题目内容
Read and think:
Do you agree with the writer, if not, what will you describe a friend as?
A Good FriendIn kindergarten your idea of a good friend was the person who let you have the red crayon (蜡笔) when all that was left was the ugly black one.
In primary school your idea of a good friend was the person who went to the bathroom with you; who held your hand as you walked through the scary halls; who helped you stand up to the class bully; who shared their lunch with you when you forgot yours on the bus; who saved a seat on the back of the bus for you and who knew who you had a crush on and never understood why.
In secondary school your idea of a good friend was the person who let you copy their social studies homework; who went to that “cool” party with you, so you wouldn't wind up being the only fresher there; who did not let you lunch alone.
In pre-university your idea of a good friend was the person who gave you rides in their new car;convinced your parents that you shouldn't be grounded; comforted you when you broke up with Nick or Susan;found you a date to the prom or went to the prom with you (both without dates) ;helped you pick a university and assured you that you would get into that university; helped you deal with your parents who were having a hard time letting you go.
On the threshold (开始) of adulthood your idea of a good friend was the person who was there when you just couldn't deal with your parents; assured you that now you and Nick or you and Susan were back together, you could make it through anything; just silently hugged (拥抱) you as you looked through blurry eyes at 18 years of memories; and reassured you that you would make it in university as well as you had these past 18 years; and most importantly sent you off to university knowing you were loved.
Now, your idea of a good friend is still the person who gives you the better of the two choices, holds your hand when you're scared, helps you fight off those who try to take advantage of you, thinks of you at times when you are not there, reminds you of what you have forgotten, helps you put the past behind you but understands when you need to hold on to it a little longer, stays with you so that you have confidence, goes out of their way to make lime for you, helps you clear up your mistakes, helps you deal with pressure from others, smiles for you when they are sad, helps you become a better person, and most importantly loves you!
Pass this furl on to those friends of the past, those of the future and those you have met along the way.
Thank you for being a friend. No matter where we go or who we become, never forget who helped us get there. There's never a wrong time to pick up a phone or send a message telling your friends how much you miss them or how much you love them.
Johann Gutenberg, who worked as a goldsmith (金匠), took what had already been discovered, and created a small invention that changed history. He created a machine that allowed him to move small blocks of letters in such a way that written material could be printed and mass-produced. Few people could read before Guttenberg made the invention, but once books became less expensive, more Europeans could read and write.
Block printing existed long before Gutenberg. The Chinese had been using wood blocks to print books as early as 868, but a new set of woodcuts (木刻印版) had to be made for each book. Producing one book was not easy; producing all kinds of books was more difficult.
Writing ink dates from about 2500 BC in Egypt and China. Gutenberg used an oil-based printing ink that would last longer than other inks used in his time. We don’t know much about Gutenberg because he was not famous during his lifetime. He was born in Germany about 1400. In 1448, Gutenberg developed signatures for each number, letter, and punctuation mark (标点符号). He then built the molds (模型) to hold the signatures in place. Gutenberg published the first mass-produced book: a 1,282 page Bible. To this day, more copies of the Bible have been printed than any other book.
Copies of Gutenberg’s invention spread throughout Europe, but the German goldsmith did not get rich from his invention. Some officials denounced the invention of printing because they feared that it would spread bad ideas. By 1500 there were 1,700 printing presses in Europe. The presses had already produced about 20 million volumes (册) of 40,000 different books.
【小题1】What happened after Johann Gutenberg’s invention?
| A.People could afford to read books. |
| B.People became interested in inventing. |
| C.It was still difficult to print all kinds of books. |
| D.Punctuation mark began to be used in printing. |
| A.was difficult to run |
| B.needed harder paper |
| C.used a new kind of ink |
| D.was put into use earlier |
| A.fought against | B.accepted |
| C.laughed at | D.supported |
| A.A famous 1,282 page Bible |
| B.The life of a famous inventor |
| C.An invention that changed history |
| D.The development of printing |