Digital SAT Reading and Writing Practice Question #282

Text 1 Many technological determinists argue that the introduction of Johannes Gutenberg's printing press in 15th-century Europe was the singular catalyst for the Renaissance. By mechanizing the production of books, the printing press drastically reduced the cost of literature. This sudden affordability effectively democratized knowledge, breaking the intellectual monopoly of the elite class and allowing the general public to engage with classical philosophy and scientific inquiry for the first time. Text 2 While the mechanization of printing was a brilliant engineering feat, its immediate social impacts are frequently overstated by modern historians. During the 15th and 16th centuries, literacy rates across Europe remained abysmally low, hovering in the single digits for the working classes. Furthermore, early printed texts were still priced well out of reach for a peasant farmer. True intellectual democratization did not occur until the advent of widespread public schooling centuries later. Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the claim in Text 1 that the printing press "democratized knowledge"?