The new accessibility of land around the periphery of almost every major city sparked an explosion of real estate development and fueled what we now know as urban sprawl. Between 1890 and 1920, for example, some 250,000 new residential lots were recorded within the borders of Chicago, most of them located in outlying areas.
The word "sparked" is closest in meaning to which of following?
(A) brought about
(B) surrounded
(C) sent out
(D) followed
正确答案： A