^{The Chinese were the real inventor of printing. Centuries ago they carved messages on stone and then sprinkled (撒) sooty(粉末状的) 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; 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(粘土). 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. Movable type did not come into use in Europe until it was invented there centuries later. The Europeans had been totally ignorant(无知的) of the printing traditions of the Chinese.}

^{60. The oldest pieces of printed paper in existence date back_____.}

^{A. 800 years.                                                          B. more than 1000 years}

^{C. more than 2000 years                       D. 500 years}

^{61. These pieces of clay were _____.}

^{A. easily lost                                                         B. less used}

^{C. reusable                                                              D. thrown away after use}

^{62. Europeans adopted printing after they _____.}

^{A. realized stone carving was not good enough}

^{B. had learned about it from the Chinese}

^{C. had copied Chinese printing}

^{D. had invented it themselves}

词汇和语法

根据首字母或英文提示写单词：

61. The number of people in the village has ___________ (减少) from 150 to 100.

62. In the program hosted by Bi Fujian, Yang Guang gave a wonderful p___________.

63. I’m sure you will ______________ （成功）if you work hard.

64. ____________ （决心）to earn more money, she went abroad.

65. She felt _____________ （自信）of passing the exam.

66. I quite _______________ （感激）what you did for me when I was at a loss.

67. His parents were proud of him, for he was a__________ to Beijing University this summer.

68. Try not to eat food  c________ a lot of fat.