单选题 Fill in each of the following blanks with ONE Word to complete the meaning
of the passage.
The great chariot of society, which for
so long had run down the gentle slope of tradition, now found itself powered by
an internal combustion engine. Transactions and gain{{U}} 51 {{/U}}a
new and startling{{U}} 52 {{/U}}force. What forces
could have been{{U}} 53 {{/U}}powerful to smash a comfortable and{{U}}
54 {{/U}}world and institute in its place this new society? There
was no single massive{{U}} 55 {{/U}}. It was not great events, single
adventures, individual laws, or charming{{U}} 56 {{/U}}which{{U}}
57 {{/U}}about the economic revolution. It was a process of internal
growth. First, there was the gradual emergence of national
political{{U}} 58 {{/U}}in Europe. A second great current of change was
to be found in the slow decay of the religious spirit under the{{U}} 59
{{/U}}of the skeptical, inquiring, humanist views of the Italian
Renaissance. Still another{{U}} 60 {{/U}}current lies in the slow
social changes that eventually rendered the market system possible. In the
course of this change, power naturally began to gravitate into the hands of
those who understood money matters--the
merchants.