One should be careful, however, of supposing that silent reading came about simply because reading aloud is distraction to others. Examination of reasons connected with the historical development of silent reading shows that it became the usual mode of reading for most adult reading tasks mainly because the tasks themselves changed in character.

　　The last century saw a gradual increase in literacy (读写能力) and thus in the number of readers. As readers increased, so the number of listeners dropped, and thus there was some reduction in the need to read aloud. As reading for the benefit of listeners grew less common, so came the popularity of reading as a private activity in such public places as libraries, trains and offices, where reading aloud would disturb other readers in a way.

　　Towards the end of the century there was still heated argument over whether books should be used for information or treated respectfully, and over whether the reading of material such as newspapers was in some way mentally weakening. Indeed this argument remains with us still in education. However, whatever its ad vantages, the old shared literacy culture had gone and was replaced by the printed mass media on the one hand and by books and magazines for a specialized readership on the other.

　　By the end of the century students were being advised to have some new ideas of books and to use skills in reading them which were not proper, if not impossible, for the oral reader. The social，cultural, and technological developments in the century had greatly changed what the term "reading" referred to.

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