小編寄語：英語四級六級考試，閱讀是不可或缺的一大部分，生詞多，理解難，時間少，是不少考生抱怨的問題。要想在考場上做好閱讀理解，必須在平常多閱讀，掌握新詞匯，提高閱讀速度。而滬江小編就為大家準(zhǔn)備了閱讀材料系列，供大家練習(xí)。

我們的這個閱讀系列旨在為大家提供一些閱讀材料，不一定跟四六級考試的難度、篇幅、內(nèi)容完全一樣。對于很多童鞋糾結(jié)這是四級還是六級范圍的閱讀，其實沒有必要。如果大家覺得比較簡單，就當(dāng)作泛讀材料了解了解，認(rèn)識幾個新單詞或新表達(dá)方式也不錯。如果大家覺得這些材料理解上有難度，不妨當(dāng)做挑戰(zhàn)自己的拔高訓(xùn)練，希望大家都有進(jìn)步^^

【今日推薦閱讀】

AS newspaper companies across the developed world took a beating in the past few years, those in one rich country merely shrugged. Japanese newspapers are by far the world's biggest: Yomiuri sells 10m copies each morning and another 3.6m in the evening. Newspapers enjoy such close ties with politicians and companies that news in Japan does not so much break as ooze. Yet the giants are teetering.

The problem is not circulation, which has held up well thanks to a distinctive system of distribution. Virtually all Japanese newspapers are delivered by agents who work on commission, frequently turning up on doorsteps to collect money. People carry on buying newspapers in Japan for the same reason they keep paying for gym memberships elsewhere: pushy salesmen. Between 1999 and 2009 the combined circulation of morning and evening papers in Japan fell by just 6.3%, according to Nihon Shimbun Kyokai (NSK), the newspaper publishers' association. By contrast, American newspapers lost 10.6% of their paying readers between 2008 and 2009.

Yet the population of newspaper readers is ageing. Young people are less likely to read newspapers than their elders. Nor do they appear to be growing into the habit as they age, says Takashi Kasuya, an executive at Asahi, the second-biggest newspaper. Although Japanese newspapers have been careful not to put all their articles online free of charge, a generation has decided that the news it obtains from television, mobile phones and the internet is enough. The young have also come to dislike newspapers' clutter.

Demography, which has disguised the extent of the problem so far, will eventually exacerbate it. Japan has a huge population of post-war baby-boomers and relatively few young people-indeed, so few children are being born that the population has started to shrink. At present the newspaper-loving baby-boomers are propping up circulation. When their eyesight fails, newspaper circulations are likely to collapse.

Advertising has already done so. Revenues were dropping even before the recession, in part because of those disappearing young readers, and are now falling quickly. NSK estimates that newspapers earned ￥565.5 billion ($6.2 billion) from advertising in the 2008-09 fiscal year, down from ￥858.4 billion in 1998. Megumi Tomita of NSK says papers have managed to make up for advertising losses by modernising their printing plants. But further savings there are unlikely. Soon, newsrooms will have to shrink.

Elsewhere newspapers are responding to the problem of flat or falling audiences by hawking more services to their remaining readers. British newspapers sell wine and online games. Last month the Wall Street Journal launched a travel agency. Such a strategy is not possible in Japan because the sales agents, not the newspapers, control access to readers. Those agents may also complicate efforts to sell digital newspapers on e-readers and tablet computers. The newspapers' greatest strength could become an acute weakness.

Newspaper proprietors hope to reverse some of these trends. They are pushing newspapers in schools, hoping to get children used to reading them. Universities ask students to analyse newspaper articles as part of their entrance exams. Perhaps this will work. It is more likely, however, that newspapers' fortunes will begin to decline-more slowly than in other countries, perhaps, but bad news just the same.

【內(nèi)容簡介】

文章開篇介紹了發(fā)達(dá)世界報業(yè)的現(xiàn)狀和例外——日本，然后指出日本報業(yè)現(xiàn)在也處于風(fēng)雨飄搖的狀態(tài)。

接接著文章分析了日本報業(yè)萎縮的原因——報紙讀者老年化，以及日本報業(yè)的應(yīng)對方法，如將印刷廠現(xiàn)代化，兜售更多服務(wù)，在學(xué)校中推廣報紙等等。

【詞匯短語講解】

①take a beating? 挨打，受打擊

②grow into a habit? 已成習(xí)慣

③free of charge? 免費

④make up for? 補償，彌補

區(qū)分：make up與make up for的區(qū)別

make up +缺少/不足的東西，表示補足? 如make up a lesson? 補課

make up for+造成的傷害、損失?? 如：Nothing can make up for the suffering.?? 沒有什么能彌補遭受的痛苦。

⑤in part? 部分地

⑥r(nóng)espond to? 應(yīng)對

【快速閱讀支招】

經(jīng)濟類文章通常會出現(xiàn)一些較多的數(shù)字或社會經(jīng)濟方面的介紹，很多事物發(fā)展的原因其實可從社會角度進(jìn)行推論。這類文章經(jīng)常會有一些較多的段落來進(jìn)行分別闡述，我們在閱讀時要注意找準(zhǔn)每一段的主題句，節(jié)省時間。

另外，做閱讀題的過程中，要注意摒棄一些壞習(xí)慣，比如朗讀和指讀，所謂朗讀就是讀出聲來，而指讀就是一邊讀一邊用筆或手指一行行指下去，這樣特別浪費時間，最好采用掃讀的方法，注意抓住文章主要意思。

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