( B ) One in five American adults read an electronic book in the last year, as gift-giving sped the shift away from the
printed page, a Pew Research Center survey showed on Wednesday. In a sweeping survey of e-books’ impact on reading habits, the Pew report said that four times more U.S. readers,
or 15 percent, were reading e-books on a typical day now compared with less than two years ago.
But when it comes to reading in bed, the verdict is split. 45 percent of those surveyed preferred e-books and 43 percent gave the nod to old-fashioned print. Researcher Lee Rainie said the results underscored huge cultural and
publishing changes as people do more of their book reading online. “People’s relationship to books is a central part of
culture. So when that relationship is in transition like it is now, it’s an interesting thing to mark,” he said.
Forrester, a consultancy, has forecast that nearly a quarter of Americans will own an e-book reader by 2016. With
prices for top models below US$100, the readers “are a no-brainer for more and more consumers,” it said in a report.
The Pew poll found in February that 21 percent of Americans 18 and older had read an e-book in the previous 12
months, up from 17 percent in December 2011. The jump was attributed to gifts of digital book readers and tablet
computers over the holidays.
People who use e-books are more eager readers of books of all kinds, with 88 percent of those reading e-books
in the previous 12 months also consuming printed books. They also are more likely to be under the age of 50, have
some college education and live in households that make more than US$50,000 a year. The most popular formats for
e-book reading are on a computer and on digital readers such as Amazon’s Kindle or Barnes & Nobles Inc.’s Nooks,
both at just over 40 percent.
【題組】39. Which of the following groups of people are more likely to read e-books?
(A) People who are under 50.
(B) People who do not have a job.
(C) People who own an e-book reader.
(D) People who have some college education.
(E) People whose household income is higher than US$50,000 a year.