TOEFL iBT Integrated Writing Task
Reading Passage
The library at Alexandria was said to have been a marvel, the greatest
collection of scholarship in the ancient world. It was founded by
Ptolemy I, the general that Alexander installed as ruler of the city he
named after himself. It was Ptolemy’son, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, who
had the vision of expanding the library to make the largest collection
imaginable.
Under Ptolemy II and those who followed, the library was expanded
tremendously. Ptolemy’s vision was to create a library with every Greek
work ever written as well as with as many works from other parts of the
Western world as could be gathered together. The number of volumen, or
scrolls, in the library has been estimated at anywhere between 300,000
and 700,000.
A huge number of people were employed in preparing scrolls for the
library, inasmuch as each scroll to enter the library had to be copied
by hand. Manuscripts were bought or borrowed or taken from all over the
western world to be copied and placed in the library (although it was
rather common to copy an original manuscript and then return the copy
to the owner and keep the original in the library). Ptolemy II often
asked for manuscripts from foreign powers in return for traded goods,
and manuscripts were often demanded from citizens to pay debts to the
government. In addition, any time that manuscripts were found on
trading ships in the port at Alexandria, the manuscripts were taken and
copied and added to the library. It was in these ways that so many
manuscripts were collected in the library at Alexandria.
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