Matura 2022 rozszerzony czytanie 4
Matura z angielskiego 2022

Matura 2022 z języka angielskiego poziom rozszerzony

Rozumienie tekstu czytanego i rozpoznawanie struktur leksykalno-gramatycznych zadanie 4

Zadanie 4. (4 pkt)
Przeczytaj tekst, który został podzielony na trzy części (A–C), oraz pytania go dotyczące (4.1.–4.4.). Do każdego pytania dopasuj właściwą część tekstu. Wpisz rozwiązania do tabeli.
Uwaga: jedna część tekstu pasuje do dwóch pytań.

In which paragraph does the author

4.1. link the origin of the dollar sign ($) to a certain geographical landmark?
4.2. point to a non-English origin of the word dollar?
4.3. express regret that the roots of the US dollar sign are difficult to trace?
4.4. compare the value of one currency to another?

THE CURIOUS ORIGINS OF THE DOLLAR

A. The dollar has an exciting history. In 1520, the Kingdom of Bohemia began making coins
using silver from a mine in Joachimsthal. Logically, the coin was called the Joachimsthaler.
Shortened to thaler the name found its way into other languages, for example, daler in
Dutch. And, it was the Dutch coin that, thanks to booming international trade, made its way
to the Dutch New Netherland Colony. It's noteworthy that the modern pronunciation of dollar
is remarkably close to the 17th-century Dutch pronunciation of daler. Unfortunately, there is
no straightforward answer to the question of how the dollar sign originated.

B. One theory is that the dollar sign comes from the Pillars of Hercules, as the Ancient Greeks
used to call the two rocks at the entrance to the Straits of Gibraltar. When King Ferdinand II
of Aragon claimed the Straits of Gibraltar in 1492, he ordered the production of coins
showing the Pillars of Hercules wrapped in a banner. When the Spanish colonized America,
the coins travelled with them and so the Pillars of Hercules became a symbol of the New
World. In the 18th and 19th centuries they also appeared on the Spanish dollar, known as
the peso. This showed two columns with a ribbon wrapped around them in an S shape.
The similarity to the American dollar sign seems obvious.

C. Another widely accepted theory also involves the Spanish currency, and it goes like this: in
the colonies, trade between Spanish Americans and English Americans was lively,
and the Spanish peso was a legal currency in the US until 1857. The word “peso” was often
abbreviated to the initial “P” with an “S” beside it. Gradually the “P” merged with the “S”,
then the “P” lost its curve, leaving a vertical line in the centre of the “S”. A peso was more
or less worth one American dollar. Since both were in circulation simultaneously, the sign
might have been transferred.