Passage Five

Questions 21-25 are based on the following passage.

  The first books were quite different from the books of today. They were made of baked clay tablets. Some of these tablets that have been found were used in Mesopotamia about fifty-five hundred years ago. The people of that time used symbols to represent their language. When the clay was soft, the symbols were written in the clay. After the tablets were baked, the clay hardened and the messages were permanently preserved. Most of the tablets that have been found are business records, such as deeds to certain lands in the area.

  The Egyptians found a material that was more convenient to write on than clay. They used the bark of the papyrus, a grassy plant that grows wild in the Nile Valley. They pasted layers of this bark together to make long sheets—sometimes over 100 feet long. A wooden roller was attached to each end of the sheet so that a small portion could be read, and then the papyrus could be rolled up a little to reveal a new portion of writing. Because this method was employed, the Egyptian writing was done in columns, reading from top to bottom.

  For centuries, this type of book was used in Greece, Egypt, China and Rome. The Romans made roll books of vellum, a soft parchment made from the skins of young animals such as lambs, kids or calves. About 300 A.D.a new type of book was developed: three or four sheets of vellum were folded and sewn together. Then the ends were cut so that the pages could be turned.

  The Chinese began printing books during the Middle Ages, long before the Europeans. Their printing type was made of baked clay and their books were made of paper—another Chinese invention. The Chinese books looked very much like our modern books. However, the Chinese had little or no contact with Europe at that time, so it is not clear whether the Europeans learned about printing from the Chinese.

  The first known inventor of printing in Europe was Johannes Gutenberg of Germany. The first book printed in his workshop was a Latin Bible. A few copies of this first book still exist. They are now over 500 years old. The Gutenberg Bible was printed on a hand press with type made of lead. Most of the copies were printed on paper, but a few were printed on vellum. The books are about 12 inches wide and 16.5 inches long.

The oldest books found were made of _______ .