Fill in the Blanks (Reading & Writing)

During the nineteenth century, blocks of natural ice were cut from frozen lakes and shipped to warmer regions to —preservepreservationpreservingpreserved food and drinks. Insulated warehouses packed with sawdust allowed merchants to —storestoragestoredstoring the ice for months before it finally melted. This trade declined once mechanical refrigeration made it possible to —produceproductionproducedproducing ice artificially, rendering the laborious harvest of natural ice —largelylargelargenessenlarge obsolete.