首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
What Your iPad Knows About You A)You’ve finally finished the book your co-worker recommended, so what to read next? If it is 5 a
What Your iPad Knows About You A)You’ve finally finished the book your co-worker recommended, so what to read next? If it is 5 a
admin
2014-12-12
29
问题
What Your iPad Knows About You
A)You’ve finally finished the book your co-worker recommended, so what to read next? If it is 5 a.m., chances are that you’re reaching for a romance novel—especially if you’re in Texas or Georgia. By early morning, thrillers might start to look more appealing. And if Philip K. Dick is your favorite author, books about beer are probably more up your taste than anything about wine or liquor.
B)These are some of the insights from Scribd Inc. and Oyster, two startups that offer unlimited e-book rentals for a monthly subscription fee. Scribd, Oyster and Entitle Books—which just launched in December—are tracking reader behavior in hopes of figuring out recommendations of exactly what you’ll want to pick up next.
C)About 50% of the U.S. population owns a dedicated e-reader, according to a Pew Research study released last month. In addition, 28% read an e-book last year, up from 23% the previous year. The services are expanding. Scribd, a San Francisco-based site that started selling monthly e-book subscriptions last October, announced this month that its app is available on Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Kindle Paperwhite. After running exclusively on Apple’s operating system, New York-based Oyster plans to expand to Android later this year. And Entitle is considering adding an all-you-can-read feature to complement its current "book of the month"-style subscription service. Subscription services are popular because they "reduce the emotional burden" of purchasing, says Julie Haddon, Scribd vice president of marketing. Buying a book creates pressure to finish and get your money’s worth, she adds. In addition, people might try to save money by buying a cheaper book instead of the one they really want.
D)Brian Konash, 34, who works at Web startup Squarespace in Manhattan, joined Oyster two months ago because it didn’t cause the buyers’ sense of guilty he experienced when purchasing Kiridle e-books. "You’ve already paid for the service, so you can read as much as you want," he says. "With other models, there’s that little financial bite each time you want to buy a book and you worry that it’s going to be worthless." Mr. Konash, who has been picking books based on the site’s suggestions, predicts he’ll read up to 10 more books a year beyond his usual 25.
E)An all-access subscription "lowers the activation energy for reading," says Oyster CEO Eric Stromberg. Reading often has a high "activation energy" because there’s a time gap between wanting to read a book and then actually getting your hands on it, he says. "When you can order a book and instantly get it on your tablet, you can hear about the book and then read it right there," says Willem van Lancker, Oyster’s chief product officer.
F)"From the publishing perspective, the biggest problem is how to get people to care about a new book," says Otis Chandler, CEO of Goodreads, a site where people share what they’re reading and post recommendations. Goodreads, which was acquired by Amazon in March, uses an algorithm(运算法则)that recommends books that users with similar taste have enjoyed.
G)Oyster and Scribd ask readers to rate books, what they call an "active signal." They also track "passive signals," such as the percentage of a book that a reader finishes and the click rate, or how many people who are shown a book click through to learn more. The companies use that information among other factors to recommend books. Active signals represent what we wish we read, while passive signals are more honest, says Jared Friedman, Scribd chief technology officer. A lot of people give a 5-star rating to "The Great Gatsby," while they read greedily, but don’t necessarily rate, thrillers like "The Da Vinci Code," for example.
H)Other findings: Self-help might be a popular market, yet only about 20% of people who start such a book finish it. More than 80% of people who crack the pages of a mystery novel will find out who did it. People read through biographies at 20 pages per hour, while they read at three times that speed for erotica(色情作品). And higher "acceleration factor"—or how much readers speed up as they get closer to finishing—correlates with higher average rating for a book. One of the highest acceleration factors comes from Kurt Vonnegut’s "Cat’s Cradle," which readers start speeding through at the halfway mark, Mr. Friedman says. All three companies allow users to hide their reading behavior from other customers, but users can’t opt out of their behavior being collected by the company itself. Entitle, however, says it keeps track of browsing and download information only.
I)Personalized recommendations drive 10 times more browsing traffic than lists based on themes such as "globe-trotting memoirs" or "bad role models" that copy racks at the front of bookstores, Scribd’s Mr. Friedman says. The company is interested in combining algorithms with lists to create a list of best sellers that someone would, based on past reading behavior, find interesting. Another possible approach is to suggest different books or genres depending on time of day to take advantage of what the company knows about time-based preferences.
J)The algorithm doesn’t just analyze behavior signals, but "reads" through a book’s text to pull out different topics, genres and subjects, says Bryan Batten, chief executive of Entitle. There’s also a patent-pending(申请专利中的)service called "if these books had a baby," where users can input two books and find a third with similar themes. For example, the "baby" of Joseph Heller’s "Catch-22" and Leo Tolstoy’s "Anna Karenina" is Fyodor Dostoevsky’s "The Brothers Karamazov" but the product of "Catch-22" and Steve Jobs biography is a book called "Dealers of Lightning," about engineers at Xerox Corp.
K)Entitle operates on a tiered model: two books for $9.99 a month(the most popular plan), three for $14.99, and so on. For customers, the upside is being able to keep the e-books, even if they cancel the service. The services, of course, compete with the library. But libraries have had limited e-book offerings and there are often waits for the books. Robert Wolven, co-chair of the American Library Association’s Digital Content Working Group, says demand has increased significantly in the past 18 months. He says he doesn’t see the startups as a threat.
L)While libraries’ budget for e-books has been growing, licensing restrictions mean that popular titles often aren’t available, says Laura Girmscheid, research manager for the trade publication Library Journal, which recently released its fourth annual report on e-books in libraries. This, combined with holds on e-books, is the largest hurdle preventing people from using library e-books more. "It’s just not convenient for instant access," Ms. Girmscheid says.
When purchasing paper books, people might give up the one they want and choose a cheaper one in order to save money.
选项
答案
C
解析
根据purchasing,cheaper以及save money可定位到C段。该段后半部分分析了订阅服务盛行的原因,并在最后一句表示,人们可能会为了省钱而买一本比较便宜的书,而不是买他们真正想读的书。题目的purchasing对应原文的buying,而might give up…and choose则对应原文的instead of…可确定本题出处在C段。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/RZ4FFFFM
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
A、12:30p.m.B、2:00p.m.C、4:30p.m.D、5:30p.m.B信息明示题。对话中,Susan明确提到她会在两点与Julie见面。
A、Sheshouldfocusmoreonstudy.B、Sheshouldgooutwithfriends.C、Sheconcentratestoomuchonherschoolwork.D、Sheisvery
A、Drinks.B、Food.C、Abathingsuit.D、ATent.C女士说:“所以你得自己带泳衣和睡袋。”C正确。表示具体物件的名词选项表明,此题问某个细节(而非全文主旨)。此类题的做题办法是:首先,看四个选项在原文是否提及。若原
A、Gotoameetingforthehandicapped.B、Designauniformforthemeeting.C、Dosomecharityinthemeeting.D、Lookforajobin
Livinginatimewhenanever-increasingnumberofnewsproviderspushaconstantstreamofheadlinesatuseveryday,peopleca
A、Clothesmatching.B、Makingfriends.C、Stressrelieving.D、Interviewpreparation.D题干考查讲习班的用途。对话中,男士询问这里是不是准备面试的讲习班,女士回答说这里是面试课
IntheAmericanfamilythehusbandandwifeusuallyshareimportantdecision-making.Whenthechildrenareoldenough,theytake
A、Shewasabsentallweekowingtosickness.B、Shewasseriouslyinjuredinacaraccident.C、Shecalledtosaythatherhusband
A、Itstillrequiresfurtherimprovement.B、Itisalittlecomplextochargeacellphonewiththematerial.C、Itcanproducethe
随机试题
稳定型战略的特点
患者,男性,56岁。主诉尿流缓慢、尿频、尿急、排尿不尽2个月余,近期加重入院。为明确诊断进行血清前列腺特异性抗原(PSA)检查,怀疑其患有前列腺癌的PSA临界值是
患者,男,60岁。近期发现右胸锁乳突肌上段前缘处有一个无痛性、逐渐增大的淋巴结,约1.0cm×1.5cm大小,质地中等偏硬,活动度尚可,无压痛。伴盗汗,无发热、无消瘦。血象及骨髓象均正常。该例的诊断要考虑
安全预评价的内容主要包括()。
导游口头语言运用的原则为()
下列关于肖像权的表述中,不正确的是()。
甲、乙、丙、丁分别购买了某住宅楼(共四层)的一至四层住宅,并各自办理了房产证。下列哪一说法是不正确的?()
A.3~6个月B.1~2岁C.9~11岁D.4~6岁E.16岁以后语音评价及语音治疗的时间()。
债权人的撤销权,应当自知道或者应当知道撤销事由之日起()内行使。
设z=f(x,y)由方程z一y—x+xez-y-x=0确定,求dz.
最新回复
(
0
)