Read the passage below. which of the following does the author claim was
the cause of england's growing wealth and power?
for several thousand years no improvement was made in
the art of fabricating cotton-wool into cloth. the art was in
consequence depressed, and extended itself sluggishly. a
brilliant series of mechanical inventions, made during the
last age, so economized labor, as to enable one man to do
the work of a hundred. by this revolution in its processes
the manufacture received an astonishing impulse, and in a
single age eclipsed the greatest phenomena in the annals
of commerce. these inventions were made in england; and
they form at once the most splendid triumph of science
applied to the useful arts, and an abundant source of
wealth to the nation. it is not extravagant to say that the
experiments of the humble mechanist have in their results
added more to the power of england, than all the colonies
ever acquired by her arms.
o
a. new inventions that made manufacturing more efficient
o
b. laborers being forced to work harder than ever before
o
c. the acquisition of valuable colonies around the world
o
d. a sluggish cotton industry that led england to pursue new
resources