IELTS Reading 練習 8 印刷機的發明（含題目+詳解）

The Invention of the Printing Press

IELTS · 雅思備考 · 11 min read · 2026-04-25

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閱讀前先看 Before you read

主題: Gutenberg and the European printing revolution
文章重點: Around 1450, Gutenberg combined existing technologies into a printing press that transformed European literacy, religion and economic life within a few generations.
難度: 中等 · Intermediate
建議時間: 18 分鐘

重要單字

movable type — individual cast letters that can be rearranged / 活字
scribe — a person who copied books by hand / 抄寫員
monastery — a religious community where monks live / 修道院
literacy — the ability to read and write / 識字能力
standardised — made the same according to a fixed standard / 標準化的
censorship — official control over published material / 審查制度

30 秒快速理解 30-second summary

Although movable-type printing existed in East Asia much earlier, Johannes Gutenberg developed his European press around 1450 by combining a screw press, oil-based ink and cast metal letters. His 42-line Bible appeared by 1455. Within fifty years, presses spread to over 200 cities and printed 20 million books. Cheap books widened literacy, helped launch the Protestant Reformation and reshaped urban trades, while raising early anxieties similar to those about the modern internet.

逐段練習 Read paragraph by paragraph

1 段落 1 — Gutenberg combines existing tools

Although movable-type printing had existed in Korea and China since the eleventh century, the device that would transform European society was developed independently around 1450 by Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith in the German city of Mainz. Gutenberg combined several pre-existing technologies — a screw press adapted from wine production, oil-based ink, and individually cast metal letters — into a system that could reproduce text at unprecedented speed and consistency.

本段重要單字 (3)

independently — separately, without copying others / 獨立地
goldsmith — a craftsperson who makes objects from gold / 金匠
unprecedented — never done or known before / 史無前例的

Quick Check · 隨堂小測

According to the paragraph, what was Gutenberg's main achievement?

A. He invented the screw press for the first time.
B. He combined several existing technologies into one printing system.
C. He brought movable-type printing back from Korea.

看答案 · Show answer

答案：B — B. He combined several existing technologies into one printing system.

The paragraph says Gutenberg "combined several pre-existing technologies" — the screw press, ink and cast letters all already existed.

2 段落 2 — Books before and after the press

Before Gutenberg, books in Europe were overwhelmingly produced by scribes, typically monks working in monastery scriptoria. Copying a single Bible by hand might occupy a skilled scribe for over a year, and the resulting book was prohibitively expensive. Gutenberg's workshop produced its famous 42-line Bible around 1455 in a print run estimated at 180 copies — a quantity it would have taken a scriptorium several decades to match. Within fifty years of this first edition, presses had been established in more than two hundred European cities, and an estimated twenty million printed books were in circulation.

本段重要單字 (3)

scriptoria — rooms in monasteries used for copying books / 繕寫室
prohibitively — so much that it stops something happening / 高得令人卻步地
edition — a particular printed version of a book / 版本

Quick Check · 隨堂小測

Roughly how many printed books were in circulation 50 years after Gutenberg's Bible?

A. Around 180.
B. About 200.
C. An estimated 20 million.

看答案 · Show answer

答案：C — C. An estimated 20 million.

The paragraph states that within fifty years "an estimated twenty million printed books were in circulation". 180 was the size of the first print run, not the total.

3 段落 3 — Social consequences

The social consequences were profound. Literacy, previously confined largely to clergy and aristocracy, began a long expansion as cheaper books reached merchants and artisans. Standardised editions allowed scholars in different regions to refer to identical pages, accelerating scientific exchange. The Protestant Reformation, launched by Martin Luther in 1517, is widely regarded as the first mass movement enabled by print: his 95 Theses were reproduced and distributed across German-speaking Europe within weeks, a pace that would have been impossible under scribal conditions.

本段重要單字 (3)

clergy — religious officials such as priests / 神職人員
aristocracy — people of the highest social class / 貴族
artisan — a skilled manual worker / 工匠

Quick Check · 隨堂小測

Why does the writer mention Luther's 95 Theses?

A. To show that print could spread ideas at a speed scribes could not match.
B. To prove that Luther personally owned a printing press.
C. To suggest the Reformation had nothing to do with printing.

看答案 · Show answer

答案：A — A. To show that print could spread ideas at a speed scribes could not match.

The 95 Theses are an example: they spread "across German-speaking Europe within weeks, a pace that would have been impossible under scribal conditions".

4 段落 4 — Economy, fear and acceptance

Economic structures also shifted. Printers and booksellers formed new urban trades; paper mills expanded to meet demand; copyright and censorship laws were drafted in response to the flood of material. Not all reactions were welcoming. Some contemporaries worried that cheap books would spread misinformation or destabilise political order — anxieties that anticipate modern debates about the internet. Yet by the seventeenth century, print had become so embedded in European life that its absence was scarcely imaginable.

本段重要單字 (3)

destabilise — to make something less stable or secure / 使動搖、破壞穩定
misinformation — wrong or misleading information / 錯誤資訊
embedded — firmly fixed within something / 深植、根植

Quick Check · 隨堂小測

What modern debate does the writer compare early fears about printing to?

A. Debates about mechanised farming.
B. Debates about television and radio.
C. Debates about the internet.

看答案 · Show answer

答案：C — C. Debates about the internet.

The paragraph explicitly says these were "anxieties that anticipate modern debates about the internet".

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閱讀前先看 Before you read

30 秒快速理解 30-second summary

逐段練習 Read paragraph by paragraph

1 段落 1 — Gutenberg combines existing tools

2 段落 2 — Books before and after the press

3 段落 3 — Social consequences

4 段落 4 — Economy, fear and acceptance

每天 5 分鐘的系統練習

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