The 4th century also marked the culmination of a gradual process, begun about the 1st century, in which the inconvenient scroll was replaced by the rectangular codex (Latin for "book"), the direct ancestor of the modern book. The codex, as first used by the Greeks and Romans for business accounts or school work, was a small, ringed notebook consisting of two or more wooden tablets covered with wax, which could be marked with a stylus, smoothed over, and reused many times. Additional leaves, made of parchment, were sometimes inserted between the tablets.
- culmination [kʌlmiˈneiʃ(ə)n] n.顶点
- gradual [ˈɡrædjuəl] adj. 逐渐的
- inconvenient [ˌɪnkənˈvi:njənt] adj.不方便的
- scroll [skrəul] n. 书卷
- rectangular [rekˈtæŋɡjulə] adj. 矩形的
- codex [ˈkəudeks] n. 抄本(plural：codices[ˈkəudisi:z])
- ancestor [ˈænsistə] n.祖先
- account [əˈkaunt] n. 账目
- tablet [ˈtæblit] n. 写字板
- wax [wæks] n.蜡
- stylus [ˈstailəs] n. (古人刻写蜡板的)尖笔
- smooth over [smu:ð - ˈəuvə] v. 擦除
- leaf [li:f] n. 书页
- parchment [ˈpɑ:tʃmənt] n. 羊皮纸
- insert [inˈsə:t] v. 插入，夹进
