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What may well be the oldest metal coins in the world have been identified at an ancient abandoned city known as Guanzhuang in China. Like many Bronze Age (青铜时代) coins from the region, they were cast in the shape of spades with finely carved handles. These ancient coins existed during an in-between period between barter (以物易物) and money, when coins were a novel concept, but everybody knew that agricultural tools were valuable.

Reading about this incredible discovery, I kept thinking about the way modern people represent computer networks by describing machines as having “addresses”, like a house. We also talk about one computer using a “port” to send information to another computer, as if the data were a floating boat with destination. It’s as if we are in the Bronze Age of information technology, grasping desperately for real-world reference to transform our civilization.

Now consider what happened to spade coins. Over centuries, metalworkers made these coins into more abstract shapes. Some became almost human figures. Others’ handles were reduced to small half-circles. As spade coins grew more abstract, people carved them with number values and the locations where they were made. They became more like modern coins, flat and covered in writing. Looking at one of these later pieces, you would have no idea that they were once intended to look like a spade.

This makes me wonder if we will develop an entirely new set of symbols that allow us to interact with our digital information more smoothly.

Taking spade coins as our guide, we can guess that far-future computer networks will no longer contain any recognizable references to houses. But they still might bring some of the ideas we associate with home to our mind. In fact, computer networks — if they still exist at all — are likely to be almost the indispensable part of our houses and cities, their sensors inset with walls and roads. Our network addresses might actually be the same as our street addresses. If climate change leads to floods, our mobile devices might look more like boats than phones, assisting us to land.

My point is that the metaphors of the information age aren’t random. Mobile devices do offer us comfort after a long day at work. In some sense, our desire to settle on the shores of data lakes could change the way we understand home, as well as how we build computers. So as we cast our minds forward, we have to think about what new abstractions will go along with our information technology. Perhaps the one thing we count on is that humans will still appreciate the comforts of home.

1．Many Bronze Age coins were made into the shape of a spade because ___________.

A．a lot of emphasis was put on agriculture

B．this stylish design made the coins valuable

C．these coins also served as agricultural tools

D．the handles made the coins easily exchanged

2．Why does the author relate computers to spade coins?

A．To show they both used to be new concepts when first invented.

B．To explain abstract digital worlds are different from concrete coins.

C．To suggest computers will experience dramatic changes as coins did.

D．To highlight their same importance in our civilizational transformation.

3．What does the underlined word “indispensable” in Paragraph 5 probably mean?

A．Flexible.

B．Essential.

C．Wasteful.

D．Alternative.

4．Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A．What Coins and Computers Bring Us

B．How Agriculture Loses to Digital Industry

C．How Bronze Age Develops to Information Age

D．What Ancient Money Tells Us About the Future