It is not surprising that people 21______ ever associate Britain with wine and in fact it may astonish you to learn that grapes are grown 22______ in England and nearly 200,000 bottles of wine were sold in 1975. 23______ very new in growing grapes in Britain, in spite of the climate. The Romans planted the first vines about AD 300 and 24______ a long time people always drank home-produced wines. What 25______ the English wine industry was not so much a change in the climate 26______ the fact that an English king, Henry II, inherited the Bordeaux area of France as part of his dominions during the twelfth century and the imported wine provided 27______ of competition. The English wine industry did not disappear, however, 28______ the sixteenth century, when the monks, who had been the main producers in the meantime, had their estates taken away by Henry VIII. The new owners let the vineyards die out. But now English people, probably 29______ their memories of holidays by the Mediterranean, drink more wine than 30______ and the new industry is now developing at a modest but consistent rate.
23.