Tuyển tập 353 đề thi học sinh giỏi môn Tiếng Anh lớp 6,7,8,9,10,11,12 (có đáp án)

Virginia currency for over a century. This is not strange as it might seem. (1)_________. Back in
prehistoric times, sharp stones for making axes were used as money by Stone Age people. This is
understandable because they were about the only useful tools that existed at that time. Later, when
metal became more widely used, pieces of bronze were made into small knives, shirts or spades, and
these could be exchanged for the objects the represented.
In more recent times, some of the most varied items have been used as money, such as dogs’
teeth in New Guinea or whales’ teeth ins the Pacific Island. But the greatest success story among
strange currencies was undoubtedly cowrie shells, which for many centuries were accepted as payment
throughout much of Africa and Asia.
(2)_________. This had been used in some parts of the world for well over a thousand years.
Paper was invented by a Chinese government minister, T’sai Lun in AD 105. So it is not surprising
that China also introduced the first paper currency in about AD 650. This worked very well, and when
the famous traveler Marco Polo visited the empire from 1275 to 1292, during the rule of Kublai Khan,
he marved at its sophisticated use throughout the emperor’s lands.
One of the most successful forms of currency was invented during the rule of the Chinese
emperor Wu Ti. When he found himself short of cash, he made a plan to raise money from his wealthy
noblemen. First of all, the emperor collected all the white deer in the country and kept them in a royal
park. Then he passed a law saying that those who wanted to come to the emperor’s court must wear
white masks made of deer skin. (3)________. In time, the noblemen who had bought masks would
offer to sell them to colleagues in return of goods and services, and in this way the deerskins became a
type of currency.
In contrast, one of the least successful currencies of all time was the German mark in the
1920s. (4)_________. At the height of the crisis, when all the inhabitant of Berlin went into a local
cafe and ordered a coffee priced at 5,000 marks, by the time he came to pay the bill, it had risen to
8,000 marks. Prices were rising at 60 percent an hour. In the end the currency became completely
worthless. (6)_______. This, of course, was the system that had been used thousands of years ago,
long before money was invented.
A. The government had made the mistake of printing more and more paper money and as a r/esult the
money became worth less and less.
B. The gorvenment later introduced exchange rates, which made it possible for people to buy and sell
currencies from the three countries.
C. They had no option but to start once again exchanging goods and services with each other, and to
forget about money.
D. These could, of course, only be bought from him, and since he controlled their supply, he could
change fantastic prices for them.
E. In the French Sudan, they remained an acceptable currency for paying taxes until 1907, when they
finally gave way to paper.
F. History shows that almost anything can become money provided that it is relatively scarce and
people want it.
IX. Complete the following passage by filling one word for each blank.
If there is just one single thing more astonishing than the ability of the adult human being to
talk, it is the process by which someone learns to do this. Some parts of the process are still
(1)________ much a closed book, but it is for the (2)_________ part possible to describe what the
5