(IME - 2012/2013 - 2ª FASE)
Leia o texto seguinte e marque a opção correta.
The Bookstore’s Last Stand
*Barnes & Noble is the largest book retailer in the United States.
(…) No one expects Barnes & Noble* to disappear overnight. The worry is that it might slowly wither as more readers embrace e-books. What if all those store shelves vanished, and Barnes & Noble became little more than a cafe and a digital connection point? Such fears came to the fore in early January, when the company projected that it would lose even more money this year than Wall Street had expected. Its share price promptly tumbled 17 percent that day.
Lurking behind all of this is Amazon.com, the dominant force in books online and the company that sets teeth on edge in publishing. From their perches in Midtown Manhattan, many publishing executives, editors and publicists view Amazon as the enemy — an adversary that, if unchecked, could threaten their industry and their livelihoods.
Like many struggling businesses, book publishers are cutting costs and trimming work forces. Yes, electronic books are booming, sometimes profitably, but not many publishers want e-books to dominate print books. Amazon’s chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, wants to cut out the middleman — that is, traditional publishers — by publishing e-books directly.
Which is why Barnes & Noble, once viewed as the brutal capitalist of the book trade, now seems so crucial to that industry’s future. Sure, you can buy bestsellers at Walmart and potboilers at the supermarket. But in many locales, Barnes & Noble is the only retailer offering a wide selection of books. If something were to happen to Barnes & Noble, if it were merely to scale back its ambitions, Amazon could become even more powerful and — well, the very thought makes publishers queasy. (…)
Disponível em: <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/business/barnes-noble-taking-on-amazon-inthe-fight-of-its-life.html?pagewanted=all>. Acesso em: 22 abr. 2012
Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
Gabarito:
It is likely Amazon will publish e-books directly, without the need of a traditional publisher, in the future.
Resolução:
a) Alternativa incorreta. Na verdade, o texto expressa justamente a preocupação com a Amazon, uma loja virtual que possui as vendas de e-book em crescimento constante.
b) Alternativa correta. Isso pode ser observado em "Amazon’s chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, wants to cut out the middleman — that is, traditional publishers — by publishing e-books directly".
c) Alternativa incorreta. Isso é contestado em "The worry is that it might slowly wither as more readers embrace e-books". Ou seja, os e-books não são escassos, são inclusive a preferência atual dos leitores.
d) Alternativa incorreta. O texto especula acerca de uma possível transformação das livrarias para se adequarem à realidade dos e-books, mas os editores estão preocupados porque a Amazon pode, eventualmente, se transformar em uma espécie de editora, publicando livros por conta própria.
e) Alternativa incorreta. Não existe uma fusão entre a Barnes & Noble e a Amazon em vista.