Đề thi học sinh giỏi cấp tỉnh môn Tiếng Anh lớp 9 năm học 2014 - 2015, sở GD - ĐT An Giang

The Old Clock

John lived (1) ________ his mother in a very big house, and when she died, the house became (2) ________ big for him, (3) ________ he bought a smaller one in the next street. There was a very nice old clock in his first house, and when the men came to take his furniture (4) ________ the new house, John thought, "I'm not going to let them (5) ________ my beautiful old clock in their truck. Perhaps they'll break it, and then repairing it will (6) ________ expensive." So he picked it up and began to carry it down the road in his arms.
It was heavy, so he stopped two or three times to have a (7) ______.

Then suddenly a small boy came along the road. He stopped and looked (8) ______ John for a few seconds. Then he said to John, "You're a foolish man, (9) _____ you? Why don't you (10) _____ a watch like everybody else?"

About three thousand years ago, there were no shops. If you needed something you had to make it yourself. For example, if you needed something you wear, you had to kill an animal and get its coat. If you were a good hunter and had a lot of coats, you could exchange them for other things you needed. You could get meat, fruit or an axe. This way of exchanging things is called barter.

Later on, people began to use money. They made money from things which would last and not go bad easily. They used stones, shells and animals’ teeth. After men had dicovered metal, they started to use copper, tin, silver and gold. They made these metals into small bar so that they were easy to store and carry about. Before there were banks, people kept their money themslves. Most people hid their money in the ground. They thought it was the safest place to store money.    

About five hundred years later, people began to make coins.They were easier to carry than metal bars.