2016年4月22日完成了最新一次GMAT换库。为此，小编为各位考生整理了2016年5月GMAT机经(阅读)汇总(网友回忆版)，供考生们参考使用，希望对各位备考能有帮助。

　　3.美国连锁书店与独立书店

　　本月原始：(by Claire1118) 这篇因为时间关系看的比较草

　　美国连锁书店chains抢占独立书店individual的市场，遍布全美。传统观点认为连锁书店是同质化的，但事实上连锁书店也根据所在地域不同面临着当地环境导致的问题。

　　面对竞争，独立书店转向专门化经营与发展特色，连锁书店也会发展特色，使自己成为当地的文化交流中心，开展workshop等活动(有题)，地方名人签售(有题，出版商不愿意做大范围全国签售)

　　考古版

　　文章：(Survival of independent booksellers)

　　1.通常认为Chain bookstore的发展，导致Independent书店越来越没有生存空间。认为Chain没有region区别。其实Chain也需要考虑地域区别regional difference，比如geography, economy等等。Washington雨多，喜欢看书的就多，Alaska和Hawaii地域偏远，进货需要时间，但这两个地方又有区别(Alaska只有很少的城镇能吸引大型的连锁书店进驻，Hawaii则有很多没有大型Chain)

　　2. Independent Survive下来。通过策略避免和Chain Head-on(正面的)的冲突，专注special market，用更多的自身特色来吸引客户。例如举办club，搞book signing的活动等。由于书作者的national tour减少，这种签名售书越来越attractive。

　　题目：

　　1. the passage suggests, at the time when it was written, which of the following is true?(选项两个是关于W和O这两个州的，三个是throughout the United States. 可能选national tour is decreasing.)

　　2. 主旨题 (说明Independent还是有立足空间?解释它们的生存之道?)

　　3. 根据文章的表达，against哪个选项

　　4. 哪个现象least possible (选择作者在chain进行national sign，最后一段。因为这是小书店的策略，而且作者都不旅行了)

　　5. Independent在struggle，采用了什么方法，优势。(跟地方社区拉关系，办club，签名售书等)

　　疑似原文：

　　While the rapid growth of Barnes & Noble, Borders and Amazon has made the business more centralized, each state's bookselling industry is shaped by matters as varied as climate, geography, regional economy, population growth and local culture.

　　Washington and Oregon, for example, both have thriving bookselling scenes that some attribute partly to the perpetual持续的 drizzle of the Pacific Northwest. As agent Stephanie Griffin said of her Oregon city, “Portland has a huge literary community. It rains a lot so there's plenty of time to read.”

　　For booksellers in Alaska and Hawaii, geography creates a set of difficulties distinct from those in the 48 contiguous states—from having to wait longer to get books to not being able to attract authors to travel the long distances to their stores. Beyond that, their bookselling environments have turned out to be as different as their weather: Alaska, dotted with towns too small to attract a chain store, has half the population (656,000) but a third more (15) independent bookstores than Hawaii, where Borders is the dominant bookseller, with 14 locations.

　　Though mass merchandisers have become an important force in bookselling throughout the country, their influence is felt in some areas much more strongly than in others. Wal-Mart, headquartered in Bentonville, Ark., is the biggest bookseller not only in its home state, but also in Mississippi, which, with the lowest average household income in the country, has attracted comparatively few national bookstores.

　　As for the independents' struggle to survive while competing against the chains, it continues, though most of the indies that are still in the game have developed strategies that enable them to avoid going head-to-head with national retailers on price and selection. That means locating in underserved areas as well as focusing on a niche. Take Indiana, where 97 of its 142 bookstores are independents, most operating in rural communities outside the greater Indianapolis area. “They're specialty and small stores in a state that is primarily agricultural and rural,” said Jim Dana, executive director of the Great Lakes Booksellers Association. “This is a state that—other than Indianapolis and the other cities—really depends on independent bookstores.”

　　For independent stores located in the shadow of a chain or big-box retailer, finding the right niche is key. “I think we're truly getting into the age of specialty stores,” said Ted Wedel, a Maryland resident who is co-owner of the sales representative group Chesapeake & Hudson. Wedel pointed to Maryland stores such as Atomic Books, specializing in pop culture titles, and Breathe, which focuses on New Age topics.

　　背景知识：

　　Analysts say retailbookstore chains will cease to exist as we know them, underperforming storeswill close and bookstore chains will be reduced to a few localized storescatering to specialized local needs.

　　Bookstore chains must reduce their retailfootprints in order to survive, according to Wahlstorm. He said that there is a high likelihoodthat Barnes & Noble like Borders will close underperforming stores incoming years.

　　To stay relevant bookstore chains wouldhave to use their store space productively and find a market niche, accordingto Bishop.

　　“They can try to drive traffic and sales through the physical stores bymeans like adding cafes, establishing relationships with the local community, and offering exclusive or targeted products (B&N is making a bigpush toward its new educational toys & games department),” wrote Wahlstrom.针对本地市场推出营销方案

　　Maybe bookstore chains have a lesson tolearn from smaller independent book stores that have dodged the online and e-books bullets by keeping uniqueselections of books and providing social space to their local communities.地方的小书店和社区关系紧密

　　"Independent bookstores are very wellconnected to their communities. When you do that there will always be value foryour bookstore,” said Lubeck. He said that bookstore chains should adoptthis successful formula.