The Story of Paper

It is hard to imagine modern life without paper. We use it for books, letters, money, boxes, and countless other things every day. Yet for most of human history, paper did not exist, and writing was done on materials that were heavy, costly, or hard to make. The invention of paper was one of the most important steps in the （ 1 ） of human knowledge.

Paper was first made in China about two thousand years ago. According to the story, a government official mixed together old cloth, tree bark, and water, and then pressed the wet material into thin, flat sheets. （ 2 ） this new method, paper was far cheaper and lighter than anything that had been used before. For a long time, the Chinese kept the secret of how to make it, but slowly the knowledge spread westward to other lands.

Today, most paper is made from trees, and the world uses an enormous amount of it. Because making paper uses many trees and a great deal of water, people are now trying hard to waste less of it. （ 3 ）, more and more used paper is now collected and recycled into new paper, which helps to save forests. Even in our modern world of computers and phones, paper continues to play an important part in daily life. Many people still prefer to read a printed book or to write important notes by hand. Paper is also used in ways we rarely think about, such as in tea bags, cardboard boxes, and even some kinds of clothing. From an ancient Chinese workshop to the shelves of every shop today, the simple sheet of paper has shaped human life in countless ways.