Single correct option
Four sentences (1, 2, 3, 4) form a paragraph, but one additional sentence, marked X, has been left out. Choose the option that places X most logically within the paragraph.
1. The printing press is often credited with single-handedly triggering the spread of literacy across early modern Europe.
2. Yet literacy rates rose unevenly across regions, and in some areas remained low for generations after presses were established.
3. Historians increasingly point to factors such as religious reform movements, which encouraged direct scripture reading, and expanding urban commerce, which required basic numeracy and record-keeping.
4. The press, in this fuller account, was less a sole cause than one enabling condition among several that together produced rising literacy.
X: This suggests that the technology alone cannot fully explain the change.
1. The printing press is often credited with single-handedly triggering the spread of literacy across early modern Europe.
2. Yet literacy rates rose unevenly across regions, and in some areas remained low for generations after presses were established.
3. Historians increasingly point to factors such as religious reform movements, which encouraged direct scripture reading, and expanding urban commerce, which required basic numeracy and record-keeping.
4. The press, in this fuller account, was less a sole cause than one enabling condition among several that together produced rising literacy.
X: This suggests that the technology alone cannot fully explain the change.
- A. Between sentences 1 and 2
- B. Between sentences 2 and 3
- C. Between sentences 3 and 4
- D. At the very beginning, before sentence 1
Show answer and solution
Answer: (B) Between sentences 2 and 3
Sentence 2 establishes the complication (uneven literacy rise despite the press). Sentence X draws the logical inference from this complication — that the printing press alone cannot explain the change — which then motivates sentence 3's introduction of additional causal factors ('Historians increasingly point to factors such as...'). Placing X between sentences 2 and 3 creates this natural logical bridge; placing it elsewhere breaks the flow of complication → inference → alternative explanation.
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