传奇书店在逆境中求生

2021-03-02河南袁丽红

疯狂英语·新悦读 2021年2期

河南袁丽红

位于塞纳河畔、巴黎圣母院对面的莎士比亚书店被誉为“世界最美书店”，由于疫情影响，运营十分困难。

One of the world's most famous bookshops,Shakespeare and Company, has turned to its customers for help as it is struggling, with sales that are down almost 80% since last March. The celebrated Parisian bookstore told the readers that it was facing “hard times” as the COVID-19 pandemic kept customers away.

France is expected to impose a new fourweek national lockdown as coronavirus cases continue to rise sharply; large parts of the country, including Paris, are already under a nighttime curfew（宵禁时间）. “Like many independent businesses, we are struggling, trying to see a way forward during this time when we've been operating at a loss,” said the shop in an email to customers, adding that it would be “especially grateful for new website orders from those of you with the means and interest to do so”.

First opened by Sylvia Beach in 1919, the Parisian institution was frequented by writers including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway,T.S. Eliot and James Joyce in the early 20th century. George Whitman opened today's version of the shop in 1951. There, writers are invited to sleep for free among the shelves in exchange for a few hours helping out, and more than 30,000 of the guests, have stayed since the store opened.

“We're not closing our doors, but we've gone through all of our savings,” Whitman's daughter, Sylvia Whitman said. “We are 80%down since the beginning of the first wave.We've now gone through all of the bookshop savings, and we have also been making use of the support from the government. We've delayed quite a lot of rent that we have.”

Since appealing（呼吁）to customers on Wednesday morning, Whitman said the shop had received unexpected offers of support—and more importantly, the shop also received some new orders.

The appeal follows a similar move from famous New York bookshop the Strand, which said last week that the impact of COVID-19 meant that “we cannot survive the huge decline in foot traffic, a near-complete loss of tourism and zero in-store events”. Nancy Bass-Wyden,former owner of the 93-year-old American store,said revenue （收益） was down nearly 70%from 2019,and that “we are now at a turning point where our business is unsustainable”.

Complete the summary with one word for each blank or with the word given in its proper form.

Shakespeare and Company is a famous 1._________in Paris. It 2._________（found） by Sylvia Beach in 1919. It 3.________（frequent）by some prestigious writers in its early years and it is an ideal place for the writers and guests.However, it is faced with a sharp decrease 4._________revenue and is almost on the point of 5._________（break）down because of the COVID-19. The shop has to appeal to 6.__________ （it）customers for help. Luckily, it has received many offers of support. Also, the owners of the shop have tried to keep the shop open by 7._________（run） out of all their savings.