2023年考研英语一阅读 Text 3 原文翻译及答案解析

If you're heading for your nearest branch of Waterstones, the biggest book retailer in the UK, in search of the Duchess of Sussex's new children's book The Bench, you might have to be· prepared to hunt around a bit; the same may be true of The President's Daughter, the new thriller by Bill Clinton and James Patterson. Both of these books are published next week by Penguin Random House ( PRH) , a company currently involved in a stand-off with Waterstones.

如果你正前往最近的水石书店（英国最大的图书零售商）寻找苏塞克斯公爵夫人的新儿童书《长椅》，你可能需要做好四处搜寻的准备；比尔·克林顿和詹姆斯·帕特森的新惊悚小说《总统的女儿》可能也是如此。这两本书都将于下周由企鹅兰登书屋（PRH）出版，该公司目前正与水石书店处于对峙状态。

The problem began late last year, when PRH confirmed that it had introduced a credit limit 1ith Waterstones " at a very significant level". The trade magazine The Bookseller reported that Waterstones branch managers were being told to remove PRH books from prominent areas such as tables, display spaces and windows, and were " quietly retiring them to their relevant sections".

问题始于去年年底，当时PRH确认已对水石书店引入了“非常重要的”信贷限额。行业杂志《书商》报道称，水石书店的分店经理被告知将PRH书籍从桌子、展示空间和橱窗等显眼区域移除，并“悄悄地将它们放回相关区域”。

PRH declined to comment on the issue, but a spokesperson for Waterstones told me : " Waterstones are currently operating with reduced credit terms from PRH, the only publisher in the UK to place any limitations on our ability to trade. We are not boycotting PRH titles but we are doing our utmost to ensure that availability for customers remains good despite the lower overall levels of stock. We are hopeful with our shops now open again that normality will return and that we will be allowed to buy appropriately. Certainly, our shops are exceptionally busy. The sales for our May Books of the Month surpassed any month since 2018. "

PRH拒绝就此事置评，但水石书店的一位发言人告诉我：“水石书店目前正以PRH降低的信贷条件运营，PRH是英国唯一对我们交易能力施加限制的出版商。我们没有抵制PRH书籍，但尽管总体库存水平较低，我们正在尽最大努力确保客户的可用性良好。我们希望随着店铺重新开放，正常状态将恢复，我们将被允许适当采购。当然，我们的店铺异常繁忙。我们五月份‘月度图书’的销售额超过了2018年以来的任何月份。”

In the meantime, PRH authors have been the losers. Big-name PRH authors may suffer a bit, but it's those mid-list authors, who normally rely on Waterstones staff's passion for promoting books by lesser-known writers, who will be praying for an end to the dispute.

与此同时，PRH的作者们成了输家。知名的PRH作者可能损失不大，但正是那些中游作者，他们通常依赖水石书店员工对推广不太知名作家作品的热情，将祈祷这场争端结束。

It comes at a time . when authors are already worried about the consequences of the proposed merger between PRH and another big publisher, Simon & Schuster-the reduction in the number of unaligned UK publishers is likely to lead to fewer bidding wars,, lower advances, and more conformity in . terms of what is published.

这发生在作者们已经担心PRH与另一大出版商西蒙与舒斯特拟议合并的后果之时——英国独立出版商数量的减少可能导致竞价战减少、预付款降低，以及出版内容更加同质化。

"This is all part of a wider change towards concentration of power and cartels. Literary agencies are getting bigger to have the clout to negotiate better terms with publishers, publishers consolidating to deal with Amazon, " . says Lownie. "The publishing industry talks about diversity in terms of authors and staff but it also needs a plurality of ways of delivering intellectual contact, choice and different voices. After all, many of the most interesting books in recent years have come from small publishers. "

“这都是权力集中和卡特尔化更广泛变化的一部分。文学代理机构正在变大，以拥有与出版商谈判更好条件的影响力，出版商则整合以应对亚马逊，”洛尼说道。“出版业在作者和员工方面谈论多样性，但它也需要多元的方式来传递思想接触、选择和不同声音。毕竟，近年来许多最有趣的书籍都来自小型出版商。”

We shall see whether that plurality is a casualty of the current need among publishers to be big enough to take on all-comers.

我们将看到这种多元性是否会成为出版商当前需要足够强大以应对所有挑战者的牺牲品。