阅读下面短文，按照句子结构的语法性和上下文连贯的要求，在空格处填入一个适当的词或使用括号中词语的正确形式填空，并将答案填写在答题卷标号为16—25的相应位置上。 One of th

阅读下面短文，按照句子结构的语法性和上下文连贯的要求，在空格处填入一个适当的词或使用括号中词语的正确形式填空，并将答案填写在答题卷标号为16—25的相应位置上。
One of the many things we take for granted in the twentieth century is the speedy collection and delivery of letters to and from all parts of the world at     【小题1】     ( astonish ) cheap rates.
A husband away     【小题2】     a business trip can write home to his wife two thousand miles away knowing that the letter will reach     【小题3】     in a few days. His special airletter may cost him less than a loaf of bread     【小题4】     his own bus fare to work.
This service, however, is a favor of paratively recent origin. Until modern times, the cost of sending letters privately was so great that the     【小题5】     ( arrive ) of a letter was a considerable event and might even cost financial hardship to the receiver     【小题6】     had to bear the charges.      【小题7】     the Middle Ages on，there were indeed special messengers     【小题8】     ( carry ) state correspondence, and other messengers employed to travel with between the great monasteries or the great merchants’ houses, but for centuries there was no official post service by which private letters could be sent. It was not until 1840     【小题9】     the official organization known as the Penny Post     【小题10】     ( establish ) in Great Britain and gave ordinary people cheap and efficient postal deliveries.astonishingly