Complete the text using one word in each space.

Fast food
The concept of fast food is very important in English-speaking countries (0) for one major
reason: the working day starts at around the same time (1 as

in European countries, but

finishes (2 much
earlier, typically at about five o'clock in (3 the evening when the offices,
banks and many of the shops begin to close. As a result, there's not much time for lunch, (4
so many people bring something from home to eat at their desks, (5 eaten
tea or instant coffee made with the office kettle, (6 rather

than going out to a restaurant

for a proper lunch as do many European office workers, (7 who

later in the evening.

usually finish work much

For (8 those who prefer to get out of the office to have a break or (9 some
there are the various fast food options (10 such
kebabs, or fish and chips, many of (11 which

with a cup of

fresh air,

as sandwiches, Cornish pasties, burgers,

can be eaten on the move,

(12

without
even the need to sit down!
Only on special occasions is a British office worker likely to eat lunch in a restaurant.
For someone's birthday, promotion, engagement or retirement, for example, a group of
colleagues will eat together in a pub or restaurant. It is for this reason (14 that foreign
visitors are often surprised (15 by / at
lunch in the major British cities.

(13

the lack of affordable, good quality, places to have

The History Of Soap

The earliest soap in history was probably produced around five thousand years (0) ago in
Ancient Babylon. Archeologists (1) have found ancient tablets with writing on them (2)
which seem to describe a formula for making soap. (3) Although the Romans probably
knew how to manufacture soap as well,
(4) it is believed that they only used it (5) for
washing fabrics and actually cleaned their bodies in a totally different (6) way . An ancient
Egyptian papyrus from around 1550 B.C. also refers to soap manufacture.
The first soaps that we would recognise today were produced by Muslim chemists in the
mediaeval Islamic world around 1000 A.D. (7) Those soaps were not only made from similar
materials (8) but also included colouring and perfume in some cases.
But it was not (9) until the Nineteenth Century that large-scale soap production began
making a product that was cheap (10) enough for everybody to afford it. In 1862, Andrew
Pears and (11) his grandson, Francis opened the Pears soap factory in Isleworth in London.
Today, Pears has become (12) one of the best known brands of soap in the world.
Clifton Suspension Bridge
The Clifton Suspension Bridge is a famous road bridge across the River Avon, (0) which joins
Clifton in Bristol (1) on one side to Leigh Woods on the (2) other side. When it was
originally built, it was the longest bridge of (3)its kind anywhere in the world and indeed,
many people had believed that bridging such a great distance would turn out to (4) be
impossible.
When Isambard Kingdom Brunel first designed the bridge in 1731, the two towers that were
going to support the roadway were designed to have (5) an ancient Egyptian appearance.
Unfortunately, Brunel died before the bridge (6) was completed and the engineers who
completed (7) it , covered the stone towers with conventional red bricks instead.
Even today, more (8) than a hundred years later, the bridge is still an impressive sight. The
roadway that stretches between the two towers is two hundred and fourteen metres long, at a
height of seventy-five metres above the river and the A4 road below. Originally, (9) any car
driver, cyclist and pedestrian who crossed the bridge had to pay a toll. (10) But nowadays,
people on foot and cyclists can cross for free and (11) only motorists must still pay.
In April 2006, the bridge was used (12) as the centre of a huge fireworks display to
celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of its great designer, Brunel.