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Because the pencil (1) become such a fundamental part of our lives, it's difficult to remember that
people (2) not been using them forever. Like other products of human ingenuity, pencils had to
be invented.
Before the first half of the sixteenth century, people (3) to use pens to write with and brushes to
paint with. It (4) also possible to use a metal stick to make faint marks on paper. However, up to
that point no one (5) found an easy way to make marks that could be erased. Then, some time
before 1565, a large deposit of the chemical, graphite, (6) found near Borrowdale in Cumbria,
England. The locals (7) use this graphite (a kind of soft black rock) to mark sheep. Soon, tales of
this unusual soft substance (8) spread to artists around the world, who were eager to use it to
produce works of art.
Graphite is soft and dirty, and in order to write or draw with it, it (9) to have to be covered in
something, such as sheepskin or string. People had (10) trying to improve the pencil for some
time before manufacturers in Italy came up with the idea of enclosing the graphite in a wooden case. The modern
pencil was born.
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