When we consider the comfortable circumstances of a working family today, the life of the working man in 1882 seems miserable in-deed. But earlier it had been even hard. At the beginning of the nine- 71. _______ teenth century working hours were from sunrise to sunset, pay wasawful, and working conditions being poor and dangerous. 72. _______ The working man had little schooling beyond his craft,and there was little hope that their children would have 73. _______ nothing better. There were no public schools, and besides, the few 74. _______ pennies which the children could earn needed to help support the 75. _______ family, if he was present because of sickness, there was often no 76. ________ job from him when he returned. Since there were always plenty of 77.________ other workers to take his job, he was likely to be hired if he asked 78. ________ for more pay. Viewed against today's standards, the attitude of the nineteenth-century factory owners seems incredible. They believedthat was good business to hire men, women and children as cheaply 79. ________ as possible, make them to work as they could and, when 80. ________ they became inefficient, worn out, or any reason, discharge them. 71. hard, harder 72. being, were 73. their, his 74. nothing, anything 75. (earn), (earn) were 76. present, absent 77. from, for 78. hired, fired 79. (that), (that) it 80. to, /
any reason, discharge them.
