题干关键词in the last paragraph定位到第五段。该段第二、三、四句 指出“兰登书屋在今年早些时候提高了授权价格，哈珀柯林斯出版社限制图书馆借阅条 目的次数为26次。在企鹅出版社的计划中，新书从出版后到进入图书馆，至少要等六个 月的时间，且一年后就到期。阿歇特出版社正在进行一些秘密实验……”，这些出版社的 举措是对该段第一句“因此出版商在不断微调它们的借阅合约以找到最恰当的平衡点” 的具体说明。它们的举措是在“不断微调它们的借阅合约”，而目的是“找到最恰当的平 衡点”，故排除B项，A项为正确答案。C项“为英国政府做出贡献”和D项“展示电子图 书馆的故事”均是对原文的曲解，故排除。
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