The word money comes from the name of the Roman goddess Moneta in whose temple silver coins were made.
One of the earliest forms of money was metal, such as gold or silver. In North America, Native Americans used beads made of shell, called wampum, as a form of money.
People invented money to avoid barter. The value of paper money and coins comes from an agreement between all people.
People have used money for more than 4,000 years. In the 600s BC the kingdom of Lydia in what is now Turkey began to make coins.
The first types of paper money were used in China more than 1,000 years ago.
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Tuatara is the closest living relative to the dinosaurs of the past. Dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago, but tuataras didn’t. Scientists think that they survived because of their small size. Tuataras have a third eye on the top of their heads. They don’t actually see with it but use it as a light sensor.

Dinosaurs roared for about 150 million years before they disappeared. We humans have only been around for about 2 million years. But cockroaches are 350 million years old and still going strong! Cockroaches can survive in extreme conditions. They can be frozen, then thawed, and walk away as if nothing had happened. They can go for incredibly long time without eating anything. And that is the secret of their success. When there’s nothing to eat at all, they’ll turn on each other and dine on their friends. They can even recover after being frozen!
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The word “dinosaur” is derived from two Greek words, meaning “terrible lizard.” The dinosaurs arose during the interval of geologic time known as the Mesozoic (middle life) era, often called the “golden age of reptiles” or “the age of dinosaurs.”
Species of dinosaurs ranged from chicken-sized creatures to colossal, herbivorous animals known as “sauropods”.
Dinosaurs were remarkable and impressive animals. Some species of dinosaurs were large predators, others were immense herbivores, and still others were smaller predators, herbivores, or scavengers. Most, if not all, dinosaurs laid eggs. Some dinosaurs built large nests to keep their babies together. Large dinosaurs might have lived almost 100 years.
Dinosaurs lived for about 160 million years and were the dominant terrestrial animals on Earth throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods—a span of over 100 million years. The dinosaurs were the ancient cousins of today’s crocodiles, snakes, and lizards.
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There is the world of the Amish people in America. They live without telephones and television, without cars and electricity. Everyone works on farms and travels by horse or on foot. Amish people are the followers of Jacob Amman. This movement appeared in 1693 in Switzerland, but because of the persecution the Amish had to leave Europe and move to America.
In the eighteenth century the Amish people went to America. Since then their lifestyle has not changed at all. They speak a language called Pennsylvania Dutch, or Amish, which sounds like German. They base their life on the Bible. The Amish is called Protestant Old Believers.
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January was named after the Roman god Janus, the god of beginnings and of doors and gateways. Janus was represented as having two faces so that he might guard both entrances and exits. This has reinforced the mistaken belief that January was so named because it was the first month of the year. In fact, however, when the ten-month Roman calendar was reestablished about 700 B.C., January was added as the eleventh month and so named because it contained a feast day in honor of Janus. In 153 B.C. it began to be counted, as the first month and January quickly became a popular festival.
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Everyone knows Teddy Bear. But why he was called Teddy? Why not Harry or John or Jane?
The story goes back to 1902, when Theodore Roosevelt was President of the United States. The press and the people called him Teddy. He didn’t like the name, but accepted it. It made him seem more informal to the people he served. In November 1902 President Roosevelt decided to go out hunting for the day. After several hours, he still hadn’t bagged anything. Then one of his aides discovered a lost bear cub wandering through the woods. But Roosevelt couldn’t bring himself to shoot the defenceless cub. The newspapers were filled with cartoons depicting him with a bear. The story became fable.
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The Inca Empire included about 12 million people at its peak in the early 1500s. It lasted less than 100 years, from 1438 to 1532, but it was the biggest and richest empire in America. Their capital was Cuzco. It was a beautiful city. There were palaces, temples, schools, houses, and government buildings.
The Inca grew corn, squash, tomatoes, peanuts, and cotton. They were the first to grow potatoes. The Incas worshipped the coca plant. They thought that it was magical and used it for religious and health purposes. They made clothing from llama wool and cotton.
The Incas were wonderful engineers. In less than a hundred years, they built over 22,500 km of roads, and hundreds of bridges. A complex aqueduct system used to bring water to farms, villages and towns. Machu Picchu is one of the most amazing archaeological sites in the world. Located high in the Andes Mountains of Peru, Machu Picchu was never found by the Spanish invaders.
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