A
When the designer and typographer(排印工) Marcin Wichary chanced upon a tiny museum just outside Barcelona five years ago,the experience tipped his interest in the history of technology into an obsession(痴迷) with a very particular part of it:the keyboard.
“I have never seen so many typewriters under one roof.Not even close,” he shared on the Internet at the time.“At this point,I literally have tears in my eyes.I’m not kidding.This feels like a miracle.”
He’d had a discovery while wandering through the exhibit:Each key on a keyboard has its own stories.And these stories are not just about computing technology,but also about the people who designed,used,or otherwise interacted with the keyboards.
Take the backspace key for example,he explains,“I like that the concept of backspace was originally just that—a space going backward.We are used to it erasing now,but for a hundred years,erasing was its own incredibly complex effort.You needed to master a Comet eraser,or Wite-Out,or strange correction tapes,and possibly all of the above...or give up and start from scratch whenever you made a small mistake in typing.”
The deeper he researched,the more obsessive he became.Amazed that no comprehensive books existed on the history of keyboards,he decided to create his own.When not working at his day job as the design leader for the design software company Figma,he began producing ShiftHappens,a two-volume,1,216-page hardcover book—and raised over $750,000 for the project on Kickstarter in March of 2023.Wichary was only a bit surprised by the support and the keyboard’s wide appeal.As he points out,“It’s such a crucial device that occupies a lot of our waking life.”
1.After the museum experience,Wichary’s interest in technology .
A.took off
B.died out
C.grew stronger
D.became more concrete
2.What did Wichary discover while admiring the keyboards?
A.The stories behind them.
B.The wisdom of humans.
C.The secret of the keyboards.
D.The history of technology.
3.What does Wichary want to tell us about the backspace key in paragraph 4?
A.It is a simple but powerful key.
B.It can be used to move back one space.
C.It is the result of long-term improvement.
D.It allows people to make mistakes when typing.
4.Why did Wichary write his own book?
A.To fill a gap.
B.To get famous.
C.To make money.
D.To record history.
