What does the article say about the cowrie shells

The journey of humankind: How money made us modern

Since ancient times, humans have utilized all sorts of items to represent value, from large stones to cakes of salt, squirrel pelts and whale teeth. In the ancient world, people often relied upon symbols that also had some tangible value in their own right. The ancient Chinese, for example, were among those who used cowrie shells, which were prized for their beauty as materials for jewellery, to make payments. Even today, many characters in Chinese writing that relate to money include the ancient symbol for the cowrie shell. Durable, easily cleaned and easy to count, the shells defied imitation or counterfeiting.

In the Mesopotamian region of Sumer, about 9,500 years ago, ancient accountants in the region kept track of farmers’ crops and livestock by stacking small pieces of baked clay, almost like the tokens used in board games today. One piece might signify a bushel of grain, while another with a different shape might represent a farm animal or a jar of olive oil. The humble little ceramic shapes they used might not seem to have much in common with today’s $100 bill, let alone with credit card swipes and online transactions, but the roots of our modern modes of payment almost certainly lie in the Sumerians’ tokens. Such early accounting tools ultimately evolved into a system of finance and money itself − a symbolic representation of value, which can be transferred from one person to another as a payment for goods or services.

Civilization existed before money, but probably wouldn’t have got very far without it. Ancient humans’ invention of money was a revolutionary milestone. It helped to drive the development of civilization by making it easier not just to buy and sell goods, but to pay workers in an increasing number of specialized trades – craftsmen, artists, merchants and soldiers, to name a few.

In ancient times, gold gradually became a universal currency. The gleaming precious metal was stable, yet could also be combined at high temperatures with other metals to create alloys, and was easy to melt and hammer into shapes. It became the raw material for the first coins, which were created in Lydia, a kingdom in what is now Turkey, around 2,700 years ago. Lydian coins didn’t look much like today’s coinage. They were irregular in shape and size and didn’t have denominations inscribed on them. There was a stamped image on each coin, just as now, but it was there to indicate the weight and value of each coin. Unlike modern money, ancient Lydian coins were what economists call full-bodied or commodity money, whose value was fixed by the metal in them. If the gold or silver in them became worth more, people tended to melt them down.

The emergence of money in the form of coins helped connect the world, by enabling traders to roam across continents and oceans to buy and sell goods, and investors to amass wealth. Its convenience made it easier for merchants to develop large-scale trade networks, in which they bought and sold spices, grain and even slaves over distances of thousands of miles. In the ancient Greek city-state of Corinth, banks were set up at which foreign traders could hand in their own coins and get Corinthian ones back. And the Greek historian Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BC, describes Carthaginian traders unloading their wares on beaches and, after setting smoky fires to signal shoppers, accepting the locals’ gold as payment.

The hazards of moving money and goods over distances − whether it was from storms at sea or bandits and pirates − led humans to develop increasingly complex economic organizations. In the 1600s, for example, investors who gathered in London coffeehouses began underwriting traders and colonists venturing across the ocean to the New World, financing their voyages in exchange for a share of the crops or goods they brought back. Investors would try to reduce their risk by buying shares of multiple ventures. It was the start of a modern global economy in which vast quantities of products and money flow across borders in the search for profits.

Over the centuries, money has continued to evolve in form and function. The ancient world’s stones and shells gave way to coins, and eventually to paper currency and cheques drawn upon bank accounts, physical tokens which, in turn, are gradually being superseded by electronic ones. Ranging from credit card transactions to new forms of digital currency designed for transferring and amassing wealth on the internet, we are currently in the middle of a money revolution. Who knows what shape our money will take in the years to come?

1. What does the article say about the cowrie shells?
Chọn một:
a. They had a symbolic rather than monetary value.
b. The more beautiful they were, the bigger their value.
c. The Chinese considered them attractive enough to wear.
d. The Chinese were the only people who used them for money.
Câu hỏi 2
2. Cowrie shells were a useful means of making payments because
Chọn một:
a. they were durable and hard to copy.
b. there were vast numbers of them.
c. they were rare and priceless.
d. they never seemed to get dirty.
Câu hỏi 3
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3. What does the writer compare the clay coins of ancient Sumer to?
Chọn một:
a. small animals
b. bushels of grain
c. pieces from games
d. small baked cakes
Câu hỏi 4
4. Why does the writer say that the clay coins of ancient Sumer are important?
Chọn một:
a. They each had a value equivalent to $100 in today’s money.
b. Their roots lay in a complex system of finance we no longer use.
c. They were the first coins to show animals or other valuable objects.
d. They were the first coins used in a way comparable to how we use money now.
Câu hỏi 5
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5. In the third paragraph the writer uses the phrase “a revolutionary milestone” to say that money allowed
Chọn một:
a. the emergence of human civilization for the first time.
b. humans to compensate each other for work they did.
c. people to sell things they couldn’t have sold before.
d. a few specialized groups to become wealthier.
Câu hỏi 6
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6. According to the article, why was gold used so widely as a form of currency?
Chọn một:
a. Its irregular shapes and sizes made it useful.
b. It was commonly found across the ancient world.
c. It could be mixed with other metals in natural conditions.
d. It could easily be turned into what we now call coins.
Câu hỏi 7
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7. In what way are Lydian coins comparable to modern coins?
Chọn một:
a. Their value depended on how much gold was in them.
b. Coins of the same shape and size had the same value.
c. They had some sort of picture on them.
d. They could easily be melted down.
Câu hỏi 8
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8. What example does the writer provide of how money transformed trade?
Chọn một:
a. an example of the first large-scale trade network
b. an example of how people traded on beaches
c. an example of an early currency exchange system
d. an example of a market selling spices and slaves
Câu hỏi 9
9. How did seventeenth century investors make investing in trade safer?
Chọn một:
a. They stopped going on long distance voyages themselves.
b. They made sure they owned all the shares in one company.
c. They carefully selected only the safest ventures to invest in.
d. They started to finance different trading opportunities at the same time.
Câu hỏi 10
10. In the concluding paragraph, what does the writer say about money?
Chọn một:
a. Money as we know it will not change.
b. Money will never cease to evolve.
c. People will possess greater wealth in the future.
d. We may return to ancient methods of using money.