考研英语阅读:传统书籍的阅读速度胜过电子书
传统书籍的阅读速度胜过电子书
People can read traditional printed books a good bit faster than e-books on tablet computers, a new study has found.
根据一项最新研究，看传统纸质书的速度比在平板电脑上看电子书的速度要快。
The study tested peoples’ pace of reading on two populare-reader tablets-Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle 2-as well as a standard PC monitor and a regular book.
研究将人们在两种热门的电子阅读器——苹果的iPad 和亚马逊的Kindle2——上阅读的速度进行了对比，还和在普通电脑屏幕上看书的速度以及看传统纸质书的速度进行了对比。
The 24 study participants read short stories by the author Ernest Hemingway, chosen “because his work is pleasant and engaging to read, and yet not so complicated that it would be above the heads of users,” said Jakob Nielsen, who led the study for the Nielsen Norman Group.
24 名参与者应邀参加实验，实验内容是看海明威的短篇小说。该研究是尼尔森·诺曼咨询集团发起的，研究的负责人雅各布·尼尔森说，选择海明威的小说是因为“他的作品引人入胜，而又不晦涩难懂”。
On average, it took people more than 17 minutes to read the selected tales, which Nielsen wrote is “enough to get them immersed in the story” and is also “representative for many other formats of interest, such as whitepapers and reports.”
参与者平均用了超过17 分钟来看完选出的故事，17 分钟的时间在尼尔森看来足以让他们“沉浸到故事内容当中”。
To make sure people did not just skim the stories, the participants were given a reading comprehension tests afterward.
为确保参与者不会跳读，在测试结束后参与者还要完成一套阅读理解题。
Overall, the study revealed that people read text 6.2 percent slower on an iPad than on the printed page. With the Kindle, reading was 10.7 percent slower.
总的来看，在iPad 上看书比看纸质书速度要慢6.2%，而用Kindle2 的速度则要慢上10.7%。
Nielsen noted that this difference between the e-readers was not statistically significant, however, so in the end the only fair statement is that “tablets still haven’t beaten the printed book,” Nielsen wrote.
不过尼尔森说，在各种电子阅读器上阅览的速度差别并不大。最后唯一合理的结论就是“电子书尚未完全打败传统纸质书”。
Study participants also rated each reading implement from one to seven-with seven being the highest-and provided feedback as well.
参与者还被要求给每种阅读工具打分——范围为1 分到7 分——并给出反馈意见。
The default iBook app on the iPad used for the test took top prize, but just barely, scoring a 5.8. Amazon’s Kindle, the close runner-up, ranked 5.7 and the regular book came in third by a hair at 5.6.
iPad 上使用的iBook 程序得分最高，不过也只得到了5.8 分。Kindle2 排在第二，得分为5.7 分，传统纸质书则为5.6 分。
