单项选择题

The word "brick" did not appear in the English Language before the fifteenth century. Bricks may have been known in Britain before then, but they were no common enough to be mentioned by any writer. We know that they were used in ancient Egypt, in India, and in the Roman Empire; they were used again in parts of Europe; but there is a strange gap in the history of brick making which left Britain, at least, without bricks for building for several hundred years. When they did arrive in Britain, it was in a very strange way. In the fifteenth century Britain’’s wool trade was still flourishing and shiploads of wool were exported to other countries, among them Germany and Holland. These ships would have had to return empty, unless their captains were able to pick up a return cargo, and no captain likes an empty ship. For another thing, it is a great waste of space. Rather than return home with an empty ship the captains would fill up with anything, and at about this time somebody had the idea of filling up with bricks. These were already being used extensively in Holland and Germany, where the brick makers were anxious to sell their surplus stocks. These bricks must have been a godsend to the builders of London and southeast England. There was very little building stone in mat part of the country, and stocks of good building timber (especially from oak-trees) were running low. Bricks were first used for town houses and for humble cottages. Before me end of the fifteenth century the most enterprising (有魄力的) builders had set up their own brickworks wherever there was a good supply of the right kind of clay, and soon bricks were almost the commonest building material in the country. Why did the author say that the way that brick arrived in Britain was strange