阅读理解。

     The Chinese were the real inventor of printing. Centuries ago they carved messages on a stone

and then sprinkled (撒) sooty(煤炭的) dust over it. When they put a small piece of paper over

the stone and rubbed the paper, the sooty lines were reproduced on it. Some of these first printed

papers have been preserved; the oldest ones known to exist are more than one thousand years old.

     Printing with carved stone blocks was the only kind of printing known for centuries. Then, about

eight hundred years ago, a Chinese printer, Bi Sheng, had a clever idea. Instead of carving a whole

message on a single big block of wood or stone, he formed separate Chinese words or characters

out of bits of clay(粘土). By putting the clay pieces together in rows in a box, he could print just as

before. But when he finished, he could keep all the separate pieces of clay and use them again.

     Bi Sheng's movable type was a great step forward, but his method was not generally adopted.

Movable type did not come into use in Europe until it was invented there centuries later. The

Europeans had been totally ignorant of the printing traditions of the Chinese.

1. The oldest pieces of printed paper in existence date back ______.

A. 800 years

B. more than 1000 years

C. more than 2000 years  

D. 500 years

2. Bi Sheng used clay to form ______.

A. large tablets for writing

B. messages

C. individual words or characters

D. small statues

3. These pieces of clay were ______.

A. easily lost

B. broken

C. reusable  

D. disposable

4. Europeans adopted printing after they ______.

A. realized stone carving was inadequate (不够的)

B. had learned about it from the Chinese

C. had copied Chinese printing

D. had invented it themselves  

Some years ago, writing in my diary used to be a usual activity.I would return from school and spend the expected half hour recording the day's events, feelings, and impressions in my little blue diary.I did not really need to express my emotions by way of words, but I gained a certain satisfaction from seeing my experiences forever recorded on paper.After all, isn't accumulating memories a way of preserving the past?

When I was thirteen years old, I went on a long journey on foot in a great valley, well－equipped with pens, a diary, and a camera.During the trip, I was busy recording every incident, name and place I came across.I felt proud to be spending my time productively, dutifully preserving for future generations a detailed description of my travels.On my last night there, I wandered out of my tent, diary in hand.The sky was clear and lit by the glare of the moon, and the walls of the valley looked threatening behind their screen of shadows.I automatically took out my pen...

At that point, I understood that nothing I wrote could ever match or replace the few seconds I allowed myself to experience the dramatic beauty of the valley.All I remembered of the previous few days were the dull characterizations I had set down in my diary.

Now, I only write in my diary when I need to write down a special thought or feeling.I still love to record ideas and quotations that strike me in books, or observations that are particularly meaningful.I take pictures, but not very often—only of objects I find really beautiful.I'm no longer blindly satisfied with having something to remember when I grow old.I realize that life will simply pass me by if I stay behind the camera, busy preserving the present so as to live it in the future.

I don't want to wake up one day and have nothing but a pile of pictures and notes.Maybe I won't have as many exact representations of people and places; maybe I'll forget certain facts, but at least the experiences will always remain inside me.I don't live to make memories—I just live, and the memories form themselves.

小题1:Before the age of thirteen, the author regarded keeping a diary as a way of________.

A．observing her school routine

B．expressing her satisfaction

C．impressing her classmates

D．preserving her history小题2:What caused a change in the author's understanding of keeping a diary?

A．A dull night on the journey.

B．The beauty of the great valley.

C．A striking quotation from a book.

D．Her concerns for future generations.小题3:What does the author put in her diary now?

A．Notes and beautiful pictures.

B．Special thoughts and feelings.

C．Detailed accounts of daily activities.

D．Descriptions of unforgettable events.小题4:The author comes to realize that to live a meaningful life is________.

A．to experience it

B．to live the present in the future

C．to make memories

D．to give accurate representations of it