Textbooks represent an 11 billion dollar industry, up from $ 8 billion in 2014. Textbook publisher Pearson is the largest publis

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问题    Textbooks represent an 11 billion dollar industry, up from $ 8 billion in 2014. Textbook publisher Pearson is the largest publisher—of any kind—in the world.
   It costs about $ 1 million to create a new textbook. A freshman textbook will have dozens of contributors, from subject-matter experts through graphic and layout artists to expert reviewers and classroom testers. Textbook publishers connect professors, instructors and students in ways that alternatives, such as open e-textbooks and open educational resources, simply do not. This connection happens not only by means of collaborative development, review and testing, but also at conferences where faculty regularly decide on their textbooks and curricula for the coming year.
   It is true that textbook publishers have recently reported losses, largely due to students renting or buying used print textbooks. But this can be chalked up to the excessively high cost of their books—which has increased over 1,000 percent since 1977. A restructuring of the textbook industry may well be in order. But this does not mean the end of the textbook itself.
   While they may not be as dynamic as an iPad, textbooks are not passive or lifeless. For example, over the centuries, they have simulated (模拟) dialogues in a number of ways. From 1800 to the present day, textbooks have done this by posing questions for students to answer inductively (归纳性地). That means students are asked to use their individual experience to come up with answers to general questions. Today’s psychology texts, for example, ask: "How much of your personality do you think you inherited?" while ones in physics say: "How can you predict where the ball you tossed will land?"
   Experts observe that "textbooks come in layers, something like an onion." For an active learner, engaging with a textbook can be an interactive experience. Readers proceed at their own pace. They "customize" their books by engaging with different layers and linkages. Highlighting, Post-It notes, dogears and other techniques allow for further customization that students value in print books over digital forms of books.
What is the main cause of the publishers’ losses?

选项 A、Failure to meet student need.
B、Industry restructuring.
C、Emergence of e-books.
D、Falling sales.

答案D

解析 推理判断题。定位句提到,教科书出版商最近报告了亏损,这些亏损很大程度上取决于学生们租用或购买一些用过的印刷教科书。由此可知,造成出版商亏损的主要原因是一些学生不购买正式教科书,而去买一些二手书,从而导致了销售量的下降,故答案为D)。
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