The Invention of Coins
錢幣的發明
— English reading, TOEFL
文章
Before coins existed, people traded goods directly or used objects such as shells and grain as money. These systems worked, but they had limits.
在錢幣出現以前，人們直接以物易物，或用貝殼、穀物等物品當作錢。這些方法行得通，但有其限制。
Grain could spoil, and it was hard to agree on the value of a cow compared with a pot.
穀物會腐壞，而且一頭牛和一個陶罐各值多少，也很難談妥。
The first true coins appeared in Lydia, in what is now Turkey, around 2,600 years ago. They were made of electrum, a natural mixture of gold and silver, and stamped with an official mark.
最早真正的錢幣大約在兩千六百年前出現於呂底亞，也就是今天的土耳其一帶。它們以琥珀金——一種天然的金銀混合物——製成，並蓋上官方印記。
The mark guaranteed the coin's weight, so people no longer needed to weigh metal at every sale. Trade became faster, and the idea soon spread to Greece and beyond.
這個印記保證了錢幣的重量，人們不必再在每次買賣時秤量金屬。交易變得更快，這個點子很快就傳到希臘及更遠的地方。
生詞
exist 存在
trade 交易
grain 穀物
spoil 腐壞
value 價值
mixture 混合物
stamp 蓋印
guarantee 保證