All Sumerian cities recognized a number of gods in common, including the sky god, the lord

of storms, and the morning and evening star. (1)_____ the Sumerian worshipped the goddess of fertility, love, and war, she was evidently lower (2)_____ status than the male gods, indicating that in a more urbanized society the (3)_____ that the peoples of previous times had paid to the earth mother goddess had (4)_____. The gods seemed hopelessly violent and (5)_____, and one's life a period of slavery at their easy will. The epic poem The Creation emphasizes that (6)_____ were created to enable the gods to (7)_____ up working. Each city moreover had its own god, who was considered to (8)_____ the temple literally and who was in theory the owner of all property within the city. (9)_____ the priests who interpreted the will of the god and controlled the (10)_____ of the economic produce of the city were favored (11)_____ their supernatural and material functions (12)_____. When, after 3000 B.C., growing warfare among the cities made military leadership (13)_____, the head of the army who became king assumed a(n) (14)_____ position between the god, whose agent he was, and the priestly class, whom he had both to use and to (15)_____. Thus king and priests represented the upper class in a hierarchical society. (16)_____ them were the scribes, the secular attendants of the temple, who (17)_____ every aspect of the city's economic life and who developed a rough judicial system. (18)_____ the temple officials, society was divided among an elite or (19)_____ group of large landowners and military leaders; a mixed group of merchants, artisans, and craftsmen, free peasants who (20)_____ the majority of the population; and slaves.

A．Unless

B．As

C．Lest

D．Although