经济学人428:更烧钱的教育 课本这么贵的原因

 　　Higher education

　　更烧钱的教育

　　Why textbooks cost so much

　　课本这么贵为啥哩

　　It's Economics 101

　　经济学主要章节

　　STUDENTS can learn a lot about economics when they buy Greg Mankiw's “Principles of Economics”—even if they don't read it. Like many popular textbooks, it is horribly expensive: 292.17 on Amazon. Indeed, the nominal¹ price of textbooks has risen more than fifteenfold since 1970, three times the rate of inflation.

　　当学生们购买Greg Mankiw写的《经济学原理》,他们可以学习很多经济学知识—即使他们只买不读。如同众多流行教材，它贵的离谱：在亚马逊上要花费292.17美元。确实，课本的虚价从1970年开始疯涨了15倍，是通货膨胀率的三倍。

　　烧钱的教育.jpg

　　Like doctors prescribing drugs, professors assigning textbooks do not pay for the products themselves, so they have little incentive² to pick cheap ones. Some assign books they have written themselves. The 20m post-secondary students inAmericaoften have little choice in the matter. Small wonder textbooks generate megabucks.

　　正像医生们开的药物那样，教授们布置的这些教材并不用他们自己付钱，因此他们对于挑选廉价教材没有太多动力。一些人吩咐学生买他们自己写的书籍。美国两千万的高年级学生经常在这件事上没多少选择。课本产生巨大效益也就不足为奇。

　　But hope is not lost for poor scholars. Foreign editions are easy to find online and often cheaper—sometimes by over 90%. Publishers can be litigious about this, but in 2013 the Supreme³ Court ruled that Americans have the right to buy and resell copyrighted material obtained legally. Many university bookstores now let students rent books and return them. Publishers have begun to offer digital textbooks, which are cheaper but can't be resold. And if all else fails, there is always the library.

　　但是贫穷的学者们不会丧失希望。网上很容易找到国外版本，而且往往更便宜，有时候价格能低到将近一折。出版商们对此怨念不已，但是2013年最高法院裁决美国人有权购买或重卖合法占有的合法出版物。许多大学书店现在准许学生租借书籍并到时返还。出版商们开始提供电子版教科书，这种更便宜但是不可出售。而且如果所有方法都失败了，图书馆永远对你开放。

1 nominal   

adj.名义上的；(金额、租金)微不足道的

参考例句：

• The king was only the nominal head of the state. 国王只是这个国家名义上的元首。
• The charge of the box lunch was nominal.午餐盒饭收费很少。

2 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

3 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。