Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers

Read the passage and select ALL correct options. Wrong selections lose points.

Before the printing press spread across Europe in the fifteenth century, books were copied laboriously by hand, a process that could take scribes months to complete a single manuscript. Movable type allowed identical pages to be reproduced rapidly, dramatically lowering the cost of books and expanding access to written knowledge beyond wealthy patrons and religious institutions. This shift is often credited with accelerating the spread of new ideas during the Renaissance, as texts could circulate across regions far faster than before. Literacy rates rose gradually in the following centuries, though scholars note the increase was uneven, with rural populations gaining access to printed material much more slowly than urban centers. Early printers also standardized spelling in ways handwritten manuscripts never had, since consistent typefaces required fixed conventions.