(单词翻译:单击)
Passage Two
短文二
The earliest printed book we know today appeared in China in the year 868 and metal type was in use in Korea at the beginning of the fifteenth century, but it was in Germany around the year 1450 that a printing press using movable metal type was invented.
已知最早的印刷书籍于868年在中国出现。十五世纪之初朝鲜就使用了金属印刷。1450年德国发明了使用金属活字的印刷机。
Capitalism turned printing from an invention into an industry.
资本主义将印刷从一项发明发展为一项产业。
Right from the start, book printing and publishing were organized on capitalist lines.
书籍印刷从开始就由资本家组织。
The biggest sixteenth-century printer, Plantin of Antwerp, had twenty-four printing presses and employed more than a hundred workers.
十六世纪最大的印刷业大亨是安特卫普的普兰廷，他拥有二十四台印刷机，雇佣了超过一百名工人。
Only a small fraction of the population was literate, but the production of books grew at an extraordinary speed.
只有一小部分人受过教育，但书籍产量飞速增长。
By 1500 some twenty million volumes had already been printed.
到1500年印刷了约两千万卷书籍。
The immediate effect of printing was to increase the circulation of works that were already popular in a handwritten form, while less popular works went out of circulation.
印刷的直接影响下，手写版就已经流行的书籍得到更多传播，不那么流行的作品却不再传播。
Publishers were interested only in books that would sell fairly quickly in sufficient numbers to cover the costs of production and make a profit.
出版商只在意那些卖得很快很多的书籍，以此抵消成本，赚取利润。
Thus, while printing enormously increased access to books by making cheap, high-volume production possible, it also reduced choice.
因此，印刷使得低成本大量制造书籍有了可能，由此极大提高了人们获取书籍的机会，不过也减少了选择。
The great cultural impact of printing was that it facilitated the growth of national languages.
印刷术对文化的一大影响在于促进了本土语言的发展。
Most early books were printed in Latin, but the market for Latin was limited, and in its pursuit of larger markets the book trade soon produced translations into the national languages emerging at the time.
早期印刷的大多是拉丁文书籍，但拉丁文书籍的市场有限，为了获取更大的市场利益，图书业立刻生产当时兴起的本国语言译本。
Printing indeed played a key role in standardizing and stabilizing these languages by fixing them in print, and producing dictionaries and grammar books.
通过印刷品中修正语言，以及生产字典和语法书籍，印刷确实在语言的标准化和稳定化中起了关键作用。
Questions 12 to 15 are based on the passage you have just heard.
请根据你刚刚听到的对话回答问题12至问题15。
12. What happened in Germany around the year 1450?
问题12：1450年德国发生了什么？
13. What does the speaker say about the printer, Plantin of Antwerp?
问题13：关于印刷大亨安特卫普的普兰廷，说话者说了些什么？
14. What was the immediate effect of printing?
问题14：印刷的直接影响是什么？
15. What was the great cultural impact of printing?
问题15：印刷对文化的巨大影响是什么？
