单选题 Before the printing press, books could be purchased only in expensive manuscript copies. The printing press produced books that were significantly leas expensive than the manuscript editions. The public's demand for printed books in the first years after the invention of the printing press was many times greater than demand had been for manuscript copies. This increase demonstrates that there was a dramatic jump in the number of people who learned how to read in the years after publishers first started producing books on the printing press.
Which one of the following statements, if true, casts doubt on the argument?

A、 During the first years after the invention of the printing press, letter writing by people who wrote without the assistance of scribes or clerks exhibited a dramatic increase.
B、 Books produced on the printing press are often found with written comments in the margins in the handwriting of the people who owned the books.
C、 In the first years after the printing press was invented, printed books were purchased primarily by people who had always bought and read expensive manuscripts but could afford a greater number of printed books for the same money.
D、 Books that were printed on the printing press in the first years after its invention often circulated among friends in informal reading clubs or libraries.
E、 (E) The first printed books published after the invention of the printing press would have been useless to illiterate people, since the books had virtually no illustrations.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 本题的结论显然是以印刷术出现后印刷版的书的销售增加量与学会读书的人数成比例为前提。(C)表明印刷版图书销售量的增加主要是由那些以前经常买昂贵手抄本的人现在买了许多印刷版的书所引起的，所以完全有可能是人数没变，而平均每人买了更多的书，因此(C)正确。(A)、(B)、(D)和(E)四个选项均为无关选项。