Passage 1
News consumption in the United Kingdom rose by 20 percent in the past three years, according to new McKinsey research. Average consumption has risen to 72 minutes a day, compared with 60 minutes in 2006-an increase driven almost entirely by people under the age of 35. Two-fifths of those in this age group said they felt the need to be the first to hear the news, compared with just 10 percent of people aged 55 to 64.
This need for immediacy is reflected in younger news consumers' choice of media: they overwhelmingly prefer to get their news from television and the Internet, While television remains the most popular medium across all age groups, only the behavior of consumers aged 55 and older prevented the Internet from jumping from fourth in 2006 to become the second most popular news source today. Instead, the Internet is now in third place, just behind newspapers.
These findings underline the challenges that lie ahead for newspapers, in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, that are struggling to address long-term circulation and advertising declines caused mainly by the growth of online news consumption and Internet advertising. Some newspapers are eyeing differentiated and innovative revenue models for their online content. But these won't be a silver bullet: w
e found that while there is modest potential to increase online revenues, they will be insufficient to compensate for the decline of print. Indeed, even in a hypothetical scenario where online-only versions of existing newspapers and magazines cost 75 percent less than the print versions, only 14 percent of news consumers said they would pay for the online content.
One finding does suggest a potential revenue opportunity: newspapers have an important inherent advantage as they face the challenges of the digital age-trust. Consumers trust newspapers more than any other medium, and 66 percent describe newspaper advertising as "informative and confidence inspiring," compared with only 44 percent for TV and 12 percent for the Web. This suggests that newspapers have further scope to go beyond news, to drive reader interest and advertising revenues at the same time. Leading newspapers have already created specialized pages and sections in areas such as entertainment, eating out, travel, automobiles, shopping, real estate, and personal finance. The combination of editorial content, ads, and selected commercial offers-while clearly separated-benefits advertisers and is of practical use to readers.
A few publications are going one step further, moving from just selling ad space to taking a role in transactions between advertisers and consumers in these and other areas. Opportunities present themselves for publishers to drive up revenues for their print as well as online versions by becoming tr
usted intermediaries.
To survive in the digital age, newspapers will need to develop deeper skills-for example, in managing advertiser relationships and gaining customer insights-and they must walk a fine line to retain editorial independence and quality to capture these opportunities. But for those who get it right, the rewards could be significant.
1. According to the McKinsey research,
[ A] consumers aged 55 and older are more likely to read online news.
[ B] people under 35 account for the most rise of news consumption in the UK.
[ C] two-fifths of the people in the UK have news demand.
[ D] the Internet is the most popular medium among the people under 35.
2. What can we learn about the newspaper's online content?
[ A] It's a profitable way for the newspapers to increase revenues.
[ B] It costs much more than their print versions.
[ C] It causes the decline of their print versions.
[ D] It has a defect in news consumers' acceptance.
3. What's newspaper advertising's intrinsic advantage?
[ A] The selected commercial offers.
[ B] The consumers' confidence in it.
[ C] The specialized pages and sections.
[ D] The combination of editorial content and ads.
4. What should the newspapers do to capture opportunities, according to the author?
[ A] To sell ad space with more discounts.
[ B] To give up their editorial independence.
[ C] To preserve their information quality.
[ D] To pay more attention on online versions.
5. What's the main idea of this passage?
[ A] Younger news consumers' choice. [ B] A glimmer of hope for newspapers.
[ C] The importance of editorial quality. [ D] The future of newspaper advertising. Answer: B D B C B
Passage 2
A global shift towards a vegan diet is vital to save the world from hunger, fuel poverty and the worst impacts of climate change, a UN report said today. As the global population surges towards a predicted 9. 1 billion people by2050, western tastes for diets rich in meat and dairy products are unsustainable, says the report from United Nations Environment Programme's ( UNEP)international panel of sustainable resource management.
It says: "Impacts from agriculture are expected to increase substantially due to population growth increasing consumption of animal products. Unlike fossil fuels, it is difficult to look for alternatives: peo
ple have to eat. A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products. "
Professor Edgar Hertwich, the lead author of the report, said: "Animal products cause more damage than producing construction minerals such as sand or cement, plastics or metals. Biomass and crops for animals are as damaging as burning fossil fuels. "
The recommendation follows advice last year that a vegetarian diet was better for the planet from Lord Nicholas Stern, former adviser to the Labour government on the economics of climate change. Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) , has also urged people to observe one meat-free day a week to curb carbon emissions.
The panel of experts ranked products, resources, economic activities and transport according to their environmental impacts. Agriculture was on a par with fossil fuel consumption because both rise rapidly with increased economic growth, they said.
Ernst von Weizsaecker, an environmental scientist who co-chaired the panel, said: " Rising affluence is triggering a shift in diets towards meat and dairy products-livestock now consumes much of the world's crops and by inference a great deal of freshwater, fertilisers and pesticides. " Both energy and agricult
ure need to be "decoupled" from economic growth because
environmental impacts rise roughly 80% with a doubling of income, the report found.
Achim Steiner, the UN under-secretary general and executive director of the UNEP, said: " Decoupling growth from environmental degradation is the number one challenge facing governments in a world of rising numbers of people, rising incomes, rising consumption demands and the persistent challenge of poverty alleviation. "
The panel, which drew on numerous studies including the Millennium ecosystem assessment, cites the following pressures on the environment as priorities for governments around the world: climate change, habitat change, wasteful use of nitrogen and phosphorus in fertilizers, over-exploitation of fisheries, forests and other resources, invasive species, unsafe drinking water and sanitation, lead exposure, urban air pollution and occupational exposure to particulate matter.
Prof Hertwich, who is also the director of the industrial ecology programme at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, said that developing countries-where much of this population growth will take place-must not follow the western world's pattern of increasing consumption: " Developing countries should not follow our model. But it's up to us to develop the technologies in, say,
renewable energy or irrigation methods. "
1. It can be inferred from the UN report that
[ A] it's very hard to find alternatives for fossil fuels.
[ B] a global diet change is vital to population growth.
[ C] more animal products mean less climate change.
[ D] animal products are losing popularity in the west.
2. According to Dr. Rajendra Pachauri,
[ A] people should use less construction minerals.editorial怎么读
[ B] vegetarian diet can cause more climate change.
[ C] animal products relate to carbon emissions very closely.
[ D] animal's crops consuming is not bad for the planet.
3. What's the cause of the shift in diets towards animal products'l
[ A] The fossil fuel consumption.
[ B] The worry of pesticides.
[ C] The fast economic growth. .
[ D] The worldwide lack of crops.
4. To governments around the world, the most serious challenge is
[ A] habitat change.
[ B] lead exposure.
[C] urban air pollution.
[ D] environmental decay.
5. Which of the following is true about the developing countries?
[ A] They should follow the western world's diets pattern.
[ B] They have done a better job in development than the western world.
[ C] They should increase their animal products consumption.
[ D] They should be cautious with their consumption pattern.
Answer: B C C D D

版权声明：本站内容均来自互联网，仅供演示用，请勿用于商业和其他非法用途。如果侵犯了您的权益请与我们联系QQ:729038198，我们将在24小时内删除。