Read carefully the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
The story of
libraries goes back beyond the idea of books as printed today. By about 3500
BC, when it is believed that writing was invented, mass was trying to record
what le had done so that others would know of his actions. He first scratched
his ideas on walls or pieces of stone, but these things were not easy to handle
or move.
One group of
people, the Sumerians, developed a writing system and recorded their messages
on clay tablets. These tablets are easily marred or destroyed, so it became
necessary to collect and protect them. Archaeologists have shown that, by 2700
BC, the Sumerians had established temple, private and government libraries to
hold the tablets. One of the most famous of those libraries was located at Nineveh.
It was built after Sumeria was conquered by Babylonia. The Babylonian King,
Assur-banipal of Assyria built the library at Nineveh. The library contained
about 30,000 tablets.
In another part
of the world, at about the same time, another civilization was developing in
ancient Egypt. The Egyptians invented a flexible writing material made from
papyrus plant. The material was pressed into a sheet, and a reed brush pen, or
calamus, and ink were used to record on it. The style of writing which took the
form of pictures, is known as hieroglyphic. The sheets of papyrus were wound in
long rolls around knobbed sticks, and placed in chests or in pigeonholed shelves
within the library.
Perhaps the most
famous library of that early day was at Alexandria. It was established in about
300 BC during the Greek rule in Egypt. It was estimated that there were as many
as 700,000 papyrus rolls in the library by the mid-1st Century BC. The contents
of the papyrus rolls were edited, and a bibliography of Greek literature was
compiled.
Questions:
1. How did many
try to express his ideas before writing was invented?
2. What were the
writing materials used by man at first?
3. Who were the
earliest people to develop the system of writing?
4. Why did
Sumerians feel it necessary to establish libraries?
5. Who built the
library at Nineveh?
6. What was the
writing system developed in ancient Egypt?
7. Why is the
style of writing developed in ancient Egypt called hieroglyphic?
8. Which one of
the following does the passage say?
The system of writing was first developed
by
(i) the Egyptians,
(ii) the Sumerians
(iii) both the Egyptians and the
Sumerians almost simultaneously.
9. Find out from
the above passage which have the following meanings :
(i) folded or
wrapped Closely
(ii) a list of
books containing information about their subjects, authors, etc.
(iii) united in
a group.
