The final chapter has been written for the lone bookstore on the streets of Laredo, a city in Texas with a population of nearly a quarter-million people that could soon be the largest in the United States without a single bookseller.
美國德州拉雷多市唯一一間書店的完結篇已經寫好，這座擁有近25萬人口的城市很可能即將成為美國境內最大的無書店城市。
The situation is so grim that schoolchildren have pleaded for a reprieve from next month’s planned shutdown of a B. Dalton bookstore. After that, the nearest store will be 241 kilometers away in San Antonio.
拉雷多市書店的狀態嚴重到連小學生都提出哀求，請預定下月關門的戴頓書店暫時不要歇業。因為假如這間書店關門，最近的書店就要到遠在241公里外的聖安東尼奧市。
The B. Dalton store was never a community destination with comfy couches and an espresso bar, but its closing will create a literary void in a city with a high illiteracy rate.
這間戴頓書店從來都不是有著舒適沙發和義式咖啡吧，供社區民眾聚會的地方，但這間書店的關門卻在這座不識字率偏高的城市製造出文學空洞。
"Corporate America considers Laredo kind of the backwater," said the city’s most prolific author, Jerry Thompson, a professor at Texas A&M University International who has written more than 20 books.
「美國商界視拉雷多為落後地區，」該市最多產的作家湯普森表示，他是德州國際農工大學教授，寫過逾20本書。
Barnes Noble, B. Dalton’s parent company believes a bookstore is still viable in Laredo and has identified a location for a large-format Barnes & Noble. In the meantime, without a single independent bookseller, Laredo may be in a league of its own among big cities.
戴頓書店的母公司邦諾書店認為，在拉雷多市經營書店仍是可行的，並已找到一塊適合開設大型邦諾書店的地點。但在此同時，連一間獨立書店都沒有的拉雷多市在美國的大城市間恐怕將自成一格。
新聞辭典
reprieve：名詞，指緩刑、暫緩、暫免，如He was sentenced to death but was granted a last-minute reprieve.（他被判死刑，但卻在最後關頭獲得緩刑。）
backwater： 名詞，原指（河流的）滯水、壅水、回水，引申為指孤立、停滯或落後的狀態（帶有負面意味），如This area is a backwater that continues to resist progress.（這裡是個始終抗阻進步的落後地區。）
in a league of one’s own：片語，常指實力遠勝出其他競爭者、獨樹一格，或指孤芳自賞。
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