The invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century was a watershed moment in human history. Prior to its creation, books were painstakingly copied by hand, a process that limited access to knowledge to a small elite of scholars and nobles. Johannes Gutenberg's machine, however, transformed this landscape. By automating the reproduction of text, the press allowed ideas to spread across Europe with unprecedented speed.
This technological leap paved the way for the scientific revolution, as scholars from different regions could now easily share their findings and build upon one another’s work. Rather than hoarding information, societies began to value the open exchange of observations. Consequently, the printing press did not merely change how books were made; it fundamentally altered how humanity accumulated and verified knowledge, showing that access to information could reshape the social order. Without this rapid exchange of text, the discoveries of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries would have likely remained isolated, local events rather than a global movement.
In the context of the passage, the figurative expression 'paved the way for' (paragraph 2) most nearly means which of the following?
- Aphysically constructed a road for
- facilitated the development ofAnswer
- Cfinancially sponsored the progress of
- Dobstructed the progress of