大学体验英语视听说原文unit 3

Unit 3

Lesson 1, Audio passage

The recent blockbuster Avatar is one among a string of new movies to come out during a period being called the “3D renaissance”. But has the 3D format cut down on the amount of movie piracy as Hollywood hopes? It doesn?t look like it.

“While Hollywood claims 3D movies will slow piracy, they are only partially right,” said Chris Chinnock, president of a U.S.-based marketing research and consulting firm. He said if pirates try to use a regular video camcorder to record 3D films, it would result in the images coming back in double. However, those with knowledge of video equipment can get around the 3D deterrent, he said.

Chinnock?s assessment seems to hold true. More than a week before Avatar was set for its China release, copies of it were shelved in pirated DVD shops throughout Beijing.

He also speculated that the lack of impact on the pirate market might be because the film was also released in 2D. The problem with releasing a film strictly in 3D is that many theaters, in both the U.S. and China, are not equipped to handle the new technology. China has roughly 200 mainland theaters equipped to show 3D films. Less availability for movie-goers means more devious minds finding

alternative ways to watch blockbusters.

Hurvitz of the foreign counsel for intellectual property law firm Kangxin Partners PC pointed out that while filming in the cinema is one of the biggest and easiest ways to contribute to pirated films, there are hundreds of people with industry …ins? willing to pass along exclusive copies of the film for big bucks.

Still the problem persists and, while stringent laws are in place, neither the Chinese government nor the U.S. filming industry knows what to do. “They?re snuck out of the studios, sent overseas, duplicated a million times and then sold on the streets,” Hurvitz said.

Lesson 2, Audio passage

When Dan Brown?s blockbuster novel “The Lost Symbol” hit stores in September, it may have offered a peek at the future of bookselling.

On https://www.360docs.net/doc/bd18036437.html,, the book sold more digital copies for the Kindle e-reader in its first few days than hardback editions. However, less than 24 hours after its release, pirated digital copies of the novel were found on file-sharing sites like Rapidshare. Within days, it had been downloaded for free more than 100,000 times.

Digital piracy, long confined to music and movies, is spreading to books. And as electronic

reading devices such as Amazon?s Kindle and the Sony Reader boost demand for e-books, experts say the problem may only get worse. Digital theft may pose a big headache in 2010 for the slumping publishing industry, which relies increasingly on electronic reading devices and e-books to stimulate sales.

Piracy is a serious issue for publishers. The company that publishes Stephenie Meyer?s wildly popular “Twilight” teen-vampire series says it “considers copyright protection to be of paramount importance.” Authors are concerned as well. “With the open-source culture on the Internet, the idea of ownership --- of artistic ownership --- goes away,” said novelist and poet Sherman Alexie last month. “It terrifies me.”

As to how to combat e-book piracy, views vary. Some publishers have tried to minimize theft by delaying releases of e-books for several weeks after physical copies go on sale. Some authors have even gone as far as to shrug off e-book technology altogether.

However, some evidence suggests that authors? and publishers? claims of damage from illegal piracy may be overstated. Recent statistics have shown that consumers who purchase an e-reader buy more books than those who stick with traditional bound volumes. Amazon reports that Kindle owners buy, on average,

3.1 times as many books on the site as other customers.

Keys to home listening

1. pirated

2. latest

3. bargain

4. estimates

5. unique

6. populations

7. illegal

8. basing

9. the overseas market is almost as huge as the Indian market.

10. the U.S.-India Business Council, and American film companies are collaborating with Bollywood to combat piracy by raising awareness of the problem with American authorites