单选题
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 28 to use as money, but in countries where the food of the people is mainly vegetable, it is often a(n) 29 necessity. Cakes of salt, stamped to show their value, were used as money in some countries until recent 30 , and cakes of salt still buy goods in Borneo and parts of Africa. Sea shells had been used as money at some time 31 another over the greater part of the Old World. These were 32 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 continent from East to West. Metal, valued by weight, 33 coins in many parts of the world. Iron, in lumps, bars or rings, is still used in many countries instead of paper money. It can either be exchanged for goods, or made into tools, weapons, or ornaments. The early money of China, apart from shells, was of bronze, often in flat, round pieces with a hole in the middle, called 'cash'. The 34 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 replaced nearly all the more picturesque 35 of money, and although in one or two of the more remote countries people still keep it for future use on ceremonial 36 such as weddings and funerals, examples of 37 money will soon be found only in museums. A. preceded B. object C. produced D. or E. collected F. original G. substance H. forms I. times J. assembly K. advantageous L. primitive M. occasions N. absolute O. earliest