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  3. Reading to oneself is a modern activity that was almost unknown to the scholars of the classical and medieval worlds, while duri

Reading to oneself is a modern activity that was almost unknown to the scholars of the classical and medieval worlds, while duri

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问题     Reading to oneself is a modern activity that was almost unknown to the scholars of the classical and medieval worlds, while during the fifteen century the term "reading" undoubtedly meant reading aloud. Only during the nineteenth did silent reading become commonplace. One should be wary, however, of assuming that silent reading came about simply because reading aloud is a distraction to others. Examination of factors related to the historical development of silent reading reveals that it became the usual mode of reading for most adult reading tasks mainly because the tasks themselves changed in character.
    The last century saw a steady gradual increase in literacy, and thus in the number of readers. As readers increased, the number of potential listeners decreased, and thus there was some reduction in the need to read aloud. Reading for the benefit of listeners grew less common, so came the flourishing of reading as a private activity in such public places as libraries, railway carriages and offices, where reading aloud would cause distraction to other readers.
    Towards the end of the century there was still considerable argument over whether books should be used for information or treated respectfully, and over whether the reading of material such as newspapers was in some way mentally weakening. Indeed this argument remains with us still in education. However, whatever its virtues were, the old shared literacy culture had gone and was replaced by the printed mass media on the one hand and by book and periodicals for a specialized readership on the other.
    By the end of the century students were being recommended to adopt attitudes to books and to use skills in reading them which were inappropriate, if not impossible, for the oral reader. The social, cultural and technological changes in the century had greatly altered what the term "reading" implied.
Why was reading aloud common before the nineteenth century?
选项 A、Silent reading had not been discovered.
B、There were few places available for private reading.
C、Few people could read for themselves.
D、People relied on reading for the entertainment.
答案C
解析 细节题。文中第一段讲到，默读是一种现代的活动，对于古典学者和中世纪的世界来说默读几乎是不为所知的。而在15世纪，“阅读”一词无疑意味着朗读。第二段又讲到，因为阅读者的人数增加了，潜在的听者人数就会减少，并因此减少了大声朗读的需要，为了有益于听者而阅读变得不太常见。据此可知，19世纪以前朗读很普遍是因为人们大多是为了听者才阅读的。所以正确答案是C。
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