美語情景對話 第878期:Future of Papers 報紙的未來

Matt: Taking one step back to the newspapers, my impression was that newspapers got all their money from the advertisements, and that people buying newspapers basically paid for the paper, like the actual printing and maybe the delivery. That the actual cost, that any money they make was through advertisements so I don't see how that's any different than if they just had it online where they would get rid of all those costs of delivery and the paper and the printing and then just still have the same advertisement so I don't understand why they can't make that transition more smoothly.

馬特：我們繼續來聊報紙，我印象中報紙業的收入來自廣告以及人們購買報紙的費用，而像印刷和投遞是報紙業要支出的費用，報紙業的收入來源於廣告，我認爲這和電子版報紙沒有什麼區別，電子版可以擺脫投遞費用、紙張費用以及印刷費用，而且在線新聞也有廣告，所以我不明白爲什麼報業沒有更順利地過渡至電子版。

Rachel: And actually I heard that they get more money from online advertising than from the print advertising so, yeah, I don't know really know why it matters come to think of it.

蕾切爾：我聽說相比於印刷廣告，他們能從在線廣告中獲利更多，我也不知道爲什麼報業還要考慮。

Matt: I'm sure that the newspaper will go the way of the Dodo fairly soon.

馬特：我確定報紙很快就會像渡渡鳥一樣滅亡。

Rachel: Yeah, yeah.

蕾切爾：對，沒錯。

Matt: But again, why is it that people will accept that but not books?

馬特：不過，爲什麼人們可以接受電子版報紙卻不能接受電子版書籍呢？

Rachel: Cause I think ... I can handle a small article, like one page on screen, but I'm not for a long time. I can't read the same like. And also with news you just want to flick through it. You don't really ... you don't use it to relax.

蕾切爾：我認爲，我可以在屏幕上看只有一頁的小文章，但是我不能看太長時間。我不能在屏幕上看書。而且看新聞的話，你只要快速瀏覽一下就行了。不是用來放鬆的。

Matt: That's true. That's true. It's usually more active.

馬特：沒錯，沒錯。那通常是更積極的活動。

Rachel: Yeah, whereas with a book you can read in the bath, or you could read it on the bed, or just ... it's a pleasurable sort of thing rather than a "OK, I've got to do this to be ..."

蕾切爾：對，而看書的話，你可以在浴室看書，也可以在牀上看書，看書令人愉快，而不是“哦，我要去做這件事……”

Matt: Up with current events.

馬特：瞭解時事。

Rachel: Yeah.

蕾切爾：對。

Matt: Yeah, actually, and one nice feature about reading news online and that I've noticed lately when I went to the, I shouldn't say names, but the BBC web site and so I was reading an article. Recently in the news, they were talking about Iran and the elections and things like that, and they mentioned a lot of names of different positions in the government, and on the side was all of these links to background information about those people and about those positions and about the government and the structure of the government and it was really fun to be able to go through it and learn quite a bit quite quickly about the government system in Iran and and that kind of thing. That's much better than a newspaper where you read it and go, "Ooh, where's my encyclopedia?"

馬特：我認爲在線閱讀有一個優點，這個優點是我最近在瀏覽新聞時發現的，我其實不應該說出網站的名字，我是在BBC網站上看到的那篇新聞。那篇文章講的是伊朗選舉，文章中提到了許多政府職務名稱，旁邊有一些鏈接，點擊後可以查看候選人的背景，職位詳情，政府相關情況，政府組織結構等等，這樣瀏覽真的很有樂趣 ，而且可以快速瞭解伊朗政府的體系。這點比報紙好，你在看報紙時可能會想“我的百科全書在哪裏？”

Rachel: Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, I did a similar thing with a report about Iran, and then looking at people who are campaigning against the government and I was like, "I don't know these people. But who are they?" and there was a link and I could find out about more which was cool.

蕾切爾：對，沒錯。我在看一份與伊朗有關的報道時也查看了相關鏈接，我瞭解了一些從事反政府活動的人，當時我看到時在想“我不認識這些人。他們是誰？”因爲有相關鏈接，我能瞭解更多情況，這非常好。

Matt: Yeah, it's nice. It's nice. Yeah. So ...

馬特：對，這很好，很不錯。

Rachel: The death of the newspaper.

蕾切爾：報紙的消亡。

Matt: The death of the newspaper. I think it's inevitable.

馬特：報紙的消亡。我認爲這是不可避免的。

Rachel: The book still survives.

蕾切爾：書籍依然存在。

Matt: Let's keep the books. I like that.

馬特：我們保留住書籍吧。我喜歡書。

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重點講解：
1. get rid of 使…去掉；使…去除；
例句：He hoped to get rid of the burden.
他希望去掉這個包袱。
2. flick through 快速翻閱；瀏覽；不停地轉換(電視頻道)；
例句：She was flicking through some magazines on a table.
她正翻看着桌上的幾本雜誌。
3. go through 通讀；翻閱；
例句：You'd better go through your test paper again.
你最好把考卷再看一遍。
4. find out (尤指特意通過努力)發現，找出，查明；
例句：I wish I could find out about the situation there.
我真希望能知道那兒的情況。