Throughout its history, China has been a rich source of inventions. Silk, the compass, tea and porcelain originated there. In addition, they are responsible for the invention of paper and printing. The Chinese had used ink as early as 1 200 B. C. , an excellent type which they made from lampblack and which is known in English as India ink or China ink. By the end of the first century A. D. , the Chinese had invented paper.
The Chinese also invented printing. Early Chinese printing is called block printing. The printer carved raised characters on a block of wood, wet the surface of the characters with ink, and pressed sheets of paper against them. Printers in the 11th century went on to invent movable type of baked clay. The characters of the movable type could be rearranged to form. different words and thus be used over and over again. The Chinese alphabet has about 40 thousand characters. Because of the difficulty of producing so many pieces of type, most Chinese printers continued to use block printing.
A good synonym for underlined word "descendants" in paragraph 1 is ______.

A. foreigners
B. following generations
C. enemies
D. fossilized remains