Choose the word or phrase that best fits the blank space

The building of the pyramid in Ancient Egypt obviously (7) ______ a vast labour force, but the (8) ______ image of gangs of Egyptians being forced to work is probably incorrect. In fact it seems that though prisoners of war did some of the heavy work and the maintenance jobs, most of the (9) ______ labourers were farmers who worked during the flood periods when farming was (10) ______ anyway. The labourers were probably paid (11) _____ food - because money did not yet (12) _____ and organised in groups with (13) _____ names such as 'Hardworking Gang' or 'Strong Gang'. (14) ______ the traditional picture of thousands of slaves being struck with whips is unlikely to be "true, paintings do show supervisors carrying metre-long sticks which were not simply (15) ______ of office. One architect, Nekhebu, (16) ______ that he never hit a workman (17) ______ enough to knock him down. The Greek historian Herodotus gave traditional figures for the work force of one of the pyramids as 100;000 men replaced (18) ______ three months for a period of 20 years. It is impossible to prove or disprove these figures, but they had doubtless been (19) ______ overestimated. Housing that was found in the desert (20) ______ the west of one of the pyramids would have accommodated a permanent work force of no more than 4000.

(7) _____________

• A. 
  consumed
• B. 
  required
• C. 
  requested
• D. 
  demanded