Until about 250 years ago, households did not take dirt as (1)______ as they do now – it was a fact of life, and that was tha

Until about 250 years ago, households did not take dirt as (1)______ as they do now – it was a fact of life, and that was that. Cleaning often consisted of an annual (2)______called ‘spring cleaning’ when the furniture was moved aside, and all the linen products in the house were cleaned. Carpets and rugs were taken outside, hung on ropes and had the dust (3)______out of them – an exhausting and messy process. The industrial revolution brought about a major change – as new products became available to make homes cleaner, a corresponding interest in ‘domestic hygiene’ appeared in households. This in turn led to the (4)______of further products, one of which was the vacuum cleaner. (5)______has it that when one of the first vacuum cleaners was demonstrated, a kindly scientist took the proud inventor aside, and offered a bit of (6)______ that was to become (7)______to the future evolution of the product – ‘make it suck, not blow’. The first vacuum cleaners appeared in the 1860s in the United States. They were operated by hand pumps and were almost as (8)______as spring cleaning. It was only when electric motors had become sufficiently advanced to become portable that vacuum cleaners became common household items. Most of today’s major (9)______- including Electrolux and Hoover – were born in the 1920s. The household dirt that vacuum cleaners suck up is mostly dead skin cells – humans (10)______millions of cells every day. A much smaller proportion comes from dust and soil carried into the house from outside.
1. A. importantly B. crucially C. considerately D. seriously
2. A. ritual B. result C. resolution D. scrub
3. A. cleaned B. taken C. beaten D. sucked
4. A. fabrication B. appearing C. recreation D. development
5. A. Story B. Epic C. Legend D. Tale
6. A. advise B. advice C. courage D. encouragement
7. A. standard B. crucial C. regular D. esteemed
8. A. laborious B. hard C. nefarious D. straining
9. A. brands B. marks C. makes D. trademarks
10. A. lose B. outgrow C. omit D. shed