PRINT CULTURE AND THE MODERN WORLD- ASSERTION AND REASON

Print Culture: Assertion & Reason MCQs

Answer Key for Options

(A) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A).

(B) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true but Reason (R) is not the correct explanation of Assertion (A).

(C) Assertion (A) is true but Reason (R) is false.

(D) Assertion (A) is false but Reason (R) is true.

Q1.

Assertion (A): It is easy for us to imagine a world without printed matter.

Reason (R): We find evidence of the print everywhere around us in books, journals, newspapers, prints of famous paintings, and also in everyday life in things like theatre programmes, official circulars, calendars, etc.

Answer: (D) Assertion (A) is false but Reason (R) is true. It is difficult, not easy, to imagine a world without print because it is so widespread.

Q2.

Assertion (A): Woodblock print only came to Europe after 1395.

Reason (R): Macro Polo brought with him the technology of woodblock printing.

Answer: (D) Assertion (A) is false but Reason (R) is true. Marco Polo returned to Italy in 1295, not 1395.

Q3.

Assertion (A): Gutenberg's press was too slow as compared to present press technology.

Reason (R): It could print 180 copies of Bible in three years.

Answer: (B) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true but Reason (R) is not the correct explanation of Assertion (A). While both statements are true, the reason describes its speed in its own time, it doesn't directly explain the comparison to modern technology.

Q4.

Assertion (A): Cheap paperback editions of books were printed by the end of the eighteenth century.

Reason (R): It became easy for poor people to buy them.

Answer: (A) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A). The availability of cheap editions directly led to wider accessibility for the poor.

Q5.

Assertion (A): India had a very rich and old tradition of handwritten manuscripts.

Reason (R): Manuscripts were copied on banana leaves or on hand made paper.

Answer: (C) Assertion (A) is true but Reason (R) is false. Manuscripts in India were typically copied on palm leaves, not banana leaves.

Q6.

Assertion (A): Women were not educated in India in the early part of the nineteenth century.

Reason (R): Conservative Hindus believed that a literate girl would be widowed and Muslims feared that educated women would be corrupted by reading Urdu romances.

Answer: (A) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A). The conservative fears described in the reason were a direct cause for the lack of female education.

Q7.

Assertion (A): Some people in 18th century Europe thought that print culture would bring enlightenment and end despotism.

Reason (R): The ideas of scientists and philosophers became more accessible to the common people after the coming of print culture.

Answer: (A) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A). The spread of new ideas through print was seen as a tool to enlighten people and challenge absolute rule.

Q8.

Assertion (A): Women became important readers as well as writers.

Reason (R): Penny magazines were especially meant for women as were manuals teaching proper behaviour and housekeeping.

Answer: (A) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A). The creation of reading material targeted at women contributed to their growing importance as readers.

Q9.

Assertion (A): In 1517, the religious reformer Martin Luther wrote Ninety Five Theses criticising many of the practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church.

Reason (R): This led to a division within the Church and to the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

Answer: (A) A printed copy of the Theses was posted on a church door in Wittenberg. It challenged the Church to debate his ideas. Luther’s writings were immediately reproduced in large numbers and read widely. The reason thus correctly justifies the assertion.

Q10.

Assertion (A): The new reading culture was accompanied by a new technology.

Reason (R): From hand printing there was a gradual shift to mechanical printing.

Answer: (A) The shift to mechanical printing was the new technology that accompanied and enabled the new reading culture. The reason thus correctly justifies the assertion.

Q11.

Assertion (A): The production of handwritten manuscripts could not satisfy the ever-increasing demand for books.

Reason (R): Chinese paper reached Europe via the silk route.

Answer: (B) Copying was laborious, expensive and time-consuming. Manuscripts were fragile, awkward to handle, and could not be carried around or read easily. Therefore, their circulation remained limited. While both statements are true, the arrival of paper (Reason) does not fully explain why manuscript production was insufficient for the growing demand (Assertion).

Q12.

Assertion (A): The first book that Gutenberg printed was the Bible.

Reason (R): About 500 copies were printed and it took two years to produce them.

Answer: (C) Assertion (A) is true but Reason (R) is false. About 180 copies were printed, not 500, and it took about three years.

Q13.

Assertion (A): Print and popular religious literature stimulated many distinctive individual interpretations of faith even among little-educated working people.

Reason (R): Through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, literacy rates went up in most parts of Europe.

Answer: (A) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A). Rising literacy allowed more people to read religious texts, leading to individual interpretations.

Q14.

Assertion (A): As literacy and schools spread in African countries, there was a virtual reading mania.

Reason (R): Churches of different denominations set up schools in villages, carrying literacy to tribals.

Answer: (D) Assertion (A) is false but Reason (R) is true. The "reading mania" is typically associated with 18th-century Europe, not Africa during the specified period. However, the reason about churches setting up schools is historically accurate.

Q15.

Assertion (A): Children became an important category of readers.

Reason (R): Primary education became compulsory from the late nineteenth century.

Answer: (A) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A). Compulsory primary education created a large new audience of child readers.

Q16.

Assertion (A): There was intense controversy between social and religious reformers and the Hindu orthodoxy over matters like-widow immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood and idolatry.

Reason (R): The Deoband Seminary founded in 1867, published thousands upon thousands of fatwas telling Muslim readers how to conduct themselves in everyday lives, and explaining the meaning of Islamic doctrines.

Answer: (B) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true but Reason (R) is not the correct explanation of Assertion (A). The reason describes a phenomenon within the Muslim community, whereas the assertion describes controversies within the Hindu community. Both are examples of print's impact on religion in India, but one does not directly explain the other.