Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.
Cheap and reliable electric lighting was a holy grail for 19th-century inventors. But didn't Thomas Edison get there first? No! He was beaten (11) ____ it by Britain's very own Joseph Swan, working out of his (12) ____ lab at his house in Gateshead, Swan got his (13) ____ - and started manufacturing and selling his bulbs - in 1880. He developed a tiny lament that used (14) ____ treated cotton, and set it inside an oxygen-free vacuum (15) ____ it wouldn't catch fire when it glowed white-hot.
Swan's first bulbs lasted little more than 12 hours but, unlike gas lamps, there was no name or dirty smoke and they soon (16) ____ on. The impresario Richard d'Oyly Carte (17) ____ the opportunity to make his new Savoy Theatre in London stand (18) ____ - and when it opened the following year it was the first public building in the world (19) ____ electrically throughout. D'Oyly Carte even took to the (20) ____ himself - holding a glowing bulb aloft, he ceremoniously broke it in front of the audience to prove it was safe.
Question 11.
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