VOA标准英语2011--Yellow Pages Fight For Survival

Yellow Pages Fight For Survival

 

Many of the world’s telephone directories include a section in yellow which lists phone numbers for businesses, not people’s homes. In some places, it’s pink or another color. In America’s big cities, there are entire yellow-page books.

Yellow pages are organized by category - from “Abdominal Braces” to “Zoos.” Plumbers¹ and restaurants and other businesses pay extra for display advertisements next to their numbers.

These days, yellow-page directories face stiff competition from Internet search engines and online business directories, including “Yelp²,” whose name reads like a shorthand version of “Yellow Pages.”

In 2007, high-tech³ pioneer Bill Gates predicted that “Yellow Page usage amongst people, say, below 50, will drop to zero, near zero over the next five years.”

Things aren’t that drastic yet.

But it’s clear that young people seeking information about, and reviews of, businesses are leading the migration⁴ away from Yellow Pages and toward the Internet and handheld devices.

These days, yellow-page directories face stiff competition from Internet search engines and online business directories, including Yelp.

The printed big book survives, but in some communities you have to request a copy to get one. It isn’t plopped onto your front porch once a year as it used to be.

The Associated Press reports that categories in these directories are also changing fast to reflect our times. You won’t find “Discos” in the yellow pages any more, or “Drive-in Movie Theaters,” “Typewriter Repair,” or “Moustache Wax.” Now it’s “Body Piercing,” “Teeth Whitening,” “Satellite Equipment” and “Dating Services.”

The AP even found a trendy new category in the Richmond, Virginia, Yellow Pages. It’s for businesses that organize clients’ homes by employing the ancient Chinese art of arranging objects to improve one’s fortunes.

The listing: “Feng Shui.”

1 plumbers   

n.管子工，水暖工( plumber的名词复数 )；[美][口]（防止泄密的）堵漏人员

参考例句：

• Plumbers charge by the hour for their work. 水管工人的工作是以小时收费的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Plumbers, carpenters, and other workmen finished the new house quickly. 管道工、木工及其他工匠很快完成了这幢新房子。 来自辞典例句

2 yelp   

vi.狗吠

参考例句：

• The dog gave a yelp of pain.狗疼得叫了一声。
• The puppy a yelp when John stepped on her tail.当约翰踩到小狗的尾巴，小狗发出尖叫。

3 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

4 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。