Shopping habits in the United States have changed greatly in the last quarter of the twent

ieth century. (1)_____ in the 1990s most American towns and cities had a Main Street. Main Street was always in the heart of a town. This street was. (2)_____ on both sides with many. (3)_____ businesses, Here shoppers walked into stores to look at all sorts of merchandise: clothing, furniture, hardware, and groceries (4)_____ some shops offer (5)_____. These shops included drag-stores, shoe-repair stores and barber or hairdressing shops. (6)_____ in the 1950s, a change began to (7)_____ Too many automobiles had crowded into Main Street (8)_____ too few parking places were (9)_____ shoppers. Because the streets were crowded, merchants began to look with inter6st at the open spaces (10)_____ the city limits. Open space is what their car-driving customers needed. And open space is what they got. (11)_____ the first shopping center was built. Shopping center (12)_____ malls, started as a collection of small new stores. (13)_____ congested city centers. (14)_____ by hundreds of free parking spaces customers were drawn away from (15)_____ areas to outlying malls. And the growing (16)_____ of shopping centers led (17)_____ to the building of bigger and better stocked stores (18)_____ the late 1970s, many shopping malls had almost developed into small cities themselves. In addition to providing the (19)_____ of one-stop shopping, malls were transformed into landscaped parks (20)_____ benches, fountains, and outdoor entertainment.

A．As early as

B．Early

C．Early as

D．Earlier