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Going Digital: The Future of College Textbooks?

数字化:大学教材的未来?

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

The average college student in America spent an estimated seven hundred dollars on textbooks last year. The National Association of College Stores reported more than five billion dollars in sales of textbooks and course materials. Association spokesman Charles Schmidt says electronic textbooks now represent just two to three percent of sales. But he says that is expected to reach ten to fifteen percent by two thousand twelve. Online versions are now available for many of the most popular college textbooks. E-textbooks can cost half the price of a new print textbook. But students usually lose access after the end of the term. And the books cannot be placed on more than one device, so they are not easy to share.

So what do students think of e-textbooks? Administrators at Northwest Missouri State University wanted to find out. Earlier this year they tested them with five hundred students in twenty classes.

The university is unusual. It not only provides laptop computers to all seven thousand of its full-time students. It does not require students to buy their textbooks either. They rent them to save money. The school aims to save even more by moving to e-textbooks. The students in the survey reported that downloading the books from the Internet was easy. They liked the idea of carrying lighter backpacks. And fifty-six percent said they were better able to find information.

But most found that using e-textbooks did not change their study habits. And sixty percent felt they read more when they were reading on paper. In all, almost half the students said they still liked physical textbooks better.  But the survey found that cost could be a big influence. Fifty-five percent said they would choose e-textbooks if using them meant their textbook rental fee would not increase. Roger Von Holzen heads the Center for Information Technology in Education at Northwest Missouri State. He tells us that administrators are disappointed with the e-textbooks now available because the majority are not interactive. He thinks growth will come when more digital books include video, activities, games and other ways to interact with the information. The technology is improving. But for now, most of the books are just words on a screen.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. What do you think of e-textbooks? Share your thoughts at voaspecialenglish.com, where you can also find our reports. I'm Steve Ember.

一、全文翻译

这里是VOA特别英语教育报道。

去年，美国大学生平均花费在教材上面的费用大约为700美元。全国学院商店协会(National Association of College Stores)报告显示教材和课程资料的销售额超过50亿美元。协会发言人Charles Schmidt称，电子教材的销量仅占2%到3%。但是他说，预期到2012年，比例将占到10%至15%。现在，许多流行的大学教材都有网络版本。电子教材的费用仅为新印刷教材的一半。但是，通常在学期结束之后学生就无权再进行使用。而且电子教材只能在一个设备上使用，所以，不便于分享。

那么，学生对电子教材看法如何呢？西北密苏里周立大学行政管理人员希望找出答案。今年年初，他们对20个班级的500名学生进行了测试。该学校非常不凡，不仅为所有7000名全日制学生提供台式电脑，而且不要求学生必须购买教材。为了节约成本，他们向学生租借课本。为了节约更多资金，该学校还打算向电子教材转化。接受调查的学生反映，在网络上下载这些电子教材非常方便。他们喜欢书包更轻便一些。56%的学生认为电子教材更容易寻找信息。

但是大多数人反映，使用电子教材并没有改变他们的学习习惯。60%的学生感觉在纸面上月的时阅读量更大。总体来说，大约一半的学生表示，他们仍然喜欢实体教材。但是该调查发现，费用是一个很大的影响因素。55%的学生说，如果使用电子教材意味着教材租赁费用不会增加的话，他们会选择电子教材。Roger Von Holzen是西北密苏里州教育信息技术中心的负责人。他告诉我们，行政管理人员对现在的电子教材非常失望，因为大多数电子教材缺乏互动。

他认为，如果更多的数字化教材包含视频，活动，游戏和其他信息互动方式，电子教材将会发展起来。科技正在进步。但是目前来说，大部分电子教材仅仅是出现在屏幕上的文字。

二、词汇学习

1.estimated                                          adj. 估计的

例句：The medicare cost is estimated to be one billion dollars.
            老年医疗保健费用估计为十亿美元。

estimate                                               v. 估计,估价;评价,判断

例句：It’s impossible to estimate his abilities yet.
           现在还无法估计他的能力。

2.electronic                                        adj. 电子的

例句：The electronic industry is developing on a large scale.
            电子工业在大规模地发展着。

3.physical                                         adj. 物理的,物质的,体力的,身体的,自然的

例句：The physical Internet looks like a vast net of wires.
            实际的因特网看起来像一个庞大的线路网。

4.interactive 交互的,互相影响的,交互

例句：This is valid for interactive as well as batch translation.
            这对于交互式或成批翻译都是有效的。