Have you ever forgotten to bring a book to school? Have you ever lost a book? Imagine how easy it would be to lose a book this small!
This is the smallest book in the world. It is only 5mm wide. It is not even as big as this person's fingernail.
A long time ago, only very rich people could buy books. If somebody wanted to copy a book to sell it, he or she would have to write out the whole book by hand. That took a long time, so books cost a lot of money.
About 550 years ago, a German man made a machine that could print books very fast. Because of printing machine, books became cheaper, and today many more people can buy them. (Marc langer, staff writer)
你曾經忘記帶書本到學校嗎？你曾經丟過書嗎？想像一下這樣小的書是多麼容易丟掉！
這是全世界最小的一本書。它只有五公釐寬，甚至比這個人的指甲還要小。
很久以前，只有相當富裕的人才買得起書。假如有人想複製一本書來賣，那個人必須將整本書用手寫下來。這需要花費很多時間，所以書本很貴。
大約在五百五十年前，一名德國人製造出了一部可以快速印刷書本的機器。由於有印刷機器，書籍愈來愈便宜，現今有更多人得以購買書本。
（翻譯：賴美君）
複習測驗
1. Books used to cost a lot of money because ...
a. they were very small.
b. they took a long time to copy.
c. printing machines were very expensive.
2. Where was the man who made the first printing machine from?
a. Italy.
b. Germany.
c. Australia.
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