Amazon has given in to publisher pressure and agreed to abandon their $9.99 price point for e-Books. PuNisher Macmillan felt that the $9.99 price devalued many of its bestsellers, which often sell for $30 in hardcover format. In response to the pricing dispute, Amazon briefly removed all Macmillan books from its store last week. However, the boycott lasted only a few days before Amazon gave in to Macmillan’s demands. In a statement Sunday, Amazon defended its position to customers: Macmillan, one of the "big six" publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-Book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases. We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-Books. Amazon’s decision to throw in the towel may be related to Macmillan’s recent agreement to sell books in Apple’s iBookstore. Amazon has captured an overwhelming share of the e-Book market with its Kindle reader, but if the iPad becomes successful publishers may turn to Apple to sell their e-Books. Publishers seem more interested in protecting the value of their hardcover books than competing in a digital format. Will higher e-Book prices convince you to purchase a physical copy of your next novel, or will you accept a modest price increase given that e-Books are typically cheaper What accounted for Amazon’s failure to continue its boycott according to its statement
Amazon’s cowardice.
B. Macmillan’s arrogance.
C. Amazon’s generosity.
D. Macmillan’s monopoly.
吴门四家是明代中期出现于()的画派。
A. 浙江
B. 金陵
C. 苏州
D. 扬州
Paradise Lost is Milton’s masterpiece. Its story is taken from the Bible, about "the fall of man", that is, how Adam and Eve are tempted by Satan to disobey God by eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, and how they are punished by God and driven out of Paradise. In Milton’s words, the purpose of writing the epic is to "justify the ways of God to men", but apparently, Milton is uttering his intense hatred of cruelness of the ruler in the poem. By depicting Satan and his followers as well as their fiery utterance and brave actions, Milton is showing a Puritan’s revolt against the dictator and against the established Catholics and the Anglican Church.In the poem God is no better than a cruel and selfish ruler, seated on a throne with a group of angels about him singing songs to praise him. His long speeches are not pleasing at all. He is cruel and unjust in punishing Satan. His angels are stupid. But Satan is by far the most striking character in the poem, who rises against God and, though defeated, still persists in his fighting.The story of Adam and Eve shows Milton’s belief in the power of man. God denies them a chance to pursue for knowledge. It is this longing for knowledge that opens before mankind a wide road to intelligent and active life. It has been noted by many critics that Milton’s revolutionary feeling makes him forget religious doctrines. The angels who surround God never think of expressing any opinions of their own, and they never seem to have any opinions of their own. The image of God surrounded by such angels resembles the court of an absolute monarch. But Satan and his followers, who freely discuss all issues in council, remind us of a Republic Parliament. In the poem, Satan is described as ()
A. an evil person
B. a rebellious hero
C. selfish and cruel devil
D. a stupid devil
On February 10, the world of psychiatry will be asked, metaphorically, to lie on the couch and answer questions about the state it thinks it is in. For that is the day the American Psychiatric Association (APA) plans to release a draft of the fifth version of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V). Mental illness carrying such stigma (~) as it does, and the brain being as little-understood as it is, revising the DSM is always a controversial undertaking. This time, however, some of the questions asked of the process are likely to be particularly probing. The DSM, the first version of which was published in 1952, lists recognized psychological disorders and the symptoms used to diagnose them. In the United States, what is in it influences whether someone will be diagnosed with an illness at all, how he will be treated if he is so diagnosed, and whether his insurance company will pay for that treatment. Researchers in other countries generally defer to the DSM, too, making the manual’s definitions a lingua franca for the science of medical psychology. And, perhaps most profoundly, the DSM, then, is an important document. The APA has been working on the latest revision since 1999, and will not release the final version until May 2013. But some people are already accusing it of excessive secrecy and being too ambitious about the changes it proposes. Those critics will be picking over the draft next week to see if their fears have been realized. The original DSM reflected the "psychodynamic" view of mental illness, in which problems were thought to result from an interplay between personality and life history. (Think Freud, Jung and long hours recounting your childhood and dreams.) The third version, which was published in 1980, took a more medical approach. Mental illnesses were seen as distinct and classifiable, like physical diseases. DSM-Ⅲ came with checklists of symptoms that allowed straightforward, unambiguous diagnosis. Psychiatry began to seem less like an art form and more like a science. DSM-Ⅲ also introduced many more diagnoses than had appeared before. These included attention-deficit disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and social phobia. In fact, the number of specific diagnoses more than doubled between DSM-Ⅰ and DSM-Ⅲ, from 106 to 265. DSM-IV, published in 1994, increased the number to 267, but left the underlying model alone. Which version of the DSM is given the least discussion in the passage
A. The second.
B. The third.
C. The fourth.
D. The fifth.