AS newspaper companies across the developed world took a beating in the past few years， those in one rich country merely shrugged. Japanese newspapers are by far the world‘s biggest： Yomiuri sells 10m copies each morning and another 3.6m in the evening. Newspapers enjoy such close ties with politicians and companies that news in Japan does not so much break as ooze. Yet the giants are teetering.

　　The problem is not circulation， which has held up well thanks to a distinctive system of distribution. Virtually all Japanese newspapers are delivered by agents who work on commission， frequently turning up on doorsteps to collect money. People carry on buying newspapers in Japan for the same reason they keep paying for gym memberships elsewhere： pushy salesmen. Between 1999 and 2009 the combined circulation of morning and evening papers in Japan fell by just 6.3%， according to Nihon Shimbun Kyokai （NSK）， the newspaper publishers’ association. By contrast， American newspapers lost 10.6% of their paying readers between 2008 and 2009.

　　Yet the population of newspaper readers is ageing. Young people are less likely to read newspapers than their elders. Nor do they appear to be growing into the habit as they age， says Takashi Kasuya， an executive at Asahi， the second-biggest newspaper. Although Japanese newspapers have been careful not to put all their articles online free of charge， a generation has decided that the news it obtains from television， mobile phones and the internet is enough. The young have also come to dislike newspapers‘ clutter.

　　Demography， which has disguised the extent of the problem so far， will eventually exacerbate it. Japan has a huge population of post-war baby-boomers and relatively few young people-indeed， so few children are being born that the population has started to shrink. At present the newspaper-loving baby-boomers are propping up circulation. When their eyesight fails， newspaper circulations are likely to collapse.

　　Advertising has already done so. Revenues were dropping even before the recession， in part because of those disappearing young readers， and are now falling quickly. NSK estimates that newspapers earned ￥565.5 billion （$6.2 billion） from advertising in the 2008-09 fiscal year， down from ￥858.4 billion in 1998. Megumi Tomita of NSK says papers have managed to make up for advertising losses by modernising their printing plants. But further savings there are unlikely. Soon， newsrooms will have to shrink.

　　Elsewhere newspapers are responding to the problem of flat or falling audiences by hawking more services to their remaining readers. British newspapers sell wine and online games. Last month the Wall Street Journal launched a travel agency. Such a strategy is not possible in Japan because the sales agents， not the newspapers， control access to readers. Those agents may also complicate efforts to sell digital newspapers on e-readers and tablet computers. The newspapers’ greatest strength could become an acute weakness.

　　Newspaper proprietors hope to reverse some of these trends. They are pushing newspapers in schools， hoping to get children used to reading them. Universities ask students to analyse newspaper articles as part of their entrance exams. Perhaps this will work. It is more likely， however， that newspapers‘ fortunes will begin to decline-more slowly than in other countries， perhaps， but bad news just the same.

　　文章开篇介绍了发达世界报业的现状和例外——日本，然后指出日本报业现在也处于风雨飘摇的状态。

　　接着文章分析了日本报业萎缩的原因——报纸读者老年化，以及日本报业的应对方法，如将印刷厂现代化，兜售更多服务，在学校中推广报纸等等。

　　①take a beating 挨打，受打击

　　②grow into a habit 已成习惯

　　③free of charge 免费

　　④make up for 补偿，弥补

　　区分：make up与make up for的区别

　　make up +缺少/不足的东西，表示补足 如make up a lesson 补课

　　make up for+造成的伤害、损失 如：Nothing can make up for the suffering. 没有什么能弥补遭受的痛苦。

　　⑤in part 部分地

　　⑥respond to 应对

　　经济类文章通常会出现一些较多的数字或社会经济方面的介绍，很多事物发展的原因其实可从社会角度进行推论。这类文章经常会有一些较多的段落来进行分别阐述，我们在阅读时要注意找准每一段的主题句，节省时间。

　　另外，做阅读题的过程中，要注意摒弃一些坏习惯，比如朗读和指读，所谓朗读就是读出声来，而指读就是一边读一边用笔或手指一行行指下去，这样特别浪费时间，最好采用扫读的方法，注意抓住文章主要意思。
　　……更多阅读请查看外语频道。

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