A single letter written by Albert Einstein was sold for more than $400, 000. But could an e-mail printout or an electronic file reach similar heights? That’s the question facing those who deal in the literary artifacts of public figures, as they struggle to work out how to do business in the electronic world where information can be copied and spread out more easily than ever before.
“Booksellers, collectors and libraries are already trading in digital objects,” Joan Winterkorn, a researcher told people. When Emory University Library bought author Slaman Rushdie’s archives (档案) in 2006, it received a desktop computer, three laptops, a hard drive and a smart phone along with his paper flies. And the writer John Updike, who died last month, started using computers in the 1980s, Winterkorn pointed out, so his “papers” will include a big store of electronic documents.
So far, however, digital archives have been traded as just a small part of a larger, mainly paper-based archive. Indeed, no one is quite sure how much the digital documents of a historical figure are worth.
“I don’t feel the same way about the printout of an e-mail as I do a letter,” said Gabriel Heaton, a literary manuscript specialist, adding that more tangible (有形的) digital objects were easier for auctioneers (拍卖商) to price and sell, “What about a laptop? For example, the one used by J. K. Rowling to write Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in an Edinburgh cafe has real value,” he said. “Because she used it.” Even if the hard drive had been cloned by a library, the artifact would still be valuable.
Gordon Bell, from Microsoft Research, suggested that prices will actually fall to almost nothing. “Once it’s been copied and spread out the value is gone. It’s just a piece of memory.”
What is the purpose of the example mentioned in Para. 1?

A．To introduce the topic of the passage.

B．To show that some written letter are of great value.

C．To get readers interested in electronic documents.

D．To tell us to pay attention to public figures, artifacts.

According to the text, the trade in digital archives ___________.

A．has been well developed

B．is still in its early stage

C．is enjoying a period of prosperity

D．is developing very rapidly

The underlined part in Para. 4 implies that ___________.

A．the printout of an e-mail has no value to keep

B．the auctioneers like to sell tangible digital objects

C．the printout of an e-mail is difficult to price

D．Gabriel Heaton likes to keep famous letters

Who doesn’t think digital archives are of great value?

A．Joan Winterkorn.	B．Salman Rushdie.
C．J. K. Rowling.	D．Gordon Bell.

What is the author’s attitude towards the trade in electronic documents?

A．Negative.	B．Positive.
C．Neutral.	D．Hopeful.