填空题 A. always B. barely C. demise D. emergence E. gained
F. implications G. leaf H. lost I. naturally J. object
K. one L. online M. rising N. single O. value
Millions of people now rent their movies the Netflix way. They fill out a wish list from the 50,000 titles on the company"s Website and receive the first few DVD"s in the mail; when they mail each one back, the next one on the list is sent. The Netflix model has been exhaustively analyzed for its disruptive, new-economy 1 . What will it mean for video stores like Blockbuster, which has, in fact, started a similar service? What will it mean for movie studios and theaters? What does it show about "long tail" businesses—ones that combine many niche markets, like those for Dutch movies or classic musicals, into a 2 large audience? But one other major implication has 3 been mentioned: what this and similar Internet-based businesses mean for that stalwart of the old economy, the United States Postal Service.
Every day, some two million Netflix envelopes come and go as first-class mail. They are joined by millions of other shipments from 4 pharmacies, eBay vendors, Amazon.com and other businesses that did not exist before the Internet.
The 5 demise of "snail mail" in the age of instant electronic communication has been predicted at least as often as the coming of the paperless office. But the consumption of paper keeps 6 rising. It has roughly doubled since 1980. On average, an American household receives twice as many pieces of mail a day as it did in the 1970"s.
The harmful side of the Internet"s impact is obvious but statistically less important than many would guess. People 7 write fewer letters when they can send e-mail messages. To 8 through a box of old paper correspondence is to know what has been 9 in this shift: the pretty stamps, the varying look and feel of handwritten and typed correspondence, the tangible 10 that was once in the sender"s hands.