IV.阅读理解TheRealInventorofPrintingTheChineseweretherealinventorofprinting.Centuriesagotheycarvedmessagesonstoneandthensprin-kled(撒)sooty(乌黑的)dustoverthestonecarving.Whentheyputasmallpieceofp

Question

IV.阅读理解

     The Real Inventor of Printing The Chinese were the real inventor of printing. Centuries ago they carved messages on stone and then sprin-kled (撒) sooty (乌黑的) dust over the stone carving. When they put a small piece of paper over the stone and rubbed the paper the sooty lines were reproduced on it. Some of these first printed papers have been preserved and the oldest ones known to exist are more than one thousand years old.

    Printing with carved stone blocks was the only kind of printing known for centuries. Then about eight hundred years ago a Chinese printer Bi Sheng had a clever idea. Instead of carving a whole message on a single big block of wood or stone he formed separate Chinese words or characters out of bits of clay. By fitting the clay pieces together in rows in a box he could print just as before. But when he finished he could keep all the separate pieces of clay and use them again.

   Bi Sheng's movable type was a great step forward but his method was not generally adopted. The movable type did not come into use in Europe until it was invented there centuries later. The Europeans had been totally ignorant of the printing traditions of the Chinese.

1. Bi Sheng used clay to form.

   A. large tablets for writing

   B. small statues

   C. individual words or characters

   D. messages

2. These pieces of clay were .

   A. easily lost   B. less used

   C. reusable   D. thrown away after use

3. The oldest pieces of printed papers in existence date back .

   A. 800 years

   B. more than 1 000 years

   C. more than 2 000 years

   D. 500 years

4. Europeans adopted printing after they .

   A. realised stone carving was not good enough

   B. had learned about it from the Chinese

   C. had copied Chinese printing

   D. had invented it themselves

Answer 1

1. C 2. C 3. B 4. D