单项选择题

The Victorians had become addicted to speed and they wanted to go ever faster. Time was money and efficiency became (31)____ important. Although divisions of labour had been (32)____ by Adam Smith and illustrated by a pin factory in The Wealth of Nations in 1776, (33)____ could now become fully realised. This specialization of labour was in (34)____ contrast to the rural means of production, in (35)____ the family was the means of production, consumption and socialization. (36)____ greater speed came a greater need for industries and businesses to make more and make it quicker. Steam made this (37)____ and changed working life forever (38)____ were the days when work was (39)____ by natural forces: steam engines were servant (40)____ neither season nor sunshine. Factories had foremen and life became correspondingly more (41)____. The clocking-on machine was (42)____ in 1885 and time and motion studies to increase efficiency would be introduced only (43)____ twenty years later. (44)____ it was not all bad news. Agricultural incomes depended on variable harvests and weather. Factories provided (45)____ and predictable income, but long hours.
Working life was becoming increasingly regulated, and the working (46)____ was reorganised to promote ever-greater efficiency. The old (47)____ St. Monday - when no work was done - was (48)____, work stopped around midday on Saturday and did not resume (49)____ Monday morning. A new division between “work” and “leisure” emerged, and this new block of weekend leisure time coincided with the development of spectator sports like cricket and football, and the (50)____ of music hall entertainment for the new working classes.

34()

A.clear
B.marked
C.apparent
D.firm