单选题 It is not long since conditions in the mines were worse than they are now. There are still 1 a few very old women who in their youth have worked 2 , with harness round their waists, and a chain 3 passed between their legs, crawling on all 4 and dragging tugs of coal. They used to go on 5 this even when they were pregnant.
And 6 now, if coal could not be produced without pregnant women dragging it 7 and fro, I fancy we should let them do it 8 than deprive ourselves of coal. But most of the time, of course, we should 9 to forget that they were doing it. It is the 10 with all types of manual work; it keeps us alive, and we are oblivious of its existence. More than anything 11 perhaps, the miner can stand as the type of manual worker, not only because it is so vitally necessary and 12 so 13 , that we are capable 14 forgetting it as we forget the blood in our veins. In 15 way it is even humiliating to watch coal-miners working. It raises in you a momentary doubt 16 your own status as an "intellectual" and a superior person generally. For it is brought 17 to you, at least while you are watching, that it is only 18 miners sweat their guts out 19 superior persons can 20 superior.