首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Technology of the Intellectual Life It is curious to note how slowly the mechanism of the intellectual life improves. Contr
Technology of the Intellectual Life It is curious to note how slowly the mechanism of the intellectual life improves. Contr
admin
2009-01-05
38
问题
Technology of the Intellectual Life
It is curious to note how slowly the mechanism of the intellectual life improves. Contrast the ordinary library facilities of a middle-class English home, such as the present writer is now working in, with the inconvenience and deficiencies of the equipment of an Alexandrian writer, and one realizes the enormous waste of time, physical exertion, and attention that went on through all the centuries during which that library flourished. Before the present writer lies half a dozen books, and there are good indices to three of them. He can pick up any one of these six books, refer quickly to a statement, verify a quotation, and go on writing. Contrast with that the tedious unfolding of a rolled manuscript. Close at hand are two encyclopedias, a dictionary, an atlas of the world, a biographical dictionary, and other books of reference. They have no marginal indices, it is true; but that, perhaps, is asking too much at present. There were no such resources in the world in 300 B. C. Alexandria had still to produce the first grammar and the first dictionary. This present book is being written in manuscript; it is then taken by a typist and typewritten very accurately. It can then, with the utmost convenience, be read over, corrected amply, rearranged freely, retyped, and recorrected. The Alexandrian author had to dictate or recopy every word he wrote. Before he could turn back to what he had written previously, he had to dry his last words by waving them in the air or pouring sand over them; he had not even blotting-paper. Whatever an author wrote had to be recopied again and again before it could reach any considerable circle of readers, and every copyist introduced some new error. New books were dictated to a roomful of copyists, and so issued in a first edition of some hundreds at least. In Rome, Horace and Virgil seem to have been issued in quite considerable editions. Whenever a need for maps or diagrams arose, there were fresh difficulties. Such a science as anatomy, for example, depending as it does upon accurate drawing, must have been enormously hampered by the natural limitations of the copyist. The transmission of geographical fact again must have been almost incredibly tedious. No doubt a day will come when a private library and writing desk of the year A. D. 1925 will seem quaintly clumsy and difficult; but, measured by the standards of Alexandria, they are surprisingly quick, efficient, and economical of nervous and mental energy.
According to this passage, books written in Alexandria were
选项
A、each produced one at a time
B、severely limited in output because of technical difficulties
C、necessarily produced by dictation
D、produced with excellent maps and diagrams because of the care expended upon them by copyists
答案
B
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/3ZBK777K
0
专业英语四级
相关试题推荐
Parentswhosmokeoftenopenawindoworturnonafantocleartheairfortheirchildren,butexpertsnowhaveidentifiedar
Peoplelearnlanguagesallthetime,andforallkindsofreasons.Forexample,youprobablyhavevariousreasonstostudy【M1】__
NewresearchfromtheUnitedStatessuggeststhatthemillennia-oldtherapyofyogacouldbenefitmillionsofpeoplewhosuffe
Despitealloftheadvancesinmedicine,healthcareprovidershaveneverbeenonthecuttingedgeofnewbusinessandmarketin
PASSAGEONEHowdoesWatsondescribeHolmes?
RecyclingTheconceptofgreenconsumerismhasgainedmomentumoverthelastdecade.However,threeessentialkeysarene
RecyclingTheconceptofgreenconsumerismhasgainedmomentumoverthelastdecade.However,threeessentialkeysarene
MyprofessorbrotherandIhaveanargumentaboutheadandheart,aboutwhetherheovervaluesIQwhileIleanmoretowardEQ.We
TheCloningTechnologyI.Thedifferencebetweena【T1】______colonyand【T1】______cloningamammalA.Clarifytheillusion:sc
ThefollowingaretwoexcerptsaboutartificialintelligenceorAI,anoldtechnologywithrecentprogressthankstodeeplear
随机试题
A.毒性噬菌体B.温和噬菌体C.噬菌体D.前噬菌体E.溶原性转换细菌因带有噬菌体后,某些生物学性状发生改变的是()
Ra在代号中仅用数值表示,单位为()。
Heisso_____inhisworkthatitwouldbeapitytodisturbhim.
采用“截头去尾”的蒸馏工艺,可以减少成品酒中哪类成分的含量
甲因与乙的买卖合同纠纷而诉至法院,要求乙支付欠款7000元。在庭审过程中乙提出甲父曾借其1万元,要求用欠款抵债并偿还其3000元。在此情况下,法院应如何处理?()
基金管理人与托管人之间是( )。
递延资产按实际发生值计算,与之有关的建设期间发生的利息和汇兑损失应计入递延资产价值。()
(2016年真题)下列选项中,不属于中国2l世纪科技方面所取得重要成就的是()。
近代,中央集权制的警察管理体制的代表是()。
在C++程序中,如果要求通过函数来实现一种简单的功能,并且要求尽可能加快程序执行速度,则应该选用()。
最新回复
(
0
)