For each numbered blank in the following passage, there are four choices marked [A], [B], [C], [D]. Choose the best one and mark your answer on ANSWER SHEET 1 by blackening the corresponding letter in the brackets with a pencil. (10 points)
Until recently most historians spoke very critically of the Industrial Revolution. They __41__ that in the long run industrialization greatly raised the standard of living for the __42__ man. But they insisted that its __43__ results during the period from 1750 to 1850 were widespread poverty and misery for the __44__ of the English population. __45__ contrast, they saw in the preceding hundred years from 1650 to 1750, when England was still a __46__ agricultural country, a period of great abundance and prosperity.
This view, __47__, is generally thought to be wrong. Specialists __48__ history and economics, have __49__ two things: that the period from 1650 to 1750 was __50__ by great poverty, and that industrialization certainly did not worsen and may have actually improved the conditions for the majority of the populace.
