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Despite rising education levels and the convenience of buying books online, Chinese of every age are reading less and less these

admin2017-06-21  36
问题     Despite rising education levels and the convenience of buying books online, Chinese of every age are reading less and less these days, according to an analysis released by Chinese Academy of Press and Publication. The following article gives detail information of this phenomenon. Read it carefully and write an article of NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should:
    1. summarize the article briefly:
    2. give your comment.
    Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and language quality. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
    Write your article on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
    While the supply of books has exploded in China in recent decades, people’s interest in them has not kept up. According to a survey result published by the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication in February, Chinese people read 4.39 books per capita in the past year, a figure that trails far behind major developed countries. And, on average, Chinese people allocated just over 15 minutes a day to reading, compared to almost 100 to watching television and over 45 for using the Internet.
    Why are the Chinese turning away from reading books? The question has prompted soul-searching among the country’s intellectuals. Zhang Lijia, a freelance writer based in Beijing, reminisced fondly about people’s passion for reading: "I often had get-togethers with friends where we talked about politics and discussed the books we were reading," she recalled. "There was such a strong spirit of inquiry." That spirit disappeared, Zhang says, by China’s single-minded pursuit for economic prosperity, which has left its people with little regard for anything else. "People are too restless, too utilitarian," she reflected. "You need some peace in mind in order to be able to sit down with a book."
    Zhang’s opinion is echoed by a number of longtime professionals in the book industry, who, since the early days of the industry’s market-driven reform, have kept close watch of the public’s changing preference in books. Some of them point out that in addition to turning away from books, Chinese people have also abandoned more serious and intellectually enriching stories in favor of easy reads. "In the last decade, best-sellers in China have less intellectual content and have become increasingly practical," said He Xiongfei, a well-known publisher of popular books since the early 1990s. Best sellers in China today, He says, consist mainly of "child-rearing manuals, cookbooks, health and fitness guides, test-preparation books, thrillers, and romance novels."
    Chinese people now have flocked to the Web for more light-hearted fare. According to a 2012 report from the China Internet Network Information Center, almost 200 million Chinese read online literature, although the term lacks a clear definition. A survey by the Chinese research firm iResearch shows that the ten most popular Chinese literature websites receive a total of 12.2 million visitors on an average day. These websites run the gamut of genres, from romance and horror to science fiction and fantasy, and reader interest helps carve them into more specific niches, like military fantasy novels, "officialdom" literature, and stories about time travel. Some websites require readers to pay a small fee, usually less than 5 RMB(80 cents), to access the most popular serialized novels.
    In the U.S., readers who used to buy physical books now flock to digital stores to find content. China’s online readers, however, are choosing e-books for precisely what print books lack: critical and realistic depictions of society, and, more often, a cheap form of escape that, not unlike video games and television, offers them a refuge from the complications and concerns of the real world.
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答案 My View on Why the Chinese are Reading Less In spite of the exploding supply of books in the Chinese market nowadays, China is witnessing a dreadful drop in the number of books read by its citizens and the time they spend on reading. This trend is accompanied by another gloomy phenomenon that the Chinese are becoming more restless and practical, tending to prefer utilitarian books lacking in profundity and intellectual sense. This is indeed a sorry spectacle to behold, but it has its underlying causes. On the one hand, the dwindling of people’s reading time can be attributed both to the increasingly fast pace of life and to the growing variety of diversions. Nowadays, the majority of people are fully occupied all day long, with each of their days packed with various activities. Their schedules are so tight that reading, a seemingly non-urgent task, is often reduced to a secondary consideration. In addition, thanks to the rapid development of technology , there have cropped up numerous recreational electronic gadgets, which consume a large proportion of the already limited free time. Both factors conspire to encroach on people’s time for reading. On the other hand, the dropping quality of the reading materials can be blamed on the material-oriented and high-pressure social atmosphere bred by the obsession with economy prosperity. In a country whose economy is rocketing, most people are anxious to accumulate material wealth, with little attention paid to spiritual improvement. Besides, the enormous stress brought about by the fast-developing society leads to a constant seeking of relaxation, which further dilutes the enthusiasm for deep reading. Therefore, it is the books with utilitarian and entertaining contents that excel in winning people’s favor. In conclusion, the status quo of Chinese people’s reading has deep and intricate roots. It is imperative that more people heed the distressing trend and more efforts be made to reverse it.
解析     材料描述了中国阅读现状堪忧的问题，主要从两方面切入，一是国人的读书时间减少、数量下降，二是阅读内容的质量下降(国人现在倾向于读一些实用性较强但缺乏精神内涵的书籍)。因此，总结阅读材料时需抓住这两个要点，摒除其他枝节。文章的结构可安排如下：
第一段：简要概括所给材料的内容，主要是以上提到的两点，然后提出自己的观点——这一现象有其潜在的原因。
第二段：阐述阅读时间减少的原因——如今生活节奏加快，人们的日程安排较满，加之消遣方式越来越多样化，导致看书时间减少。
第三段：阐述阅读质量下降的原因——对经济发展的过度关注催生了一种以物质为导向和高压力的社会氛围，导致实用性和娱乐性强的书籍较受欢迎。
第四段：总结全文，重申阅读现状有其根源，应有更多的人关注这一现象，并应采取更多的应对措施。
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