| Questions 30-39
 
 
 
 The lack of printing regulations and the unenforceabiliy of British copyright law
 
 
 in the American colonies made it possible for colonial printers occasionally to act as
 
 
 publishers. Although they rarely undertook major publishing project because it was
 
 
 difficult to sell books as cheaply as they could be imported from Europe, printers in
 
 
 (5) Philadelphia did publish work that required only small amounts of capital, paper, and
 
 
 type. Broadsides could be published with minimal financial risk. Consisting of only one
 
 
 sheet of paper and requiring small amounts of type, broadsides involved lower investments
 
 
 of capital than longer works. Furthermore, the broadside format lent itselt to subjects of
 
 
 high, if temporary, interest, enabling them to meet with ready sale. If the broadside printer
 
 
 (10) miscalculated, however, and produced a sheet that did not sell, it was not likely to be a
 
 
 major loss, and the printer would know this immediately, There would be no agonizing
 
 
 wait with large amounts of capital tied up, books gathering dust on the shelves, and creditors
 
 
 impatient for payment
 
 
 In addition to broadsides, books and pamphlets, consisting mainly of political tracts,
 
 
 (15) catechisms, primers, and chapbooks were relatively inexpensive to print and to buy.
 
 
 Chapbook were pamphlet-sized books, usually containing popular tales, ballads, poems,
 
 
 short plays, and jokes, small, both in formal and number of pages, they were generally
 
 
 bound simply, in boards (a form of cardboard) or merely stitched in paper wrappers (a
 
 
 sewn antecedent of modern-day paperbacks). Pamphlets and chapbooks did not require
 
 
 (20) fine paper or a great deal of type to produce they could thus be printed in large, costeffective
 
 
 editions and sold cheaply.
 
 
 By far, the most appealing publishing investments were to be found in small books that
 
 
 had proven to be steady sellers, providing a reasonably reliable source of income for the
 
 
 publisher. They would not, by nature, be highly topical or political, as such publications
 
 
 (25) would prove of fleeting interest. Almanacs, annual publications that contained information
 
 
 on astronomy and weather patterns arranged according to the days, week, and months of
 
 
 a given year, provided the perfect steady seller because their information pertained to the
 
 
 locale in which they would be used 
 
 
 39. All of the following are defined in the passage EXCEPT
 
 
 (A) "Broadsides" (line 6)
 
 
 (B) "catechisms" (line 15)
 
 
 (C) "chapbooks"(linel6)
 
 
 (D) "Almanacs" (line 25)
 
 
 
 
 答案是B,没有问题 
 
 
 但是我开始选的是A,觉得“Broadsides could be published with minimal financial risk”怎么回事解释呢?? 
 
 
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