In the sentence 'printed texts allowed ideas to travel further', 'travel' is used:
Before the fifteenth century, books in Europe were copied by hand, a slow process that made them rare and costly. When Johannes Gutenberg developed a printing system using movable metal type around 1450, the production of books became faster and cheaper. Within a few decades, printing workshops had opened in many cities. Historians disagree about how quickly literacy spread as a result. Some argue that more books encouraged more people to learn to read, while others point out that most people could not afford books for many generations and that literacy rose mainly when schools became widely available. What is clear is that printed texts allowed ideas to travel further and be compared more easily.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: C. figuratively, to mean that ideas reached more people and places
- Step 1: Ideas are not physical objects that move; the verb is used in a symbolic way. Step 2. It means the ideas spread to more readers in more places. Answer: figuratively, to mean that ideas reached more people and places. Why not the others: Ships are never mentioned; the passage suggests ideas became more available, not less popular; 'movable type' refers to printing, not to the verb 'travel'.
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