Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 26 to 30.
HIGH DAYS AND HOLIDAYS
In the UK holidays began as religious festival days or ‘holy days’. The idea of a holiday as a ‘no-work’ day seems to have first (26) ____ around five hundred years ago. In 1871 the Bank Holidays Act established certain days when, by law, banks closed. Bank Holidays soon became public holidays, but by (27) ______, not law. In fact, working people rarely took holidays. For (28)_____ people, paid holidays remained a luxury until the second half of the twentieth century. Instead, people enjoyed outings for the day to nearby places. The growth of the railways made it possible for working people and their families to go further a field on their day trips, (29)____ wealthy people had, for many years, taken holidays. As soon as outings became possible for more people, crowds of them travelled to the seaside. Seaside towns started to boom. Piers were built out over the sea, funfairs opened and boat trips were offered by local fishermen. Many of the towns (30)_____ benefited from all these day trippers were near to large cities or were at the end of railway lines