The first typewriters were big heavy metal machines that worked a bit like a piano. Have you ever seen the inside of a real piano? You press a key and some levers( 杠杆) make a small tool inside hit just the right piano string to make a note. Early typewriters were similar.They had all these levers with a metal letter at the end of each of them.You had to press a letter key quite hard to make the metal lever fly across and hit the paper.

The first machine did have the letter keys in the order of the letters we learn. But the trouble was that if you hit two keys quickly the levers would jam(卡住). Jams were most likely when the two keys were close together on the keyboard.

Christopher Sholes, an American inventor, succeeded in dealing with the problem.He tried many ways to avoid the need to type two keys that were close together. The best way he could find was similar to the QWERTY keyboard we all use today.

Sholes also made the name of his machine easy to type. He placed on the same line all the letters of the words"type"and "writer".He sold his invention to the Remington Company which built and sold the first successful typewriters.Later, many other kinds of the letter keys have been tried. Some are said to be easier to learn or faster to use. But none has proved good enough to beat QWERTY.

QWERTY was developed for the English language. The keyboard slightly differs around the world. For example AZERTY is commonly used for French, QWERTZ for German,and QZERTY for Italian. Perhaps you can find someone from India, Japan or Korea. Ask them to show you the keyboard they use in their language.

【小题1】What is the author’s purpose in writing the first paragraph?

A．To explain the difference between the typewriter and the piano.

B．To show how the piano influenced the typewriter.

C．To tell why the typewriter was invented.

D．To explain how the early typewriter worked.

【小题2】Why did Christopher Sholes change the order of the letters on the keyboard?

A．To make people type quickly.

B．To solve the jam problem.

C．To help people remember it easily.

D．To put frequently used letters together.

【小题3】What do we know about the QWERTY keyboard from Paragraph 4?

A．It was doubted at first.

B．It still needs to be improved.

C．It's better than other keyboards.

D．It made the Remington Company successful.

【小题4】What is the main idea of the last paragraph?

A．The keyboard is changing over time.

B．The word "QWERTY"is out of date.

C．The QWERTY keyboard is very popular.

D．The keyboard changes with some languages.