The History of Money

　　People use money to buy food, books, bicycles and hundreds of other things which they need. When they work, they usually get paid in money.

　　Most of the money used today is made of metal (金属) or paper. But in ancient times (古代) people used to use all kinds of things as money. One of the first kinds of money was shells (贝壳) .

　　In China cloth and knives were used as money. Elephant tusks, monkey tails and salt were used in some parts of Africa. Rice was also a kind of money used by the ancient people in some islands. Cows and other animals were used as money, too.

　　The first copper coins (硬币) were made in China. They were round and had a square (方形的) hole in the centre. Different countries have used different metals for their money. Later, some countries began to make coins of gold and silver (银).

But both gold and silver were heavy to carry when people needed a lot of coins to buy something expensive. The Chinese were the first to use paper money. The first paper money looked more like a note from one person to another than the paper money used today.

　　Money has had an interesting history from the days of shell money till today.

1．What is the money we use today made of?

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2．Africa used ________ as money.

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3．China was the first country to use ________ coins.

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4．Why does paper money become popular today?

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A．It is beautiful.

B．It is easy to carry.

C．It looks like a picture.

D．People like it better than gold or silver.

5．The passage tells us ________ .

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A．money can be made of many things

B．the history of money

C．what kind of metal can be used as money

D．how paper money came into being