Woodblock printing first appeared in the early Tang period. During the Song dynasty, the technique of block printing was very advanced. Books were     1    (beautiful) printed. Even today the books     2    (print) at the time are valuable and treasured by libraries and book collectors.

However, block printing     3    (be) not very convenient. Every two pages of a book had to be carved on a woodblock, and a big book would require many blocks. Besides, there had to be large places for storing the books.     4     (overcome) these shortcomings, Bi Sheng invented the movable type during the years between 1041 and 1048. One word was carved on one piece of clay,     5     was hardened with fire. Then clay characters were set on     6     iron plate according to the text of a book. Then ink was applied to them and     7    (sheet) of paper spread over them, and the printing was done. Bi Sheng’s invention made printing faster and     8    (easy) than before. Later, movable type of metal and wood was made and widely used.

The technique of printing was gradually known to other Asian countries and Europe. The great influence printing had     9    the advance of civilization is too clear to need any     10    (explain).

2 . It is sometimes thought that the longing for material goods, the need to buy things, is a relatively modern invention.     1     Trade or shopping is certainly an ancient desire, and existed before our ancestors invented writing, laws, cities or farming, even before they used metal to make tools.

Humans are born to trade.     2     Evidence from hunter-gatherers suggests that the exchange of food and other necessary things comes naturally, as well as the ability to keep a record of the credits involved. And once trade begins, the benefits are hard to resist.

Ancient local coastal people in northern Australia traded fish hooks, along a chain of trading partners, with people living 400 miles inland, who cut and polished local stone to make axes (斧子).     3     Finally, both groups of “producers”, by concentrating on things they could produce and exchanging them for other things they needed, benefited as a result.

Trade in the necessities of life, such as food and simple tools, is not really surprising, considering the link between these basic items and survival. What is surprising, though, is that our taste for unnecessary expensive objects also goes back a long way.

In South Africa, 100,000-year-old decorative dyes (染料) have been found in an area where none were produced.     4     Small round pieces of glass 76,000 years old were also found at the same place. The earliest jewellery known to us were not just random findings — they were grouped together in size and had holes like those used for threading onto a necklace.

Archaeologists argue that trade prepared the way for the complex societies in which we live today.     5     However, their modern equivalents — fast cars and expensive clothes — hold the same attraction for us as “trade goods” did for people 100,000 years ago.

3 . In the early days of the Ming Dynasty, that is, early in the 15th century, China was an advanced country in the world, with a booming economy and prosperous culture.    1     Between 1405 and 1433, Zheng He was ordered seven times to make voyages to these countries, known as “Zheng He’s voyages to the west seas”.

In 1405, a huge fleet of more than 300 ships manned by over 27,800 men set sail from Liujia Harbor near Suzhou on a distant voyage under the command of Zheng He.    2     The fleet sailed along China’s coast to Champa close to Vietnam and after crossing the South China Sea, visited Java, Sumatra and reached Sri Lanka finally. On the way back, it sailed along the west coast of India and returned home in 1407.    3    

In all, he had made calls at over 30 countries and territories.    4     No matter what country he visited, he called on the ruler of the land, presenting to him valuable gifts to express China’s sincere desire to develop friendly relations.    5     They sent the emperor zebras, giraffes, shells, elephant ivory and rhinoceros-horn medicine.

The voyages by Zheng He strengthened the friendly relations between China and other countries in Asia and Africa and led to cultural and economic exchange between them. Therefore, his expeditions could rightfully be called “one of greatest achievements in mankind’s history of navigation”.