2023 Text 3（英语一）书店和出版商之争 (题目版)

If you're heading for your nearest branch of Waterstones in search of the Duchess of Sussex's new children's book The Bench, you might have to be prepared to hunt around a bit; the same may be true of The President's Daughter, the new thriller by Bill Clinton and James Patterson.

如果你正在前往最近的一家 Waterstones 门店寻找苏塞克斯公爵夫人的新儿童读物《长椅》，你可能必须做好四处寻找的准备；比尔·克林顿和詹姆斯·帕特森的新惊悚小说《总统的女儿》可能也是如此。

Both of these books are published next week by Penguin Random House, a company currently involved in a stand-off with Waterstones.

这两本书都将于下周由企鹅兰登书屋（Penguin Random House，PRH）出版，而该公司目前正与书店 Waterstones 发生纠纷。

The problem began late last year, when Penguin Random House confirmed that it had introduced a credit limit with Waterstones "at a very significant level".

这个问题始于去年年底，当时企鹅兰登书屋证实，它已经向 Waterstones 书店推出了“非常高的”信用额度限制。

The trade magazine The Bookseller reported that Waterstones branch managers were being told to remove PRH books from prominent areas such as tables, display spaces and windows, and were "quietly retiring them to their relevant sections."

行业杂志《书商》报道称，Waterstones 分店经理被告知要把公共书籍从桌子、展示空间和橱窗等显眼的地方移走，并 “悄悄地把它们退到相关区域”。

PRH declined to comment on the issue, but a spokesperson for Waterstones told me: "Waterstones are currently operating with reduced credit terms from PRH, the only publisher in the UK to place any limitations on our ability to trade.

企鹅兰登书屋拒绝就此事置评，但 Waterstones 的一名发言人告诉我：“Waterstones 目前在企鹅兰登书屋降低信贷限额的情况下运营，企鹅兰登书屋是英国唯一一家对我们的交易能力设定了限制的出版商。

We are not boycotting PRH titles but we are doing our utmost to ensure that availability for customers remains good despite the lower overall levels of stock.

我们没有抵制企鹅兰登书屋的图书，尽管库存总量较少，但我们正在尽最大努力为顾客保障供应。

We do this generally by giving their titles less prominent positioning within our bookshops."

我们通常将图书摆放在书店中不太突出的位置来做到这一点。”

"We are hopeful with our shops now open again that normality will return and that we will be allowed to buy appropriately.

“我们希望，随着我们的商店重新开业时能恢复正常，并能够适当地购买。

Certainly, our shops are exceptionally busy and book sales are very strong.

当然，我们的商店异常繁忙，图书销售非常强劲。

The sales for our May Books of the Month surpassed any month since 2018."

我们 5 月份的月度图书销量超过了 2018 年以来的任何一个月。”

In the meantime, PRH authors have been the losers — as have customers, who might expect the new titles from the country's biggest publisher to be prominently displayed by its biggest book retailer.

与此同时，企鹅兰登书屋的作者们一直是输家——顾客也是，他们可能会期待该国最大出版商的新书会在最大的图书零售商的醒目位置摆放。

Big-name PRH authors may suffer a bit, but it's those mid-list authors, who normally rely on Waterstones staff's passion for promoting books by lesser-known writers, who will be praying for an end to the dispute.

企鹅兰登书屋的知名作者可能会受到一些影响，但那些通常依靠 Waterstones 员工的热情来推广书的腰部作者，才会祈求这场纷争的结束。

It comes at a time when authors are already worried about the consequences of the proposed merger between PRH and another big publisher, Simon & Schuster — the reduction in the number of unaligned UK publishers is likely to lead to fewer bidding wars, lower advances, and more conformity in terms of what is published.

此时，作者们已经在担心企鹅兰登书屋和另一家大型出版商西蒙 & 舒斯特拟合并所带来的后果——不结盟的英国出版商数量的减少可能会导致竞买战减少、预付款降低以及出版内容更加一致。

And one wonders if PRH would have been confident enough to deal with Waterstones in the way it has if it weren't quite such a big company (it was formed with the merger of Penguin and Random House in 2013) and likely to get bigger.

人们不禁要问，如果企鹅兰登书屋不是一家如此大的公司（它是在 2013 年企鹅和兰登书屋合并后成立的），并且可能会变得更大，它是否有足够的信心像现在这样和 Waterstones 打交道。

"This is all part of a wider change towards concentration of power and cartels.

“这都是权力集中和垄断利益集团卡特尔更广泛变化的一部分。

Literary agencies are getting bigger to have the clout to negotiate better terms with publishers, publishers consolidating to deal with Amazon," says Lownie.

文学机构正变得越来越大，以便有影响力与出版商协商更好的条款，出版商正在合并以对抗亚马逊，” 洛尼说。

"The publishing industry talks about diversity in terms of authors and staff but it also needs a plurality of ways of delivering intellectual contact, choice and different voices.

“出版业在作者和员工方面谈论多样性，但它也需要多元的方式来提供知识交流、选择和不同的声音。

After all, many of the most interesting books in recent years have come from small publishers."

毕竟，近年来许多最有趣的书籍都来自小型出版商。”

We shall see whether that plurality is a casualty of the current need among publishers to be big enough to take on all-comers.

我们将看到，这种多元性是否是当前出版商需要大到足以对付所有竞争者的一个牺牲品。

31. The author mentions two books in paragraph 1 to present

31. 作者在第一段中提到两本书来表明

A) an ongoing conflict

A）一场持续的冲突

B) an intellectual concept

B）一个知识性的概念

C) a prevailing sentiment

C）一种普遍的情绪

D) a literary phenomenon

D）一种文学现象

32. Why did Waterstones shops retire PRH books to their relevant sections?

32. 为什么 Waterstones 将企鹅兰登书屋书籍退回到相关区域？

A) To make them easily noticeable.

A）为了使它们容易被注意到。

B) To comply with PRH's requirement.

B）为了遵循企鹅兰登书屋的要求。

C) To respond to PRH's business move.

C）为了回应企鹅兰登书屋的业务举措。

D) To arrange them in a systematic way.

D）为了以系统的方式整理它们。

33. What message did the spokesman of Waterstones seem to convey?

33. Waterstones 的发言人似乎传达了什么信息？

A) Their customers remain royal.

A）他们的顾客仍然是皇室成员。

B) The credit limit will be removed.

B）信用额度将被取消。

C) Their stock is underestimated.

C）他们的股票被低估了。

D) The book market is rather slack.

D）图书市场相当疲软。

34. What can be one consequence of the current dispute?

34. 目前的争端可能会有什么后果？

A) Sales of books by mid-list PRH writers fall off considerably.

A）企鹅兰登书屋腰部作家的书籍销量大幅下降。

B) Lesser-known PRH writers become the target of criticism.

B）不太知名的企鹅兰登书屋作家成为批评的对象。

C) Waterstones staff hesitate to promote big-name author's books.

C）Waterstones 的员工对推广大牌作者的书犹豫不决。

D) Waterstones branches suffer a severe reduction in revenue.

D）Waterstones 公司的收入严重减少。

35. Which of the following statements best represents Lownie's view?

35. 下列哪项陈述最能代表洛尼的观点？

A) Small publishers ought to stick together.

A）小出版商应该团结一致。

B) Big publishers will lose their dominance.

B）大出版商将失去主导地位。

C) The publishing industry is having a hard time.

C）出版业的日子不好过。

D) The merger of publishers is a worrying trend.

D）出版商的合并是一个令人担忧的趋势。