单选题 .  When people print a stamp, any error made on a stamp raises its value to stamp collectors. A mistake on one inexpensive postage stamp has made the stamp worth a million and a half times its original value.
    More than one hundred years ago in the British colony of Mauritius, a small island in the Indian Ocean, the mistake was made. In 1847 an order for stamps was sent to a London printer—Mauritius was to become the fourth country in the world to issue stamps.
    Before the order was filled and delivered, a ball was planned at Mauritius's Government House, and stamps were needed to send out the invitations. A local printer was instructed to copy the design for the stamps. He accidentally inscribed the words "Post Office" instead of "Post Paid" on the several hundred stamps that he printed.
    Today there are only twenty-six of these misprinted stamps left-fourteen One Penny Orange- Reds and twelve Two Penny Blues. Because of the Two Penny Blues' rareness and age, collectors have paid as much as $16,800 for it.1.  Over a century ago, Mauritius ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[考点] 细节题
一个世纪以前，毛里求斯______。
   根据第二段第一句“(这个错误在一百多年前的毛里求斯——印度洋上的一个小岛——还是不列颠殖民地时就产生了。)”可知答案。
[参考译文] 邮票印刷的任何错误对于邮票收藏者来说都是可以增值的。一张廉价邮票上的一点错误就能使邮票的价格变成原来的150万倍。
   这个错误在一百多年前的毛里求斯——印度洋上的一个小岛——还是不列颠殖民地时就产生了。1847年，发行邮票的命令送到了一个伦敦印刷商那里——毛里求斯成为世界上第四个发行邮票的国家。
   命令传达之前，毛里求斯市政厅计划举行一个舞会，需要邮票发出邀请函。当地的一名印刷工被任命复印邮票的设计，不料他不小心把几百张他负责印刷的邮票题名上的“post paid”印成了“post office”。
   今天只剩下26枚这种印刷错误的邮票——14枚橘红色一便士邮票和12枚蓝色的两便士邮票。因为两便士蓝邮票数量稀少加上年代久远，收集者出价高达16,800美元一枚。