Single correct option
Read the paragraph and choose the option that best captures its essence.
The conventional history of the printing press credits Gutenberg with democratizing knowledge almost overnight, but the diffusion was far slower and more uneven than the popular story suggests. For over a century after movable type reached Europe, literacy rates in most regions barely moved, book prices remained beyond ordinary reach, and the content actually printed skewed heavily toward religious and legal texts controlled by existing authorities rather than toward material that challenged them. The press expanded the capacity to copy text; it took separate, slower changes in schooling, economics and institutions to expand who actually read it.
The conventional history of the printing press credits Gutenberg with democratizing knowledge almost overnight, but the diffusion was far slower and more uneven than the popular story suggests. For over a century after movable type reached Europe, literacy rates in most regions barely moved, book prices remained beyond ordinary reach, and the content actually printed skewed heavily toward religious and legal texts controlled by existing authorities rather than toward material that challenged them. The press expanded the capacity to copy text; it took separate, slower changes in schooling, economics and institutions to expand who actually read it.
- A. Gutenberg's press was an overnight success that immediately democratized knowledge across Europe.
- B. The printing press mainly benefited religious and legal authorities and never reached ordinary readers.
- C. Printing expanded copying capacity, but wider readership required separate, slower changes in schooling, economics and institutions.
- D. Literacy rates rose rapidly across Europe as soon as movable type was introduced.
Show answer and solution
Answer: (C) Printing expanded copying capacity, but wider readership required separate, slower changes in schooling, economics and institutions.
The paragraph explicitly distinguishes the press's technical achievement (copying capacity) from the separate, slower social changes needed for wider readership. Option 3 captures this distinction; options 1 and 4 contradict the 'slower and more uneven' diffusion described; option 2 overstates the point, since the paragraph says content 'skewed heavily' toward controlled texts, not that ordinary readers were entirely excluded forever.
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