Reading Practice
Making Copier
At first, nobody bought Chester Carlson’s strange idea. But
trillions of documents later, his
invention is the biggest thing in printing since Gutenberg
A
Copying is the engine of civilization: culture is behavior
duplicated. The oldest copier
invented by people is language, by which an idea of yours
becomes an idea of mine. The
second great copying machine was writing. When the Sumerians
transposed spoken words
into stylus marks on clay tablets more than 5,000 years ago,
the hugely extended the
human network that language had created. Writing freed
copying from the chain of living
contact. It made ideas permanent, portable and endlessly
reproducible.
B
Until Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in the
mid-1400s, producing a book in
an edition of more than one generally meant writing it out
again. Printing with moveable
type was not copying, however. Gutenberg couldn’t take a
document that already existed,
feed it into his printing press and run off facsimiles. The
first true mechanical copier was
manufactured in 1780, when James Watt, who is better known
as the inventor of the
modern steam engine, created the copying press. Few people
today know what a copying
press was, but you may have seen one in an antique store,
where it was perhaps called a
book press. A user took a document freshly written in
special ink, placed a moistened sheet
of translucent paper against the inked surface and squeezed
the two sheets together in the
press, causing some of the ink from the original to
penetrate the second sheet, which could
then be read by turning it over and looking through its
back. The high cost prohibits the
widespread use of this copier.
C
Among the first modem copying machines, introduced in 1950
by 3M, was the Thermo-Fax,
and it made a copy by shining infrared light through an
original document and a sheet of
paper that had been coated with heat-sensitive chemicals.
Competing manufacturers soon
introduced other copying technologies and marketed machines
called Dupliton, Dial-AMatic Autostat, Verifax, Copease and Copymation. These
machines and their successors
were welcomed by secretaries, who had no other means of
reproducing documents in
hand, but each had serious drawbacks. All required expensive
chemically treated papers.
And all made copies that smelled bad, were hard to read,
didn’t last long and tended to curl
up into tubes. The machines were displaced, beginning in the
late 1800s, by a combination
of two 19th century inventions: the typewriter and carbon
paper. For those reasons,
copying presses were standard equipment in offices for
nearly a century and a half.
D
None of those machines is still manufactured today. They
were all made obsolete by a
radically different machine, which had been developed by an
obscure photographic-supply
company. That company had been founded in 1906 as the Haloid
Company and is known
today as the Xerox Corporation. In 1959, it introduced an
office copier called the Haloid
Xerox 914, a machine that, unlike its numerous competitors,
made sharp, permanent
copies on ordinary paper-a huge breakthrough. The process,
which Haloid called
xerography (based on Greek words meaning “dry” and
“writing”), was so unusual and
nonnutritive that physicists who visited the drafty
warehouses where the first machines
were built sometimes expressed doubt that it was even
theoretically feasible.
E
Remarkably, xerography was conceived by one person- Chester
Carlson, a shy, softspoken patent attorney, who grew up in almost unspeakable
poverty and worked his way
through junior college and the California Institute of
Technology. Chester Carlson was born
in Seattle in 1906. His parents-Olof Adolph Carlson and
Ellen Josephine Hawkins—had
grown up on neighboring farms in Grove City, Minnesota, a
tiny Swedish farming
community about 75 miles west of Minneapolis. Compare with
competitors, Carlson was
not a normal inventor in 20-century. He made his discovery
in solitude in 1937 and offered
it to more than 20 major corporations, among them IBM,
General Electric, Eastman Kodak
and RCA. All of them turned him down, expressing what he
later called “an enthusiastic
lack of interest” and thereby passing up the opportunity to
manufacture what Fortune
magazine would describe as “the most successful product ever
marketed in America.”
F
Carlson’s invention was indeed a commercial triumph.
Essentially overnight, people began
making copies at a rate that was orders of magnitude higher
than anyone had believed
possible. And the rate is still growing. In fact, most
documents handled by a typical
American office worker today are produced xerographically,
either on copiers manufactured
by Xerox and its competitors or on laser printers, which
employ the same process (and
were invented, in the 1970s, by a Xerox researcher). This
year, the world will produce more
than three trillion xerographic copies and laser-printed
pages—about 500 for every human
on earth.
G
Xerography eventually made Carlson a very wealthy man. (His
royalties amounted to
something like a 16th of a cent for every Xerox copy made,
worldwide, through 1965.)
Nevertheless, he lived simply. He never owned a second home
or a second car, and his
wife had to urge him not to buy third-class train tickets
when he traveled in Europe. People
who knew him casually seldom suspected that he was rich or
even well-to-do; when
Carlson told an acquaintance he worked at Xerox, the man
assumed he was a factory
worker and asked if he belonged to a union. “His possessions
seemed to be composed of
the number of things he could easily do without,” his second
wife said. He spent the last
years of his life quietly giving most of his fortune to
charities. When he died in 1968, among
the eulogizers was the secretary-general of the United
Nations.
Questions 1-6
Do the following statements agree with the information given
in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
1..................... The earliest languages were recorded
on papyrus.
2..................... when applying Johann Gutenberg’s
printing machine, it requires lots of
training.
3..................... James Watt invented a modem steam
engine before he made his first
mechanical copier.
4..................... using the Dupliton copiers and
follower versions are very costly.
5..................... The typewriters with carbon papers
were taken place of very soon because
they were not sold well
6..................... The Haloid Xerox 914 model also
required specially treated paper for
making copies.
Questions 7-13
Reading Passage.
Write your answers in boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet.
Calson, unlike a 20-century 7....................., like to
work on his own. In 1937, he
unsuccessfully invited 20 major 8..................... to
make his discovery. However, this action
was not welcome among shareholders at the beginning, all of
them
9...................... Eventually, Calson’s creation was
undeniably a 10...................... Thanks for
the discovery of Xerography, Calson became a very
11..................... person. Even so, his
life remains as simple as before. It looks as if he can live
without his 12..................... At the
same time, he gave lots of his money to
13......................
Solution:
1. FALSE
8. corporations
2. NOT GIVEN 9. turned him down
3. NOT GIVEN 10.
commercial triumph
4. TRUE 11.
wealthy
5. FALSE 12. possessions
6. FALSE 13.
charities
7. inventor
Questions 1–6 (True/False/Not Given)
-
The earliest languages were recorded on papyrus.
- Answer: False
- Explanation: The text states that the Sumerians recorded spoken words into stylus marks on clay tablets, not papyrus. (Paragraph A)
-
When applying Johann Gutenberg’s printing machine, it requires lots of training.
- Answer: Not Given
- Explanation: The passage mentions Gutenberg’s printing press but does not discuss the training required to use it. (Paragraph B)
-
James Watt invented a modern steam engine before he made his first mechanical copier.
- Answer: Not Given
- Explanation: While James Watt is known for inventing the steam engine, the passage does not clarify if this occurred before his work on the copier. (Paragraph B)
-
Using the Dupliton copiers and follower versions are very costly.
- Answer: True
- Explanation: The text mentions that these machines required expensive chemically treated papers. (Paragraph C)
-
The typewriters with carbon papers were taken place of very soon because they were not sold well.
- Answer: False
- Explanation: Typewriters and carbon paper displaced earlier copying machines due to their convenience, not poor sales. (Paragraph C)
-
The Haloid Xerox 914 model also required specially treated paper for making copies.
- Answer: False
- Explanation: The Haloid Xerox 914 made copies on ordinary paper, which was a major breakthrough. (Paragraph D)
Questions 7–13 (Fill in the blanks)
-
Carlson, unlike a 20-century ___, liked to work on his own.
- Answer: inventor
- Explanation: Carlson is described as working alone on his invention in 1937. (Paragraph E)
-
In 1937, he unsuccessfully invited 20 major ___ to make his discovery.
- Answer: corporations
- Explanation: Carlson offered his invention to corporations like IBM and General Electric, all of which rejected it. (Paragraph E)
-
However, this action was not welcome among shareholders at the beginning, all of them ___.
- Answer: turned him down
- Explanation: The passage states that all the corporations showed “an enthusiastic lack of interest.” (Paragraph E)
-
Eventually, Carlson’s creation was undeniably a ___.
- Answer: commercial triumph
- Explanation: The invention became an overwhelming success in the market. (Paragraph F)
-
Thanks to the discovery of xerography, Carlson became a very __ person.
- Answer: wealthy
- Explanation: Carlson earned royalties and became rich, although he lived simply. (Paragraph G)
-
Even so, his life remains as simple as before. It looks as if he can live without his ___.
- Answer: possessions
- Explanation: Carlson’s possessions were minimal, and he avoided extravagant purchases. (Paragraph G)
-
At the same time, he gave lots of his money to ___.
- Answer: charities
- Explanation: Carlson donated most of his fortune to charities before his death. (Paragraph G)
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