SECTION BPASSAGESDirections: In this section, you will hear several passages. Listen to th

SECTION B PASSAGES

Directions: In this section, you will hear several passages. Listen to the passages carefully and then answer the questions that follow.

听力原文： Any mistake made in the printing of a stamp raises its value to stamp collectors. A mistake on one cheap postage stamp has made the stamp worth a million and a half times its original value. The mistake was made more than a hundred years ago in the British colony of Mauritius, a small island in the Indian Ocean. In 1847 an order for stamps was sent to a London printer--Mauritius was to become the fourth country in the world to issue stamps.

Before the order was filled and delivered, a ball was planned at Mauritius Government House, and stamps were needed to send out the invitations. A local printer was instructed to copy the design for the stamps. He wrote by chance the words "Post Office" instead of "Post Paid" on the several hundred stamps that he printed.

Today there are only 26 of these wrongly printed stamps left I fourteen One Penny Orange-Reds and twelve Two Penny Blues. Because of the Two Penny Blue's rareness and age, collectors have paid as much as ＄16,800 for it.

In 1847 most countries of the world were

A．not yet using postage stamps.

B．collecting valuable stamps.

C．buying stamps from Mauritius.

D．printing their own stamps.