根据it was in Germany around the year 1450 that a printing press using movable metal type was invented可以得出答案Movable metal type began to be used in printing.

Passage 2

The earliest printed book we know today appeared in China in the year 868, and metal type was in use in Korea at the beginning of the fifteenth century, but it was in Germany around the year 1450 that a printing press using movable metal type was invented.

Capitalism turned printing from an invention into an industry. Right from the start, book printing and publish­ing were organized on capitalist lines. 'The biggest sixteenth- century printer, Plantin of Antwerp, had twenty-four printing presses and employed more than a hundred workers. Only a small fraction of the population was literate, but the pro­duction of books grew at an extraordinary speed. By 1500 some twenty million volumes had already been printed.

The immediate effect of printing was to increase the cir­culation of works that were already popular in the handwritten form, while less popular works went out of circulation. Publishers were interested only in books that would sell fairly quickly in sufficient numbers to cover the costs of production and make a profit. Thus, while printing enormously increased access to books by making cheap, high-volume production possible, it also reduced choice.

The great cultural impact of printing was that it facili­tated the growth of national languages. Most early books were printed in Latin, but the market for Latin was limited, and in its pursuit of larger markets the book trade soon produced translations into the national languages emerging at the time. Printing indeed played a key role in standardizing and stabilizing these lan­guages by fixing them in print, and producing dictionaries and grammar books.

短文2主要讲述印刷机的传播。第12题，在公元868年中国已有第一本印刷成册的书籍，而德国却到1450年左右才发明铅字印刷机。16世纪最大的铅字印刷机，Plantin of Antwerp由24台印刷机组合而成，并需要雇用超过百名人员才能运作；对应第13题。而印刷术产生的立即影响就是将原来只能由手写的书籍文本更加普及并提升知名著作的发行量，对应第14题。除此之外，原来多用拉丁文撰写的书籍，也因为印刷术的普及，使出版商可以以更低的成本印制营利，出版成一般国家或地区人民能理解的语言，以赚取更大利润。因此印刷术对欧洲地区能代表各地国家语言的发展有着重大影响；对应第15题。

根据The biggest sixteenth- century printer, Plantin of Antwerp, had twenty-four printing presses and employed more than a hundred workers可以得出答案It was the biggest printer in the 16th century.

根据The immediate effect of printing was to increase the cir-culation of works that were already popular in the handwritten form, while less popular works went out of circulation可以得出答案It boosted the circulation of popular works.

根据The great cultural impact of printing was that it facili-tated the growth of national languages可以得出答案It promoted the growth of national languages.