单选题
Long long ago there was no zero. To write the number sixty-three people wrote 63. To write six hundred and three, people wrote 6 3. The space between six and three was there to mean "not any" tens. Sometimes people did not remember the space. It was hard to see and read.
Later people used a dot to hold the space. Six hundred and three looked like this 6·3. But the dot was hard to see. So people put a circle around it like this 6⊙3. Then people could see the dot. They remembered the space. At last, only the circle around the dot was used. It was like a zero. This is one story of how the zero came to be used.
Now zero has many important uses. Zero tells how many. Can you tell some other ways of using zero?

单选题 Long long ago people didn't know how to ______.

A. write
B. write zero
C. write numbers

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。首句指出：很久以前，还没有数字0。那时人们自然不会写这个数字了。故B为正确答案。

单选题 Long long ago if they wrote two hundred and eight, people wrote ______.

A. 2.8
B. 2 8
C. 228

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。根据第一段第三句中：人们把六百零三写成6 3，中间空了一个位置。同理，二百零八的写法是2 8。故B为正确答案。

单选题 Later ______ was used to mean space.

A. "not any"
B. letter "0"
C. a dot

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。第二段首句指出：后来人们用一个点来代替空白。故C为正确答案。

单选题 People used circles ______.

A. to remember ways
B. to remember numbers
C. not to forget the space

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。根据第二段前五句的描述，人们在“点”的外面加了一个圈，是为了让“点”不被忽视。这个点代表的是“空白”的意思。故画圈是为了记住空白位置，C为正确答案。

单选题 The story tells us ______.

A. how zero came to be used
B. how to write zero
C. what's the use of zero

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 主旨题。文章开头提到，很久以前没有0这个数字。随后描述了0的写法的演变过程，故A为正确答案。