↑ 收起筛选 ↑
试题详情

The printing press has a long history. It was invented in Germany by Joannes Gutenberg around 1440, and brought to England by William Caxton in the 1470s.Yet the basic technology of printing remained the same up to the end of the 18th century, requiring two men to operate a wooden screw press by hand, producing about 200 impressions an hour. The 19th century was the period in which this process was mechanised, automated, and made many times faster.

A key moment in the development of mass newspapers was the development of the steam-powered printing press, adopted by the times in 1814. The new presses were able to print per hour around five times the number produced by the machines. The editor, John Walter, had the machines fixed secretly at night, so that when his printers reported for duty the next morning the majority of them found that they were out of work. The Times went from a circulation of 5,000 a day in 1815 to around 50,000 in the middle of the century. This was not caused by the steam press, but neither could it have happened without it.

Later developments improved this effect: the Applegath machine achieved 5,000 impressions per hour, and the Hoe press, an import from the United States, reached to 20,000 impressions per hour. Increase in the speed of papermaking in this period brought down the cost of printed materials both for the producer and the customer. In 1896, the Daily Mail was sold at the cost of only half a penny, and by 1900 it was selling nearly 1,000,000 copies a day.

If print production was completely changed in those years, then so was its distribution. The appearance of the steam railway meant that for the first time newspapers could be distributed across the country on a daily basis.

1.What can we learn about the basic technology of printing?

A. It was invented first in the middle of the 15th century.

B. It was brought into England by Joannes Gutenberg.

C. It took over 400 years to change after invention.

D. It took two hours to produce about 200 impressions.

2.How many impressions did the new press produce an hour in 1814?

A. About 20,000.   B. About 1,000.

C. About 2,000.   D. About 5,000.

3.Increase in the speed of papermaking led to ____.

A. the invention of steam printing press   B. the development of the steam railway

C. the appearance of the Daily Mail   D. the decline of printing expenses

4.The passage is developed mainly by ____.

A. providing examples   B. making comparisons

C. following the order of time   D. following the order of space

高二英语阅读理解困难题

少年,再来一题如何?
试题答案
试题解析
相关试题