Decide which of the choices given below would best complete the passage if inserted in the corresponding blanks. Mark the best choice for each blank on your answer sheet. During McDonald’s early years French fries were made from scratch every day. Russet Burbank potatoes were (26)____, cut into shoestrings, and fried in its kitchens. (27)____ the chain expanded nationwide, in the mid-1960s, it sought to cut labour costs, reduce the number of suppliers, and (28)____ that its fries tasted the same at every restaurant. McDonald’s began (29)____ to frozen French fries in 1966—and few customers noticed the difference. (30)____, the change had a profound effect on the nation’s agriculture and diet. A familiar food had been transformed into a highly processed industrial (31)____. McDonald’s fries now come from huge manufacturing plants (32)____ can process two million pounds of potatoes a day. The expansion (33)____ McDonald’s and the popularity of its low-cost, mass-produced fries changed the way Americans eat. The taste of McDonald’s French fries played a crucial role in the chain’s success—fries are much more profitable than hamburgers—and was (34)____ praised by customers, competitors, and even food critics. Their (35)____ taste does not stem from the kind of potatoes that McDonald’s (36)____, the technology that processes them, or the restaurant equipment that fries them: other chains use Russet Burbank, buy their French fries from the (37)____ large processing companies, and have similar (38)____ in their restaurant kitchens. The taste of a French fry is (39)____ determined by the cooking oil. For decades McDonald’s cooked its French fries in a mixture of about 7 per cent cottonseed oil and 93 per cent beef fat. The mixture gave the fries their unique (40)____. 26.