Grade 6 Main Idea
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The Impact of Print
Of all the inventions that had an impact on the Chinese culture during medieval times, the most important was printing. Before there was printing, all books were copied by hand. Books were therefore rare and expensive. The Chinese began printing in the A.D. 500s. They carved characters from an entire page on blocks of wood. They then brushed ink over a wooden page and then laid a piece of paper over the block to make a print. In 1045, a Chinese printer invented printing using moveable type; the books that were made using this process helped spread knowledge throughout China, to a degree that had not been possible before.
Main idea – explicitly stated in the first sentence – The most important invention in Chinese culture during medieval times was printing.
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