2014年6月28日托福阅读真题P2+题目+答案：The Development of Printing

2014年6月28日托福阅读真题P2+题目+答案：The Development of Printing

Printing with movable type, a revolutionary departure from the old practice of copying by hand, was invented in the 1440s by Johannes Gutenberg, a German goldsmith. Mass production of identical books and pamphlets made the world of letters more accessible to a literate audience. Two preconditions proved essential for the advent of printing: the industrial production of paper and the commercial production of manuscripts.

1. The word ―advent‖ in the passage is closet in meaning to

A.success

B.increase

C.arrival

D.practice

Increased paper production in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was the first stage in the rapid growth of manuscript books—hand-copied works bound as books—which in turn led to the invention of mechanical printing. Papermaking came to Europe from China via Arab intermediaries. By the fourteenth century, paper mills were operating in Italy, producing paper that was much more fragile but much cheaper than parchment or vellum, animal skins that Europeans had previously used for writing. To produce paper, old rags were soaked in a chemical solution, beaten by mallets into a pulp, washed with water, treated, and dried in sheets—a method that still produces good-quality paper today.

2. In describing the paper produced by Italian paper mills in the fourteenth century as comparatively "fragile" the author means that this paper was

A.variable in quality

B.limited in how it could be used

C.easily damaged

D.dark in color

3. According to paragraph 2, which of the following is true of papermaking?

A.In fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Europe, it was restricted to Italy, which was the only country with the technology to build paper mills.

B.It was brought to Europe from China.

C.Its development ended the practice of copying books by hand.

D.It produces a superior writing material that is stronger than parchment.

4. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 2 about the process of making paper in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Europe?

A.It was based on the process previously used to make parchment and vellum.

B.It was replaced by a process that added steps to create a better quality of paper.

C.It was dependent on the availability of discarded or used cloth.

D.It produced paper that was more fragile than paper made in China.

By the fifteenth century, a brisk industry in manuscript books was flourishing in Europe’s university towns and major cities. Production was in the hands of merchants called stationers, who supplied materials, arranged contracts for book production, and organized workshops known as scriptoria, where the manuscripts were copied, and acted as retail booksellers. The largest stationers, in Paris and Florence, were extensive operations by fifteenth-century standards. The Florentine Vespasiano da Bisticci, for example, created a library for Cosimo de’ Medici, the head of Florence’s leading family, by employing 45 copyists to complete 200 volumes in 22 months. Nonetheless, bookmaking in scriptoria was slow and expensive.

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