&托福口语机经及解析
本解析包括三部分：
两套题共12道口语题目的机经回忆(来源：小马过河)
对于1、2题的语言方面的考点分析，以及内容上的思路框架
英文素材：可以学习思路、文化背景以及地道英文表达方式，这些均用下划线和注解的形式标出。
日口语机经&&
　第一套题
What jobs have you done or plan to do?　你做过的工作或准备做的工作
Should primary school students be taught how to type on
computer or how to write traditionally with their hands?
小学生是应该被教授电脑打字还是更应该被教授handwriting
学生写信说要让学生管理学校funding的事，男生觉得不好
scope creep
不写合同，最后和顾客有了conflicts.
女生和室友有schedule conflict
fire给一些动物带来了好处两个例子
beetles and turkey
　　第二套题：
What advice would you give to children starting primary
Will electrical books replace printed paper
建议：ride-sharing
好处：节省油钱和汽车维修费，保护环境，减少traffic jam。
听力内容：
教授说他以前教授儿童有一个小姑娘，她不举手乱嚷，然后教授和她沟通，并签订协议——如果她守规矩就让她玩电脑游戏。
时间冲突：和表妹来访吃饭与滑雪旅行时间冲突了。
动物在高山上生活的两个有利身体特征，
例子： mountain goat
肌肉发达，利于保持平衡；爬上爬下寻找食物； &sheep所具备的特殊的toe
可以在有雪的石头上站住而不会滑下来。
赵老师点评1、2题
　第一套题
What jobs have you done or plan to do?　你做过的工作或准备做的工作
考点：过去系列时态
或者将来系列时态。
过去的系列时态中不要忘记现在完成时，因为它表示发生在过去、并对现在产生影响；
将来系列时态有三个，不要忘记使用将来完成时、将来进行时。
将来系列时态
一般将来时
Be going to
Be + to do
将来进行时
将来某一个时期为主的活动
Will be doing
将来完成时
截止到将来某个时间之前完成的动作
Will have done
赵老师原创发言稿：
I have done a variety of jobs that seem unconnected but they all
use my excellent English language skills. The one that I am most
proud of is to work as a group fitness instructor in gyms in
Canada. Particularly, I led a group of retirees to do boxercising,
step, and body pump classes, with the routines and musicality all
designed by myself. Another job that friends think is cool is to be
an English radio show host at China Radio International. Apart of
talking live on air, I was in charge of rewrite news and reports to
colloquial style, select songs to play for the show and even
editing sound bites. Lastly, what I am proud of myself is to work
solo as a simultaneous interpreter for conferences. The job, to
most, is quite demanding even with 2 people translating
side-by-side. But I can translate for the whole conference all by
myself. This is not something trained, I believe, but something
born with.
Should primary school students be taught hand-writing or
typing on a computer?
手写、打字的词汇替换
指代、比较、转折
转折：however, on the other hand, in contrast,
oppositely等
应该学习手写
应该学习打字
各有优劣，应具体问题具体分析
参考阅读：请注意“手写”、“打字”的不同说法。
第一篇：手写即将过时
Handwriting vs. Typing: Which
Skill Do Students Need Most?
As some schools discontinue
cursive writing instruction, others debate on when to
introduce keyboarding skills.
RICKY RIBEIRO,posted October 8,
What if 20 years from now,
writing by hand on paper is as outdated as taking a
chisel and hammer to a slab of stone? It might sound
unthinkable, but given the current trajectory of K-12
education, handwriting could take a backseat to typing as
technology dominates the way we communicate.
As digital natives have
begun to make their way through the educational system —
effortlessly wielding mobile devices and navigating the web for
independent research — more people have begun to wonder about the
future of handwriting.
The first blow dealt by
technology has been to cursive writing. Earlier this year,
teacher supplies retailer Really Good Stuff released a survey that
found that “41 percent of elementary school teachers no longer
incorporate cursive writing instruction into their
curriculum.”
While cursive has been the
first pillar of student handwriting to fall, it seems likely that
print handwriting will take a backseat to typing as well.
That’s because the Common Core standards, which 45 states have
adopted, mandate that students take online tests as
part of the state’s ongoing evaluation of student performance. In
fact, according to the standards, students must be proficient in
typing by the time they reach the fourth grade.
This has some educators in
Louisiana wondering if typing lessons shouldn’t begin in
kindergarten, according to a report :
Most high school and college
students are expected to type, rather than handwrite, their essays.
But asking students as young as eight and nine to type several
paragraphs on a standardized test presents entirely new
challenges.
To ward off
disaster, school leaders are contemplating adding
keyboarding classes, introducing online assessments in
kindergarten and taking students to the computer laboratory for
writing class.
Since teachers already have
jam-packed schedules, if typing is introduced at an earlier
age, couldn’t the focus on keyboard lessons diminish the
role of handwriting overall?
After all, the prioritization
of print writing versus cursive writing has been partly
responsible for the latter’s demise, says Stephen Graham, a
professor at Arizona State University and an authority on writing
education, in an article in The Providence Journal. Graham posits
that “the reason cursive is disappearing and printing is not is
simply because, in the United States, printing is introduced first,
so it is more convenient to keep because the youngest students
already know it.”
The arguments that many
educators raise in favor of handwriting education
include the ability to read historic documents, such as the
Constitution, which are written in cursive. Other reasons
are rooted in nostalgia or current conventions that require a
written signature — both things that might lose their relevance by
the time today’s students reach adulthood.
Rebecca Silva, a third-grade
teacher at Sowams School in Barrington, R.I., expressed such
concerns to The Providence Journal. She says students will lose
that personal touch to their communication if they give up
handwriting. Furthermore, won’t they need to write checks?
“What are we going to do if kids can’t sign their name on a
card for their parents for their birthday?” she said. “They’re not
going to treasure something they’ve done in Microsoft
“Obviously, kids need to be able to handwrite things and
sign a check if they’re going to pay for things the good
old-fashioned way,” she said. “They will need to sign for a
driver’s license and things like that.”
But payments by mobile phone
are on the rise, and paper checks will likely see a steep
decline, if not outright extinction, in the next few
decades. If paper mail is having trouble competing with email, you
can bet the same will be true of paper payments versus electronic
In fact, technology is
moving at such a rapid pace that even keyboards themselves are in
danger. A recent Gartner survey said that tablets will
make up half of all first-time computer purchases by 2017, which
means many children may not even use a physical
your school making plans to introducing typing? How are you
prioritizing handwriting versus typing? Let us know in the comments
　第二篇：手写学习效果好
Why You Learn More
Effectively by Writing Than Typing
Why You Should Risk
Dweebhood with Written Goals
Once you get over the
idea that people who walk around with a list of personal goals in
their pocket are utter self-improvement dweebs, you should…
The act of writing helps
you clarify your thoughts, remember things better, and reach your
goals more surely. Here's a look at the science and psychology
behind writing, and why the pen may be mightier than the
Many productivity experts
and writers have long espoused the power of writing things
down (in fact, paper is many of our favorite to-do list manager and
we're a little fanatical about our favorite
Why Writing
Maybe you're on the
other side of the fence, though, and think all this just a lot
of pure romanticism: People may feel more comfortable and
productive with pen and paper because that's what they've used most
of their lives (and what we as a species have used for centuries),
but some like typing more and can do it more quickly. Certainly,
more of us are becoming fast typists by necessity and
the art of handwriting is deteriorating.
A couple of studies,
though, substantiate why the physical act of writing really
does boost learning and goal achievement. Hoping to provide
actual scientific proof on the efficacy of writing down and
sharing goals (to make up for an often-quoted mythical Harvard/Yale
study of goals), a psych professor at Dominican University of
California found that people who wrote down their goals, shared
them with others, and maintained accountability for their
goals were 33% more likely to achieve them, versus
those who just formulated goals. (One can argue that in this
instance, typing would
see "Why Writing Works
Better Than Typing" below for why writing still may be better.)
Another study found positive effects of writing on learning foreign
words, and a survey of note-taking studies found several
examples where taking notes helped students with recall and
academic performance.
The research results may
seem common sense or obvious to many of us. If you're interested in
the biology behind writing's effect on our achievements, though,
here's a little background: Writing stimulates a bunch of cells at
the base of the brain called the reticular activating system (RAS).
The RAS acts as a filter for everything your brain needs to
process, giving more importance to the stuff that you're actively
focusing on at the moment—something that the physical act of
writing brings to the forefront. In Write It Down, Make It Happen,
author Henriette Anne Klauser says that "Writing triggers the RAS,
which in turn sends a signal to the cerebral cortex: ‘Wake up! Pay
attention! Don't miss this detail!' Once you write down a goal,
your brain will be working overtime to see you get it, and will
alert you to the signs and signals that […] were there all
Why Writing Works Better
Than Typing
There may also be a
scientific basis for the pen's superiority over the keyboard
when it comes to writing development and cognitive functions. Dr.
Virginia Berniger, who studies reading and writing systems and
their relationship to learning processes, found that children's
writing ability was consistently better (they wrote more, faster,
and more complete sentences) when they used a pen rather than a
these are, of course, subjects without a penchant
for using either tool. We also previously covered the WSJ
article that connected handwriting and in one
of the studies cited, adults learned new symbols and graphic shapes
better when they reproduced them with pen-and-paper instead
of typing them.
The difference, Berniger
notes, may lie in the fact that with writing, you use your
hand to form the letters (and connect them), thereby more actively
engaging the brain in the process. Typing, on the other
hand, involves just selecting letters by pressing identical-looking
Of course, whether the
pen or the keyboard is better for you depends on your personal
experience and comfort with these tools. As a
compromise, perhaps we should all get stylus-friendly
tablet PCs or digital pens.
an instrument of metal, bone, or the like, used by the
ancients for writing on waxed tablets, having one end pointed for
incising the letters and the other end blunt for rubbing out
writing and smoothing the tablet.
any of various pointed, pen-shaped instruments used in
drawing, artwork, etc.
Computers. a pen-shaped device used on a display screen to
input commands or handwritten text or drawings.
第三篇：手写就是好
A Defense of Writing
Is technology really my
friend? Or is it just pretending to be my friend so it can date my
I like technology. A lot.
But I'm not too sure how technology feels about me. It may be my
faithful friend and boon companion — then again, it may just be
pretending to be my friend so it can date my sister. Especially
when it comes to writing.
I'm writing a book. And
for all the romance and immensity that phrase can contain, writing
a book is also simply a production process. I am in the process of
assembling 75,000 to 100,000 words. And, after writing
50,000 of them, I've become convinced that the first draft is the
hardest part. Hemingway famously said that the first draft of
everything is shit. For what it's worth, I agree. So, my question,
becomes: What's the easiest way to get through the hardest
And to my surprise, the
easiest way turns out to be writing longhand. Not printing, mind
you, but composing with a long, flowing, and delightfully irregular
script that fills the page like a river of words. I sit down
with a pen and a piece of paper and a thousand words roll out in a
flash. And not only does it often take less time than typing, I
think I write better longhand.
Now realize, I am not
a hunt and peck typist. I type very fast. And when I type on
one of those thin little laptop keyboards that have about 3
millimeters of travel, my typing speed approaches the
absurd—like Glenn Gould, the wonderfully talented and
eccentric pianist who remanufactured his piano, shortening
the action on his keys so that he could play Bach faster.
Beautiful, yet a little insane.
But there is obviously
more to writing than typing. What I'm really doing is
composing. Composition requires focus. It is, like most acts of
creation, monotasking. And as much as I love technology, it drives
us to distraction.
A pen and paper has but
one functionality. It captures the marks I make so that they can
be referred to at a later time. It doesn't ring, it doesn't
bother me with an incoming chat or IM. It never asks me to plug
it in so it can get more power. It doesn't crash, it never needs an
upgrade, and it is unlikely that someone will snatch my pad and
bolt from a coffee shop with it when I turn my back.
Sure paper is perishable.
But it is predictably perishable. Data turns to noise in all
kinds of unpredictable ways. Like hard drive crashes. And if an IT
person tells you that there is a way to archive a digital file, not
touch it for 500 years, and guarantee that it will remain
usable—that person is lying to you. If you think I'm wrong, I'll
email you some WordStar and AppleWorks documents just as soon as I
can figure out how to get them off my five and a quarter inch
But I can go the National
Archives right now and read a copy of the Magna Carta that was
handwritten 793 years ago. No format or version issues here. (It's
fitting for this essay that Magna Carta literally means "Great
But, to paraphrase
Emerson, all of this is small account compared to what lies
within us. And that is the struggle to organize and communicate our
thoughts clearly with the beautiful, yet horribly imprecise
instrument of language. And it is in this struggle, I believe,
that the beauty and power of writing longhand is
discovered.
In a way, the problem
with writing is the same problem of hitting a golf ball. Both the
page and the ball just sit there. And when you write you have
(theoretically) a lifetime to rewrite it until you get it
But all that time is
simply a field day for the critical part of your brain. Just
the time it needs to jump in and muck everything up. This
part of the brain needs something to criticize. After all, that's
its job. But the critical function is not creative. Be critical
about anything. No matter how absurd you are being, you will find
ammo to support you. Try running Hamlet through a Microsoft Grammar
check. Try running Hamlet and leaving all the scenes in.
The point is, there's no
possible way to get it right if you don't first get it down. And as
much as I know this—I mean know it in my bones, as a carpenter
knows his measuring tape—it still doesn't help.
The critical part of my
brain is telling me, right now, that this sentence is horrible.
That the entire device of anthropomorphizing the critical side of
my nature in this essay is a bad idea. And that I just misspelled
critical. And I shouldn't have started two sentences in a row with
But when I write
longhand, the experience is different. I think it is because that
critical part of my brain is busy picking apart my handwriting
(which truly is horrible) instead of my prose. It tells me that my
handwriting is atrocious. And it gets the satisfaction of
being right. But who cares? While it's busy with that, the words
are just rushing out. And they're not henpecked or second-guessed
before they've had time to cool. They exist in a flawed, but
pure state. This kind of prose has a feral power that seems
to be lacking from the things I type. Maybe that'
maybe it's just harder to get my head in that effortless writing
space when I use a keyboard. But whatever the case is, writing
longhand makes it easier for me to reach a writer's
And if you're still
not sold on the idea that writing longhand might help you write
better, consider this: Until the 20th century, books were written
by hand. I would argue that the best writing in history was
composed by hand. The entire process is much easier now. But, would
you like to argue that the increase in the power of our technology
has led to a corresponding increase in the quality of our
Not me. I'm too busy
scribing away.
Writing Longhand
全拼写出单词
Anthropomorphize v.t. to attribute or ascribe human form or
behavior to (a god, animal, object, etc)
Atrocious adj. shockin
abominable
软盘，3平方英寸的，用于存储数据
A small account:
consequence: things of no account.
muck everything up：
something awkwardly or clumsily
b.to put into a
state of complete confusion&
if you're still not sold on the idea that… = if you are not
convinced that…
scribble& v.i. & v.t. scrib·bled,
scrib·bling,
verb (used with
1.to write hastily or
carelessly: to scribble a letter.
2.to cover with
meaningless writing or marks: to scribble all over a
verb (used without
3.to write or draw in a
hasty or careless way.
　第二套题
What advice would you give to children starting primary
考题： would : I’d advise them the following…
来自学校的建议
Preparing your child for
primary school
&(/education/primary/starting-primary-school)
Even if your child has been at
nursery or playgroup for a while, it can be a big change in both
your daily lives when they start primary school.
To help allay any
anxieties/downright panics you might have, we've put together
some advice and Mumsnetters' wisdom to make the transition as
painless as possible.
You can talk to other parents
on our primary school forum and/or our behavior and development
forum. (And if you're indecently happy about the prospect
of a few child-free hours a day, you can share your happiness
there, too.)
Tell your child what to expect
from school but don't oversell it. Most children like school
and find it fun, but talking about how fantastic it is and
how they'll always have lots of lovely children to play with will
not stand them in good stead when some horrid kid pushes
them out of the way to grab the last princess/pirate dressing-up
Be positive, but also warn them
gently that they may get tired and if they have any problems or
feel sad they should tell their teacher.
Visit the school
beforehand
If your child hasn't been to
the school's nursery and doesn't have siblings at the school, make
sure he or she sees the school before starting so they know what to
Many schools do set up 'taster'
sessions for the new September intake at the end of the summer
term: don't worry, they won't start grading your child's reading
it's just a little look-and-play in the
classroom, so your child doesn't have to walk into a totally
unfamiliar room on their very first day.
Rehearse the school
Run through the school routine.
If you've been collecting your child from a playgroup at
lunchtime, tell them that now they're more grown-up they'll be
staying at school with the other children for the
afternoon.
This can be a shock for some
children who may get tired and tearful after lunch. You can
reassure them that lots of children feel tired - and
remind them of this when they refuse to go to bed at
As for the learning-things bit,
do say they'll do lots of games to help them learn. You should be
aware that some children will get upset that other kids in their
class can read and they can't.Encourage lots of reading time at
home and visits to the library.
Talk about school
Some children get confused or
anxious about school rules. They may worry they won't hear the
school bell, won't line up in time and then get some fearful
punishment.
Reassure them
tell them to keep an eye on what the kids around them are
doing. Some child-rearing experts suggest reading a book to your
child about starting school and that's fine, as long as it's a
happy one. Not Tom Brown's Schooldays.
Encourage 'life
Children at school have to do
things you'd normally do for them at home. In fact, most parents
do a shocking amount for their children at home. Teachers
just can't change 30 children into their PE kit so, ideally, you
should teach your child to get dressed and undressed before they
start school.
Also show your child how to
fold their clothes and keep them together. If they can learn
personal organisation (and goodness knows that's a lesson we all
wish we'd learnt at the age of four), it will save you a fortune on
lost school clothes.
Encourage your child to put
things away. They'll be expected at school to put their pencils in
a pot and to know where their PE kit is - every little bit of
independence helps.
Practice the school
It's also worth taking the
route you'll usually go to school with your child, and pointing out
where the entrance is. Children like the expected because it makes
them feel safe - the fewer surprises on the first day (like mummy
banging around trying to get into the school through the wrong
gate) the better.
Label their clothes
Label your child's clothes and
show your child where you've put their name, so they can check it
themselves. It's tempting to issue warnings about how you
will tear them limb from limb if they lose another school fleece
but kinder not to. Most schools have a lost property where you can
ferret around and 'rehome' another one.
School toilets and personal
It's common - and often
mortifying - for children to wet themselves at
school, especially in the first few terms. Children often don't
like the school toilets (and who can blame them) so they will hang
on until it's too late.
Preparing for the big
Make sure your child gets into
a routine compatible with going to school - ie no staying up and
sleeping in late (and that goes for you, too).
Get your child involved in
buying a school bag, lunchbox (if needed), pencil
case and so on, and encourage them to get their school clothes
ready the night before.
Have a word with the
teacher about reminding your child to go to the toilet,
but also give your child a change of pants so they can avoid the
embarrassment of telling the teacher if they don't want
Make sure your child knows how
to pull up their pants and wipe themselves properly (lots of
girls get sore bottoms in the first term from wiping back to front,
instead of the other way). Teach them how to flush the chain
and wash their hands, so they don't perpetuate those awful
tummy bugs that can take out whole families.
Separation anxiety
Separation
anxiety is common for both parents and children.It's
quite traumatic saying goodbye to your tiny and defenseless
child. You should make sure your child knows that you, or
whoever is dropping them off, will come back
(eventually).
If they're terribly distraught,
discuss strategies with the teacher. Sometimes it helps if you
leave your child, walk round the block and come back, so they
believe you when you say you'll always come back. You can then
gradually extend the length of time you take to come
Good Reception/P1 teachers are
expert at looking after upset children and don't mind if you leave
a screaming child. Ask if you can phone the school office later to
check your child's OK. Children don't cry for as long as you
imagine they will.
It can help to come into the
classroom with your child (the first time, show them their peg and
where the toilet is), hang up their coat and then bring them to the
carpet to sit down and kiss them goodbye. This routine can get
shorter as the term goes on.
And don't forget that if
anything has happened at home - if Harry the gerbil has passed away
or whatever - your child's teacher will want to
The playground
Some children are naturally
outgoing, physically capable and cope well in the
playground. Others hang round the edges and can't work out how to
get into the games. We all hope it's not our child who is moping on
the sidelines but, if it is, there are things you can suggest they
Tell them to ask an adult in
the playground to help. They should say: "I want to play with Chloe
but I don't know how."
Schools try to help children
make friends and teachers will do sessions about sharing and taking
turns to encourage kids to be nice to each other in the playground
and to make sure no one is left out.
Help your child to develop more
social skills outside school by taking them to see people,
especially if they also have children, showing them what sharing
means and encouraging them to have conversations. Kids are like
adults - they like confident, chatty mates.
Talk through the events of the
day: "Wasn't it nice when we saw Tom and Alice? We went to the
park, didn't we, and did you enjoy the slide?" Ask them open
questions (how, what, where, why) and encourage them to have
opinions and ask questions.
Playground
Rather than bustling in and
dispensing justice when your child falls out with a friend,
help them to negotiate. Let each give their point of view and then
ask what they think should happen.
As long as the school allows
it, let your child take a small toy to play with in the playground.
This can sometimes make them feel more able to cope - if there
isn't anyone to play with at least they'll have something to do. If
you are competitive Mummy or Daddy, you can find out the latest
playground craze and buy your child whatever it is in an attempt to
make them popular. Kids can be just as shallow as adults, so it may
Home time and after
Make sure you're early to pick
up your child as it's upsetting for them to be the last child (OK,
so someone has to be). Children are usually starving by home time,
so you may want to bring a snack and drink to the school
When your child gets home, let
them have a rest and snuggle with you or their carer. You may want
to let them watch telly for a while to unwind. If ever quality time
was needed, it's now. You can ask them what happened at school but
be prepared to hear "nothing". Try not to interrogate
While it is nice to have
playdates (friends round) and after-school activities, don't
overload your child in the exhausting first term - maybe one
after-school thing a week is enough.
Don't worry too much about
homework. If your child is resistant, sit with them and do
it together.
Most Reception/P1 school
children go to bed between 7pm and 7.30pm and a routine with a bath
can be calming for a child after a long day at school.
If your child doesn't like
You child may suddenly refuse
to go to school, have tummy aches at the school gate in the morning
or refuse to go into the classroom. This may happen after your
child has happily skipped into school the previous day. Don't panic
or get impatient (even though it will always happen when you really
don't have time to talk them round).
Gently try to find out why - if
there has been an incident in the playground or if they're worried
about the work or the other kids. Children can say very painful
things, such as "I don’t think anyone likes me". This is usually
not true but you need to listen and talk to their
Don't phone up other parents to
try to find out what has happened because usually you won't. All
that happens is that you parents will fall out indefinitely while
your children will have made up and become best friends again
within the week. So stay calm. Your child will usually work it
Your feelings about your child
starting school
Try not to not sob
loudly in front of your child as you say goodbye on the first
day. Your child needs to feel confident, so, even if you're
still scarred by your first day at school, act normal and be
supportive.
It can feel horribly empty if
your child has always been around for some of the day and then
they're gone for all of it. Well, you can get a hobby, go for tea
with other mothers, shave your legs again, get a job or work more
hours. And there's always the holidays.
What Mumsnetters say about
children starting primary
accounts, PE lessons in Reception consist of about
45 minutes of dressing and undressing, with about 10 minutes
haring around in the hall in the middle. I reckon the dressing and
undressing is physical education at that age. Smithagain
All I know for sure is you need
to use the toilet necklace when you go to the toilet. Someone wore
it home once. You need to learn to kick a ball properly, not in a
silly manner. This is important. The teacher is quite generous with
stickers, even for what I would recognize as 'low levels of
attainment'. Erm, that's it. Anchovy
As a teacher there's nothing
worse than sniveling parents making fond farewells
inside the classroom. Children settle in much better if parents
send them in confidently, smiling, wishing them well... Then you
can go and weep round the corner. I did! Cluttered up
I think if there is general
stuff like bullying going on, then the teacher talks to the
whole class. If someone is really naughty (like Oliver
sticking his finger up his bottom and then putting his finger in
Max's sandwich - the stuff of legend) they get sent to
(horrifically scary) headmistress. Enid
They all change 'best' friends
about 500 times in the first couple of terms anyway!
Quite soon, you lose the
negative feelings and enjoy all the new experiences having a
school-aged child brings & the new social life, the reading books
they bring home, the Christmas play etc. DumbledoresGirl
They need to go. They need the
progression and the social interaction. They need to find
out about things without us looking over their shoulders all
the time. Start planning what you're going to do with your free
time. Enjoy yourself. She'll be back by 3pm. You'll be fine.
Hare around v.i. run fast
Snivel v.i. to weep or cry with sniffling.
Will electrical books replace printed paper
纸张书不可替代
纸张书即将消亡
参考阅读：
纸张书不可替代Why Printed Books Will Never Die
Measured en masse, the stack of "books I
want to read" that sits precariously on the edge of a built-in
bookshelf in my dining room just about eclipses 5,000 pages.
The shelf is full to bursting with titles I hope to
consume at some indeterminate point in the
It would be a lot easier to manage if I just
downloaded all those books to an iPad or Kindle. None are hard to
find editions that would be unavailable in a digital format, and a
few are recent hardcover releases, heavy and
But there's something about print that I can't
give up. There's something about holding a book in your hand and
the visceral act of physically turning a page that, for me at
least, can't be matched with pixels on a screen.
Yet the writing appears to be on the wall:
E-books are slowly subsuming the printed format as the preferred
vehicle on which people read books. E-books topped print
sales for the first time in 2011, a trend that continued
into 2012. Just this month, Bexar County, Texas announced plans
for the nation's first electronic-only library. A recent
study from Scholastic found that the percentage of children who
have read an e-book has nearly doubled since 2010 to almost half of
all kids aged 9 to 17, while the number who say they'll continue to
read books in print instead of electronically declined from 66% to
The hits keep coming.
For those who prefer their books printed in ink on
paper, that sounds depressing. But perhaps there is reason to hope
that e-books and print books could have a bright future together,
because for all the great things e-books accomplish —
convenience, selection, portability, multimedia —
there are still some fundamental qualities they will simply
never possess.
Books have physical beauty.
That's not to say that electronic books can't be
beautiful — as a medium, e-books are still new and designers have
yet to fully realize their potential. But for paper books,
we're already there. As Craig Mod points out in his essay "Hacking
the Cover," the book cover evolved as a marketing tool. It
had tograb your attention from its place on the shelf. For
that reason, the best designed covers were often beautiful art
pieces. Not so in the digital world.
"The cover image may help quickly ground
us, but our eyes are drawn by habit to number and
quality of reviews. We’re looking for metrics other than
images — real metrics — not artificial marketing signifiers," he
wrote. And though that might eventually free book designers to get
more creative with their designs, you can't display a digital book,
even if you wanted to. Any electronic book that boasts
beautiful design, does so only ethereally.
Author Joe Queenan, in a Wall Street Journal
opinion piece, argued that e-books are great for people who
care only about the contents, have vision problems or other
physical limitations or who are ashamed of what they're
But for people who truly love books, print is the
only medium that will satisfy.
"People who need to possess the physical
copy of a book, not merely an electronic version, believe that
the objects themselves are sacred," he wrote. "Some people may find
this attitude baffling, arguing that books are merely objects that
take up space. This is true, but so are Prague and your kids and
the Sistine Chapel." "Some people may find this attitude
baffling, arguing that books are merely objects that take up
space. This is true, but so are Prague and your kids and the
Sistine Chapel."
Web entrepreneur, designer and novelist Jack
Cheng, who recently funded the printing of his book through
Kickstarter, told me that printed books just offer a more robust
experience to the reader. "I feel like with e-books, you often just
get a meal on the same white plate as all the other meals," he
mused. "But a nice hardcover is like having a place setting, having
dinnerware selected to suit the food. The story is still the main
thing you're there for, but the choices around it — the paper
stock, the way the book is typeset, the selection of
fonts — they add their own subtle flavors to the
experience of that story."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Books have provenance.
Your favorite books define you, and digital
versions don't seem to impart connections that are quite as
Queenan again:
Books as physical objects matter to me, because
they evoke the past. A M&tro ticket falls out of a book I
bought 40 years ago, and I am transported back to the Rue
Saint-Jacques on Sept. 12, 1972, where I am waiting for someone
named Annie LeCombe. A telephone message from a friend who died too
young falls out of a book, and I find myself back in the Chateau
Marmont on a balmy September day in 1995. A note I scribbled
to myself in "Homage to Catalonia" in 1973 when I was in Granada
reminds me to learn Spanish, which I have not yet done, and to go
back to Granada.
This piece of the experience doesn't translate
to the electronic format. Someday in the distant future, maybe
David Eggers' Kindle will be sold by Bauman Rare Books on Madison
Avenue, but it's unlikely that digital books will ever be
personal artifacts the way that their physical counterparts can
"I think print and paper has a lasting value
that people appreciate. Pixels are too temporary," said
Praveen Madan, an entrepreneur on the Kepler's 2020 team, via
email. Madan and his cohorts are attempting to reinvent the
business model for independent bookstores, including ways to sell
and offer services around e-books. "Books have been around for a
very long time and people have a deeper relationship with some
books than most digital content," he said.
Printed books are collectible.
They possess the quality of scarcity, which
means that your copy is unique on some level. For readers who truly
love a particular book, an electronic facsimile is not an adequate
replacement for owning a physical copy.
"There are books that I need bound and sitting on
my shelf. I need a copy of Fahrenheit 451. That book is important
to me," author Rob Hart, the website administrator for digital
imprint Mysterious Press and class director at LitReactor, told me.
"Digital technology is funny — you own an e-book, but you don't ...
You're paying for the right to access data."
Cheng has also felt the draw of books as
collectible objects. "Personally I've gone out and purchased
hardcovers of books I first read on my Kindle because I wanted them
in a more tangible form," he explained. "Having a hardcover on my
shelf is like having a print by one of my favorite artists on the
wall." "Having a hardcover on my shelf is like having a print by
one of my favorite artists on the wall."
He predicts that print might have a future similar
"The physical artifacts are beginning to feel more
precious, more like gifts. And I can see publishing going the same
way," he said. "Maybe what we'll lose to digital publishing are the
cheaply produced mass market printings on poor quality paper. And
what we'll gain is a new appreciation for well-designed,
higher-quality hardbacks, like the ones folks at The Folio
Society are putting out."
In a surprising flip of the traditional
publishing cycle, Random House's Doubleday recently announced plans
to print hardcover versions of E.L. James' bestselling 50 Shades of
Grey trilogy, even though electronic and mass market paperback
editions have already sold 65 million copies. Why? Reader demand.
You just can't collect an e-book.
Books are nostalgic.
The PBS website MediaShift recently asked a group
of book lovers in Chapel Hill and Durham, N.C. which they
preferred: printed or electronic books? Those who preferred printed
books cited things like the smell, the feel and the weight
as reasons.
"Paper books don't get replaced by e-books,
because there's just part of the experience you can't reproduce,"
said one man. (Of course, nostalgia is
generational.)
But if e-books just replace mass market
paperbacks, as Cheng predicts, will books become merely art
pieces? Some pundits think so.
Writing last year in Slate, Michael Agresta argued
that printed books will only survive as art. Books are no longer a
good "vessel for text," he wrote. "Bookshelves will survive in the
homes of serious digital-age readers, but their contents will be
much more judiciously curated. The next generation of paper
books will likely rival the art hanging beside them on the walls
for beauty, expense, and 'aura' — for better or for
In some ways, Agresta is correct. It would be
smart to bet that print sales will continue to decline, while
e-book sales will continue to rise. Most people will own fewer
printed books, and those they do own may very well be beautiful
collector's editions, like the 50 Shades hardcovers, meant for
But it's a mistake to assume that this is a case
of the MP3 replacing the CD, or the CD replacing the cassette.
E-books are not simply a better format repla
they offer a wholly different experience. E-books are not simply a
better format repla they offer a wholly
different experience.
Brian Haberlin is one of the co-authors of
Anomaly, an ambitious printed graphic novel, augmented by a
smart-phone app that makes animations leap off the page
while you read. I asked why he chose to print the heavy, unwieldy
and expensive hardcover edition. His answer was simple: "Because
books are cool! I love print, always will. I love digital, always
will. But they will continue to be different experiences. It’s a
different texture, a different experience and that alone
warrants their existence."
Yes, Anomaly is one of those beautiful,
collectible art pieces. But it also highlights why print is here to
stay. The experience of reading Anomaly on your iPad is vastly
different than the experience of reading the printed version. The
story is the same, but the medium affects the way you read it. It's
not totally unlike the difference between watching the movie
version of Les Miserables and watching it performed live on
There may come a time when we look at electronic
books and printed books as similarly divergent mediums.
In a recent Fast Company column titled "The Future
of Reading," author and comedian Baratunde Thurston made a
compelling case for why books might just be better in
electronic form. Superior annotation tools, easier
discovery, interactive content and shared reading
experiences are just some of the things made possible because
digital publishing has allowed us to, as Thurston put
it, network our words "and the ideas they represent." For Thurston,
this is an either-or scenario. Digital books or printed
books. And while he lamented our diminished attention
spans — the result of distractions embedded in the
digital format — he concluded that it's all worth it because
of the great things e-books can do.
But the choice between e-books and printed books
is not a zero sum game. Print books do not have to disappear
for e-books to flourish, and e-books don't have to be the only
"Printed books are for people who love printed
books. Digital books are for those who love digital books,"
Haberlin told me.
Maybe it's just that simple.
Les Miserables,
《悲惨世界》
en masse，
large amount
eclipses v.t. to make less outstanding or important by
surpass: a soprano whose singing eclipsed that of her
Ground v.t. to p settle or
Provenance n. place or source of origin: The provenance of
the ancient manuscript has never been determined.
verb (used without object)
to present reasons for or against a thing: He argued in
favor of capital punishment.
to contend
dispute: The Senator
argued with the President about the new tax bill.
verb (used with object)
to state the reasons for or against: The lawyers argued the
以下几个词义许多同学需要特别关注:
to maintain in reasoning to argue that the news report must
to persuade, drive, etc., by reasoning: to argue someone
out of a plan.
indicate: His clothes argue
Zero-sum adjective
denoting a system in which the sum of the gains equals the sum of
the losses: a zero-sum economy.
verb (used with object), cu·rat·ed,
cu·rat·ing.
to take charge of (a museum) or organize (an art exhibit):
to curate a photography show.
to pull together, sift through, and select for
presentation, as music or Web site content: “We curate our
merchandise with a sharp eye for trending fashion,” the store
manager explained.
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