Every morning, my father buys a newspaper on his way to work. Every day, I open my books   (1)   and start my lessons. Every evening, my mother   (2)   magazines at home. And very night, I look at the photos of David Beckham and Yao Ming on my bedroom wall before I go to sleep. Can we imagine life without paper or printing?

Paper was first created about 2,000 years ago in China. After its invention, people started to write on paper to make a book. In those days, books were only produced one   (3)    by hand. As a result, there were not many books, and they were expensive. So, few people had the    (4)    to learn to read.

Printing was invented in China during the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Later, developments in printing made it    (5)    to produce books more quickly and cheaply. A trade in books resulted, and more people learnt to read. Knowledge and ideas spread    (6)    than ever before.    (7)   , we can compare the invention of paper and printing to the introduction of the Internet in the twentieth century.

Although the Internet is still young, it is growing very fast, and may become more powerful than printing. A much larger    (8)    of information can be stored on the Internet than in books. Someone with an Internet connection can find information    (9)    more easily than they can find in printed forms. And the machines we use to read it are now small and light, often smaller and lighter than a single book.

Computers and the Internet are used in classrooms now, and newspapers and magazines are already read online. So what direction will traditional printing take in the future? Will books be   (10)    by the Internet? Let’s wait and see.