This new prince will become the first British monarch with working-class blood running through his veins. Monarchy these days is a precarious business, and increasingly hard to justify – not only in terms of the funds taxpayers donate to the Crown, but in a wider world in which royal families seem ever more anachronistic. This baby has arrived at a time of profound social change and evolution – ........ is why I believe a royal child with middle-class antecedents can provide the social alchemy that will secure the future of the House of Windsor.

William and Kate, a modern couple, lived together quite openly for several years before their marriage, a sensible decision condoned by the Queen, which ........ been seen as unthinkable less than a decade earlier. This was after prince Charles had moved in with his divorced former mistress, Camila Parker Bowles, a situation that would have been equally unacceptable a few years ago.

All this evidences a rapidly evolving monarchy. Who would have suspected that the Queen would have been seen pretending to parachute into the Olympic stadium with James Bond? And who ........ predict how far this process of evolution will have travelled by the time the new prince reaches the throne? From the pit to the Palace in three generations? Surely it is the perfect fairytale for a nation that grows more middle-class by the year.

_{Adaptado de: THORTON, Michael. A very middle class baby who will secure the future of the royal family. Daily Mail. 22 jul 2013. Disponível em: < http://www. dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2374279/Kate-Middletongives-birth-middle-class-Royal-baby-boy-securemonarchys-future.html>. Acesso em: 06 set. 2013.}

Assinale com V (verdadeiro) ou F (falso) as afirmações abaixo, de acordo com o sentido do texto.

( ) A existência da monarquia, cada vez mais, precisa ser justificada em função de seu alto custo coberto pelos impostos.

( ) A classe média está, gradativamente, diminuindo no Reino Unido.

( ) O novo bebê real, em virtude de sua ascendência, poderá ser o trunfo da permanência da família real.

( ) O casamento de Charles com sua ex-amante divorciada ainda é visto como escandaloso pela família real.

A sequência correta de preenchimento dos parênteses, de cima para baixo, é