The first newspaper was written by hand and put up on walls in public places. The earliest daily newspaper was started in Rome in 59 BC. In the 700s the world’s first printed newspaper was published. Europe didn’t have a regularly printed newspaper until 1609, when one was started in Germany.

The first regularly published newspaper in English was printed in Amsterdam in 1620. In 1621, an English newspaper was started in London and was published once a week. The first daily English newspaper was the Daily Courant, which came out in March 1702.

In 1690, Benjamin Harris printed the first American newspaper in Boston .But not long after it was first published, the government stopped the paper. In 1704, John Campbell started the Boston Newspaper, the first newspaper published daily in the American colonies（殖民地）. By 1760, the colonies had more than thirty daily newspapers.There are now about 1, 800 daily papers in the United States.

Today, as a group, newspapers in English have the largest circulation (发行量)in the world .But the largest circulation for a newspaper is that of the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun . It sells more than eleven million copies every year.

小题1:The first regularly printed European newspaper started in ________.

A．Rome in 59 BC

B．Germany in 1609

C．Amsterdam in 1620

D．England in 1621小题2:The first daily newspaper in English started in _________.

A．1620

B．1621

C．1590

D．1702小题3:What does the author want to inform us?

A．History of newspapers

B．History of daily newspapers

C．The beginning of newspapers

D．On reading newspapers