题目内容：

Long before the Internet, and even before the telephone, people relied on pen and paper to communicate. It’s a lot different from writing an email because when you make a mistake, you cannot “backspace” your errors away. 1.

Letter writing has been a key means of communication for people throughout history.2. Famous names like Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci graced my history textbooks growing up, with stories of their explorations. Much of what we know about them is through the letters they wrote to people back in Europe.

There were two main reasons why these early explorers wrote letters.3. The other reason for writing letters was to assure and update the people who financed their trips. These so-called sponsors were often noblemen or wealthy people who had a personal interest in world discoveries. Letters from explorers would raise hopes that new lands could bring more riches.

When the British began building colonies (殖民地) in America during the 17th century, these lands were settled by people who sailed across the Atlantic Ocean.4. Their letters were mixed with news of illness as well as details of their exotic (异国的) surroundings.

5. With the widespread use of the Internet, the tiny differences of a person’s handwriting are lost to the cold, typewritten text that comes with an email. A person’s unique signature is reserved for signing a receipt for a credit card payment.

A. Letter writing is just how you travel around the world.

B. You simply cross out your mistakes with your pen and continue writing.

C. The early settlers faced a lot of challenges in the unfamiliar environment.

D. One was a boy from England who liked the same music as me: rock and roll.

E. Four hundred years later, however, we don’t really need to write letters anymore.

F. It played a vital part in the exploration of the ‘"New World”, as America was once known.

G. One was to document for the people back home what they saw as they journeyed through the faraway, mysterious land.