1. .The importance of reading cannot be stressed enough. Reading is important because it enriches you in many different aspects.
   Reading helps develop creative and critical thinking skills. It develops vocabulary, sharpens language skills and leads to greater cognitive development. It leads to a better understanding of self.
   Reading keeps us occupied. Reading leads to a fruitful use of time. It helps us get rid of worries. Reading is a great stress buster. It diverts our mind from monotony. Books are excellent sources of recreation. Someone who loves to read can never get bored as reading a book is probably the best way to get rid of boredom.
   Reading informs you of what's happening around, helps you remain updated about what's changing, and not just that. It encourages you to think and imagine, think out-of-the-box and imagine the impossibles. The more you read, the more creative and imaginative you become.
   The more we read the more informed we are. It's the means to upgrade ourselves constantly. Reading helps us keep abreast of the times.
   
   
   Not long ago, reading was limited to just books. Today, we have the Internet housing so much information, hosted on thousands of websites. We have books online and e-book readers that make reading so easy. The web, our new storehouse of information, is just a click away. But this, in no way has stolen the magic of reading books, the sound of their pages fluttering, their smell... you can curl up with a book anywhere, anytime. But with an e-book reader or your laptop, some of that romanticism is lost. Be it through any medium, reading is important.
   
   
      
2. Read the article and choose the most suitable sentence from the list (A – I) for each gap. There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use. There is an example at the beginning.

E-books – the books of the future?

       A few years ago, nobody could have imagined buying a whole dictionary or encyclopaedia on CD-Rom - but we do now, and it's a booming business. Are e-books set to take over from the printed word? Well, some multimedia companies are predicting that, in a few years' time, production of newspapers and magazines will have been halved, as we will be turning to our computers to get the latest news. But how do people feel about reading their daily newspaper, or even their favourite novels, on their computer screens?    O__E.

        It is certainly a question that we are going to have to think about soon. Technology produces new products every day and the publishing industry is already showing great interest in the future of the e-book. 1_____

        As for e-books, despite the fact that the technology has not been fully developed yet, and an e-book that you can carry about with you is still much more expensive than an ordinary book, researchers claim that soon e-books will become much cheaper than paper versions, and will be much more popular.

2______ Stephen King, the best-selling writer of horror books, posted his newest short story on the Internet and it sold more copies in its first days than many of his printed novels had. 3_______

        Well, is this really the end of the book and the newspaper? I doubt it, and it seems that even Stephen King agrees. Despite his success on the Internet, he does not seem to think anything can replace the book! This is partly because, although we like to think that technology is capable of anything, it isn't. At least, not yet! 4______ It took 25 hours for Associated Press to download Stephen King's story. This is because lack of band width makes it very slow to send material, especially pictures, over the Internet. Even though work is constantly being carried out to solve this problem, demand for the Internet is increasing too fast for scientists to keep up. What is more, it takes much longer for us to read on the net. 5_______

        There is another problem, too, which has nothing to do with technology. People simply prefer paper. It doesn't matter how many books, magazines or newspapers are produced - we never stop buying them. It seems that we like the feel of books and magazines - we like to put them in our bags or pockets and take them out on the bus or the train on the way to work. We like to sit and read in the park or on the beach.

         6______How many of us would exchange what, we have now - a row of books in a bookcase, or a pile of magazines on the coffee table - for a row of little screens? For many of us, the idea of Sunday morning without a cup of coffee and a pile of newspapers is impossible.

        Nevertheless, by the time e-books have become as widely available as printed ones, it is likely that at least some of us will have changed our minds.

         7_____Publishers will be delighted to cater for those who prefer to use a screen, but paper lovers shouldn't worry, as the printed page will undoubtedly keep its place in our lives. There is even news that MIT will have come up with a compromise soon - a system where we can tell our computers what we want to read, and then they will print our own personal newspaper for us. The difference will be that we will only have to read about things which interest us. Just think - if you hate the business section, you don't have to order it. If you dislike tennis, you can request only the football results. It sounds like this could be good news for everyone!

1. First of all, the Internet is slow.

B.  Many newspapers are already online; and you can read them on screen at home, or even on your mobile phone.

3. Even if we haven't, it doesn't matter, as there is probably plenty of room for both books and screens.
4. To publishers, this meant the arrival of the e-book!
5. Would you be happy to get your newspaper on the screen, or do you still prefer turning those pages?
6. Did you know that we can read 50% more quickly on paper than we can on a computer screen?
7. It looks as if people are already interested in the general idea.
8. We like to decorate our rooms with them, too.
9. More than half of today's newspapers now have websites.

Electronic books are becoming more and more popular. Some people say that e-books are going to replace traditional books in the future, while others are convinced that print books will never disappear.
E-books are making their way onto the world's markets. A lot of people, especially children and teenagers, who are accustomed to computer screens, have already embraced e-books. But does it mean that if the popularity of e-books grows, paper editions will soon die out?
Personally, I think that e-books are so popular with readers for several reasons. Firstly, they are easy to use because they are light, compact and can store up to thousands of pages. Secondly, e-books have a touch-sensitive screen which can be used to call up a dictionary, to increase the front size and even to add notes in the margin. Thirdly, the bright backlight gives you an opportunity to read in the dark. Finally, people can read e-books in public without having to display the covers.
However, most people still prefer traditional print books. They say that the device for reading e-books is rather expensive and one needs access to the Internet to download them. E-books may cause problems with eyesight because it is rather tiring to read from the screen. Some people say that one of the main disadvantages of e-books is that the battery must be recharged and that e-books can be easily broken. What is more, so far there is only a limited selection of e-books being published. But I think it is very convenient to put a lightweight e-book into your bag when you are leaving for holiday.
To conclude, people will always continue buying, collecting and displaying beautiful paper editions with the sole purpose of possessing them. To my mind, e-books will co-exist with traditional print books. Anyway, we'll have to wait and see.

                                                  The "Classic" Paper Book.

Paper books offer multiple advantages:

·                                                  They're easily obtainable (Bookstores are everywhere).

·                                                  They're easily portable.

·                                                  They don't normally cause significant eye-strain.

·                                                  They're cheap.

Another factor to bear in mind is that paper books don't need power to function. They can be read anywhere with sufficient light, and are perfect travelling companions for exactly this reason.

The obvious cons are:

·  Paper books are bulky and heavy. Carrying more than 2-3 around can become a chore.

·  You need a light source to read them - another thing that you'll probably carry around.

·  If you make notes in them, those notes are there to stay.

The eBook

eBooks offer the following obvious advantages (assuming you have an ebook reader):

·  They're easily readable. Most readers offer zoom functions, letter resizing, and so forth.

·  They're easily portable. You can carry multiple books on one device.

·  They're much more environmentally friendly. You don't have to kill a few trees for each book, and let's not even talk about the ink.

·  Note-taking is much more powerful, and the notes you write can be found and referenced quickly and easily. And they don't have to be permanent.

·  Lighting conditions essentially become meaningless. Many readers incorporate display lighting allowing you to read whenever and wherever you like.

eBooks are useless without a reader. 

The disadvantages of ebooks generally stem from the hardware you're reading them on. If it's a computer, you've got the normal computer problems which detract from your reading pleasure:

·  Eye strain and RSI. Long periods spent in front of a computer are healthy for nobody.

·  Power. Your average laptop has 4-6 hours of battery life.

·  Portability. Why lug a laptop around if you can simply carry a book?

·  Nasty software bugs in the reader can cause it to freeze up.

·       They're not very robust. If you spill coffee on them, chances are that's the end of your reader. Not to mention scratches, dropping them, and so on.