Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 26 to 30.

Cash-strapped expatriate teachers in Vietnam (26) _______ were scammed into working for free at the English language center Apax Leaders said the incident had affected their trust in the language school business.

Avinash Soni, a South African, came to work as a teacher at Apax Leaders in 2019. Then the (27) _______ hit, and the school began facing financial troubles in 2020. Soni mentioned that the company had promised to keep paying salaries even when classes were canceled due to pandemic restrictions. “When the company started to fall behind on payments, it came as a shock, (28) ________ as other companies in the field had also been experiencing issues, we initially remained quite optimistic,” he said. His fellowman Callan Williams said: “We believed at the time that the loss of sales (29) ________ was the cause of our financial troubles and that this would be corrected once centers reopened.” Teacher Alexander Wood noted that the start of the company’s financial issues aligned with the onset of stricter pandemic measures, and given the outbreak's progression in Vietnam. “So there was (30) ________ anxiety surrounding lockdowns on top of anxiety surrounding our pay.” By that time, “Shark Thuy asserted in an email that we would be paid 100% and in full' during the period of online classes and lockdown,” Wood, an American citizen, recalled, referring to Nguyen Ngoc Thuy, chairman of education corporation Egroup, which owns Apax Leaders.

Cash-strapped expatriate teachers in Vietnam (26) _______ were scammed into working for free at the English language center Apax Leaders said the incident had affected their trust in the language school business.