单选题 As a business model, the world of publishing has always been a somewhat sleepy enclave, but now all that seems poised to change. Several companies have moved aggressively into a new business endeavor whose genesis comes from the question: Who owns the great works of literature?
Text-on-demand is not a completely new idea, of course. In the 1990s,the Gutenberg project sought volunteers to type literary classics that had expired copyrights into word processing files so that scholars would have searchable databases for their research. Most of the works of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Proust, and Moliere were to be found free online by as early as 1995.
However, now large-scale companies have moved into the market, with scanners and business plans, and are looking for bargain basement content. These companies are striking deals with libraries, and some publishers, to be able to provide their content, for a price, to individual buyers over the Internet.
At stake are the rights to an estimated store of 30 million books, most of which are now out of print. Many of these books are now also in the public domain, giving any company the right to sell them online. Still, a good portion of the books a general audience want to buy is still under copyright. The urgent question: Who owns those copyrights? In the case of all too many books put out more than 20 years ago by now-defunct publishing companies, the answer is unclear—a situation the new text-on-demand companies are eager to exploit. An association of publishers has sued, claiming massive copyright infringement. The case is several years away from trial.

单选题 The primary purpose of the passage is to ______.
A. present the results of a statistical analysis and propose further study
B. explain a recent development and explore its consequence
C. identify the reasons for a trend and recommend measures to address it
D. outline several theories about a phenomenon and advocate one of them

单选题 It can be inferred from the passage that the works of Shakespeare, Cervantes, and Moliere ______.
A. are some of the most popular works of literature
B. are no longer copyrighted
C. are among the works for which the association of publishers is suing text-on- demand companies
D. do not currently exist as searchable databases

单选题 Which of the following is an example of a book that a text-on-demand company would not have to acquire the rights to?
A. A book still under copyright.
B. A book more than 20 years old.
C. A book in the public domain.
D. A book a general audience might want to buy.

单选题 It can be inferred from the passage that text-on-demand companies are ______.
A. using scanners to find books they want to acquire
B. creating business plans well before they have any actual business
C. buying content at premium prices
D. acquiring the rights to books for as little as possible