参考答案

正确答案：C
解析：根据题干关键词Stanford定位到原文第四段第一、二句：Inevitably, the few remaining copies of the books are left to decay slowly or are lost to fires, floods and other disasters. While I was at Stanford in 1998, floods damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of books. 上文提到1923年前的图书都逐渐被人忘记、丢失，本段首句承接上文，说仅存的几册书又难逃水灾火患，并用1998年斯坦福大学的水灾为例进行说明，C项符合文意。