题目内容：

C. Read the passage and fill in the blanks with proper words (在短文的空格内填入适当的词，使其内容通顺，每空格限填一词，首字母已给): (14分)

People use umbrellas when it rains. However, the umbrella was not i1. to keep off water when it rained. It was first used to keep off the sun.

N2. knows who first invented it, but it was used long, long ago. At that time, in some places, ordinary people were not allowed to use the umbrella. In Europe, the Greeks were the f3. to use the umbrella to keep off the sun. But the Romans were the first to use it to keep off rain. During the Middle Ages, people s4. using the umbrella. Then it appeared again in Italy in the late sixteenth century. By 1680 the umbrella appeared in France and later on in England.

By the eighteenth century, the umbrella was used a5. rain all over Europe. Umbrellas have not changed much in s6. during all this time though they have become much lighter in weight.

In the twentieth century, women’s umbrellas began to be made in all k7. of colors.