est complete the passage if ed in the corresponding blanks. Mark the best choice for each blank on your answer sheet.
Salt, shells or metals are still used as money in out-of-the-way parts of the world today.
Salt may seem rather a strange (31) ______ to use as money, (32) ______ in countries where the food of the people is mainly vegetable, it is often an (33) ______ necessity. Cakes of salt, stamped to show their (34) ______, were used as money in some countries until recent (35) ______, and cakes of salt (36) ______ buy goods in Borneo and parts of Africa.
Sea shells (37) ______ as money at some time (38) ______ another over the greater part of the Old World, These were (39) ______ mainly from the beaches of the Maldives Islands in the Indian Ocean, and were traded to India and China. In Africa, shells were traded right across the (40) ______ from East to West.
Metal, valued by weight, (41) ______ coins in many parts of the world. Iron, in lumps, bars or rings, is still used in many countries (42) ______ paper money. It can either be exchanged (43) ______ goods, or made into tools, weapons, or ornaments. The early money of China, apart from shells, was of bronze, (44) ______ in flat, round pieces with a hole in the middle, called “cash”. The (45) ______ of these are between three thousand and four thousand years old — older than the earliest coins of the eastern Mediterranean.
Nowadays, coins and notes have (46) ______ nearly all the more picturesue
(47) ______ of money, and (48) ______ in one or two of the more remote countries people still keep it for future use on ceremonial (49) ______ such as weddings and funerals, examples of (50) ______ money will soon be found only in museums.
(31) A. object B. article C. substance D. category
(32) A. but B. and C. so D. even
