填空题

I’’m sure almost every one of you looked at your watch or at a clock before you came to class today. Watches and (36)______seem as much a part of our life as breathing or eating. And yet, did you know that watches and clocks were (37)______in the United States until the 1850’’s In the late 1700’’s, people didn’’t know the (38)______time unless they were near a clock. Those (39)______ clocks in the squares of European towns were built for the (40)______— after all, most citizens simply couldn’’t (41)______a personal timepiece. Well into the 1800’’s — in Europe and the United States — the main (42)______ of a watch, which, by the way, was often on a (43)______chain, was to show others how wealthy you were. (44)____________. By then the rapid pace of industrialization in the United States meant that measuring time had become essential. How could the factory worker get to work on time unless he or she knew exactly what time it was (45)____________. And since industrialization made possible the manufacture of large quantities of goods, watches became fairly inexpensive. (46)____________. Being on time had entered the language — and life — of every citizen.