VIII. A) In pairs, tick (V) the arguments in favour of electronic media.

access information without leaving your desk	………
carry it around with you	………
take longer to read	………
good graphics and layout	………
it is cheaper	………
can fit in your pocket	………
get up-to-date information instantly	………
read sth over and over	………
lasts a long time, doesn’t need replacing	………

b) Use arguments from above to express your opinion.

Thanks to electronic media, I can access any information I want to without even leaving my desk Sadly, I can’t carry it around with me in the same way I can with traditional books.

IX. a) Read the title. Is this possible? Why/Why not? Read and find out.

the books of the future?

A few years ago, nobody could have imagined buying a whole dictionary or encyclopaedia on CD-Rom – but we do now, and it’s a booming business. Are e-books set to take over from the printed word? Well, some multimedia companies are predicting that, in a few years’ time, production of newspapers and magazines will have been halved, as we will be turning to our computers to get the latest news. But how do people feel about reading their daily newspaper, or even their favourite novels, on their computer screens?

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t is certainly a question that we are going to have to think about soon. Technology produces new products every day and the publishing industry is already showing great interest in the future of the e-book.

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As for e-books, despite the fact that the technology has not been fully developed yet, and an e-book that you can carry about with you is still much more expensive than an ordinary book, researchers claim that soon e-books will become much cheaper than paper versions and will be much more popular.

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Stephen King, the best-selling writer of horror books, posted his newest short story on the Internet and it sold more copies in its first days than many of his printed novels had.

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Well, is this really the end of the book and the newspaper? I doubt it, and it seems that even Stephen King agrees. Despite his success on the Internet, he does not seem to think anything can replace the book! This is partly because, although we like to think that technology is capable of anything, it isn’t. At least, not yet! It took 25 hours for Associated Press to download Stephen King’s story. This is because lack of band width makes it very slow to send material, especially pictures, over the Internet. Even though work is constantly being carried out to solve this problem, demand for the Internet is increasing too fast for scientists to keep up. What is more, it takes much longer for us to read on the net.

There is another problem, too, which has nothing to do with technology. People simply prefer paper. It doesn’t matter how many books, magazines or newspapers are produced - we never stop buying them. It seems that we like the feel of books and magazines - we like to put them in our bags or pockets and take them out on the bus or the train on the way to work. We like to sit and read in the park or on the beach.

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How many of us would exchange what we have now - a row of books in a bookcase, or a pile of magazines on the coffee table - for a row of little screens? For many of us, the idea of Sunday morning without a cup of coffee and a pile of newspapers is impossible.

Nevertheless, by the time e-books have become as widely available as printed ones, it is likely that at least some of us will have changed our minds.

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Publishers will be delighted to cater for those who prefer to use a screen, but paper lovers shouldn’t worry, as the printed page will undoubtedly keep its place in our lives. There is even news that MIT will have come up with a compromise soon - a system where we can tell our computers what we want to read, and then they will print our own personal newspaper for us. The difference will be that we will only have to read about things which interest us. Just think - if you hate the business section, you don’t have to order it. If you dislike tennis, you can request only the football results. It sounds like this could be good news for everyone!

b) Read the article again and choose the most suitable sentence from the list (A-I) for each gap. There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use. There is an example at the beginning.

A	First of all, the Internet is slow.
B	Many newspapers are already on line; and you can read them on screen at home, or even on your mobile phone.
C	Even if we haven’t, it doesn’t matter, as there is probably plenty of room for both books and screens.
D	To publishers, this meant the arrival of the e-book!
E	Would you be happy to get your newspaper on the screen, or do you still prefer turning those pages?
F	Did you know that we can read 50% more quickly on paper than we can on a computer screen?
G	It looks as if people are already interested in the general idea.
H	We like to decorate our rooms with them, too.
I	More than half of today’s newspapers now have websites.

c) Find the phrasal verbs in the text, which mean: think of, place inside, remove, do, move at the same speed, replace. Then, explain the words in bold and suggest synonyms for the highlighted words.

d) Which of the following best describes the author’s main point? Give reasons.

a) Books are old fashioned.

b) The printed word will never die.

c) E-books will replace paper books.

How far do you agree with the author?