Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 11 to 17.
In the modern era of technology, we can barely imagine our day-to-day activities without electronic devices. Devices with Internet access have become the source of information, entertainment, and even work, making remote jobs more and more popular. The same trend of digitalization came to the book industry, leading to the rise of electronic books, or shortly e-books. Whereas many people predict the extinction of printed books, book shops are still open, and their owners do not seem to plan closing businesses anytime soon. This question is complex, and both material and electronic books have plenty of pros and cons.
Electronic books’ admirers prove that buying printed books is not an ecologically friendly option. One Kindle can contain thousands of books, saving millions of trees. Although an e-book needs electricity to be charged, it can last much longer without a charger compared to a smartphone, which, on average, needs to be recharged every day. In this way, the electricity consumption is not that large for e-books, and their contribution to the deforestation decrease is quite important.
A printed copy can last longer, even though ads tell us that electronic devices are timeless. While paper may seem fragile, electronic books are subject to the evolution of digital media. The software and formats used today can change dramatically or even disappear as technology advances. Indeed, what will happen if Amazon stops producing its Kindles? What will happen to your digital library? So many questions that do not arise with a paper book. In any way, we still have books brought to our homes by our grandparents; at the same time, it is highly doubtful that our grandchildren will still be using our e-books.
The arrival of the e-book readers has shaken the literary world, but the paper book is still far from saying its last word. These two reading instruments coexist rather well in the literary world. The digital book has not replaced the paper book. On the contrary, it complements the latter, giving us a more extensive choice.
