Many people believe that strong individual initiative characterized the Industrial Revolution and see inventors as the ______ of that age.
整句话是为了强调工业革命时期的发明者们具备“strong individual initiative”，选项中只有“personification” and “symbols”表达了这层含义，而且意义相近，因此选择C和F。A失常，越轨；D歪曲，误传。