单选题
Reading to oneself is a modern activity which was almost unknown to the scholars of the classical and medieval worlds, while during the fifteenth century the term "reading"undoubtedly meant reading aloud. Only during the nineteenth century,【C1】______silent reading become commonplace. One should be【C2】______, however, of assuming that silent reading came about【C3】______because reading aloud is a distraction to others. Examination of factors related to the historical development of silent reading reveals that it became the usual【C4】______of reading for most adult reading tasks mainly because the tasks themselves changed in character. The last century【C5】______a steady gradual increase in literacy, and thus in the number of readers. As readers increased, so the number of potential listeners declined, and【C6】______there was some reduction in the need to read aloud. As reading for the benefit of listeners grew less common,【C7】______came the flourishing of reading as a private activity in such public places as libraries, railway carriages and offices,【C8】______reading aloud would cause distraction to other readers. Towards the end of the century there was still considerable argument over whether books should be used for information or treated respectfully, and【C9】______whether the reading of material such as newspapers was in【C10】______way mentally weakening. Indeed this argument remains with us still in education. However,【C11】______its virtues, the old shared literacy culture had gone and was replaced by the printed mass media on the one hand and by books and periodicals for a specialized readership【C12】______. By the end of the century students were being recommended to【C13】______attitudes to books and to use skills in reading them which were inappropriate,【C14】______not impossible, for the oral reader. The social, cultural, and technological changes in the century had greatly altered 【C15】______the term "reading" implied.