填空题Directions:In, this section, there is a short passage with
5 questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer
the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words on Answer
Sheet 2. Look at the keyboard of any standard typewriter
or computer. "Q", "W", "E" ," R","T" and "Y" are the first six letters. Who
decided on this arrangement of the letters.'? And why? People
tried for centuries to invent the typewriter. In 1714 in England, Henry Mill
filed a patent for a machine called An Artificial Machine or Method for the
Impressing or Transcribing of Letters, singly or progressively one after
another, as in writing, whereby all writing whatsoever may be engrossed in paper
or parchment so neat and exact as not to be distinguished from print. That
machine probably didn't sell because no one could remember its name!
The first practical typewriter was patented in the United States in 1868
by Christopher Latham Sholes. His machine was known as the typewriter. It had a
movable carriage, a lever for turning paper from line to line, and a keyboard on
which the letters were arranged in alphabetical order. But
Sholes had a problem. On his first model, his" ABC" key arrangement caused the
keys to jam when the typist worked quickly. Sholes didn't know how to keep the
keys from sticking, so his solution was to keep the typist from typing too fast.
Sholes asked his brother-in-law to rearrange the keyboard so that the commonest
letters were not so close together and the type bars would come from opposite
directions. Thus they would not clash together and jam the machine. The new
arrangement was the QWERTY arrangement typists use today. Of course, Sholes
claimed that the new arrangement was scientific and would add speed and
efficiency. The only efficiency it added was to slow the typist down, since
almost any word in the English language required the typist' s fingers to cover
more distance on the keyboard. The advantages of the typewriter
outweighed the disadvantages of the keyboard. Typists memorized the crazy letter
arrangement, and the typewriter became a huge success. By the time typists
had memorized the new arrangement of letters and built their speed, typewriter
technology had improved, and the keys didn't stick as badly as they had at
first.
填空题
We know from the passage that the inventor of the first practical typewriter is ______.
填空题
Why does the author think the machine invented by Henry Mill could not be sold?
填空题
It is inferred that the QWERTY arrangement of the keyboard keeps ______.
填空题
Why did Sholes decide to make the QWERTY arrangement of the keyboard?