Part 2 · Exercise 1 — The origins of the weekend

THE ORIGINS OF THE WEEKEND The two-day weekend feels so natural that we rarely stop to wonder where it ¹ from. In fact, it is a surprisingly recent invention. For most of history, the rhythm of work was dictated ² the seasons and the demands of the land, with little distinction ³ one day and the next. The single day of rest observed by many religions was the closest most people ⁴ to a holiday. It was ⁵ until the industrial age, when workers found themselves tied to factory clocks, that the idea of a regular break began to take hold. Curiously, the modern weekend owes a great ⁶ to the habit, common among factory workers, of failing to turn up on Mondays. Rather ⁷ fighting this, some employers eventually agreed to a shorter Saturday, ⁸ that a well-rested workforce would prove more productive. The experiment worked, and the weekend was born.