[阅读理解]

【题干】Money d and s its Functions
Although the crucial feature of money is its acceptance as the means of payment or medium
of exchange, money has three other functions. It serves as a unit of account, as a store of value,
and as a standard of deferred payment. We discuss each of the four functions of money in turn.
e The m Medium f of Exchange
Money, the medium of exchange, is used in one half of almost all exchange. Workers
exchange labour services for money. People buy or sell goods in exchange for money. We
accept money not to consume it directly but because it can subsequently be used to buy things
we do wish to consume. Money is the medium through which people exchange goods and services.
To see that society benefits from a medium of exchange, imagine a barter economy.
A barter economy has no medium of exchange. Goods are traded directly or exchanged for other
goods.
In a barter economy, the seller and the buyer each must want something the other has to offer.
Each person is simultaneously a seller and a buyer. In order to see a film, you must hand over
in exchange a good or service that the cinema manager wants. There has to be a double coincidence
of wants. You have to find a cinema where the manager wants what you have to offer in exchange.
Trading is very expensive in a barter economy. People must spend a lot of time and effort
finding others with whom they can make mutually satisfactory exchanges. Since time and effort
are scarce resources, a barter economy is wasteful. The use of money-any commodity generally
accepted in payment for goods, services, and debts-makes the trading process simpler and more
efficient.
r Other s Functions f of Money
The unit of account is the unit in which prices are quoted and accounts are kept.
In Britain prices are quoted in pounds sterling；in France, in French francs. It is usually
convenient to use the units in which the medium of exchange is measured as the unit of account
as well. However there are exceptions. During the rapid German inflation of 1922～1923, when
prices in marks were changing very quickly, German shopkeepers found it more convenient to use
dollars as the unit of account. Prices were quoted in dollars even though payment was made in
marks, the German medium of exchange.
Money is a store of value because it can be used to make purchases in the future.
To be accepted in exchange, money has to be a store of value. Nobody would accept money as
payment for goods supplied today if the money was going to be worthless when they tried to buy
goods with it tomorrow. But money is neither the only nor necessarily the best store of value.
Houses, stamp collections, and interestbearing bank accounts all serve as stores of value. Since
money pays no interest and its real purchasing power is gradually weakened by inflation, there
are almost certainly better ways to store value.
Finally, money serves as a standard of deferred payment or a unit of account over time. But
this is not an essential function of money. The key feature of money is its use as a medium of
exchange. For this, it must act as a store of value as well. And it is usually, though not invariably,
convenient to make money the unit of account and standard of deferred payment as well.
t Different s Kinds f of Money
In prisoner-of-war camps, cigarettes served as money. In the nineteenth century money
was mainly gold and silver coins. These are examples of commodity money, ordinary goods with
industrial uses (gold) and consumption uses (cigarettes) which also serve as a medium of exchange.
To use a commodity money, society must either cut back on other uses of that
commodity or devote scarce resources to producing additional quantities of the commodity. But there are less expensive ways for society to produce money.
A token money is a means of payment whose value or purchasing power as money greatly
exceeds its cost of production or value in uses other than as money.
A 10-pound note is worth far more as money than as a 3×6 inch piece of highquality
paper. Similarly, the monetary value of most coins exceeds the amount you

【题目】What is the major function of money?
A. The medium of exchange. B. The unit of account.
C. A store of value. D. A standard of deferred payment.

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