A. always B. barely C. demise D. emergence E. gained F. implications G. leaf H. lost I. naturally J. object K. one L. online M. rising N. single O. value M illions of people now rent their movies the Netflix way. They fill out a wish list from the 50,000 titles on the company's Web site and receive the first few DVD's in the mail; when they mail each one back, the next one on the list is sent. The Netflix model has been exhaustively analyzed for its disruptive, new-economy 1 . What will it mean for video stores like Blockbuster, which has, in fact, started a similar service? What will it mean for movie studios and theaters? What does it show about "long tail" businesses -- ones that combine many niche markets, like those for Dutch movies or classic musicals, into a 2 large audience? But one other major implication has 3 been mentioned: what this and similar Internet-based businesses mean for that stalwart of the old economy, the United States Postal Service. Every day, some two million Netflix envelopes come and go as first-class mail. They are joined by millions of other shipments from 4 pharmacies, eBay vendors, Amazon.com and other businesses that did not exist before the Internet. The 5 of "snail mail" in the age of instant electronic communication has been predicted at least as often as the coming of the paperless office. But the consumption of paper keeps 6 . It has roughly doubled since 1980. On average, an American household receives twice as many pieces of mail a day as it did in the 1970's. The harmful side of the Internet's impact is obvious but statistically less important than many would guess. People 7 write fewer letters when they can send e-mail messages. To 8 through a box of old paper correspondence is to know what has been _ 9 i n this shift: the pretty stamps, the varying look and feel of handwritten and typed correspondence, the tangible 10 that was once in the sender's hands.