Activity 1
Read the next text and make the active sentences into PASSIVE VOICE:
A SHORT HISTORY OF MONEY
Barter has been practiced since the beginning of human society. If I have chickens and you have grain, we can exchange some of what we have. Then we both have chickens and grain. But barter is not the same as money. Money must have two qualities: it must serve as a measure of value and it must be durable so it can be kept and transferred. A chicken can be valued at two bags of grain. But grain is hard to carry, and it can spoil or be eaten by mice. So grain is not useful as money.
Cowrie shells were the first real currency, or money. They were used in China, beginning around 1200 BC and in many other parts of the world until the middle of the last century.
Silver coins were first used around 500 BC, in the area that is now Turkey. Bills (paper money) were introduced in China around 800 AD. They have been common in Europe only since the mid -1700s.
Increasingly, since 1950, cash has been replaced by credit cards. The first cards could only be used in restaurants, but since the 1970s paying with plástic has become a way of life for many people. The next step could be digital cash for use in person and on the internet. Unlike credit cards, digital cash could be as anonymous as bills and coins. There are still some technological problems, but they will probably be solved very soon.