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Fill in each blank in the passage below with ONE appropriate word. The United States began (1) ______ a largely rural nation, (2) ______ most people living on small farms or in small towns and villages. (3) ______ the rural population continued to grow in the late 1800s, the urban population was growing (4) ______ more rapidly. Still, a majority of Americans lived in rural areas in 1900. Many of those Americans had settled on the plains in the 1800s. New machines for use in (5) ______ were invented in this period, but horses ,oxen, and people (6) ______ provided most of the power that operated the machinery. While farmers now produced cash crop (crops grown (7) ______ sale), they were still remarkably self-sufficient, often making or trading for nearly everything required by their own families. Perhaps it is that self-sufficient that gives (8) ______ life a special place, even today, in the minds of Americans.