There was a timein the early history of man when the days had no names! The (51) __________was quitesimple: Man had invented the week.
In those days, the only division of times was the (52)___________,and there were too many days in the month for each of them to have a separatename. But when men began to build cities, they wanted to have a special day onwhich to (53)__________, a market day.Sometimes these market days were fixed atevei^ tenth day, some every seventh or every fifth day. The Babylonians(54)___________that it should be every seventh day. On this day they didn'twork, but met for trade or religious festivals.
The Jews followed their (55)_____, but kept every seventh day forreligious purposes. On this day the week came into existence. It was spacebetween market days. The Jews gave (56)___________of the seven days a name, buth was really a number after the Sabbath day (which was Saturday). For example,Wednesday was (57)_____________the fourthday (four days after Saturday).
When the Egyptians adopted the seven-day week, they named the daysafter five (58)__________, the sun and the moon. The Romans used the Egyptiannames for their days of the week: the day of the sun, of the moon, of theplanet Mars, of Mercury, of Jupiter, of Venus, and of Saturn.
We get our names for the days not from the Romans but from theAnglo-Saxons, who called most of the days after their own (59)________, whichwere roughly the same as the gods of the Romans. The day of the sun becameSannandaeg, or Sunday. The day of the (60)_______was called Monandaeg, orMonday. The day of Mars became the day of the Tiw,who was their god of war.This became Tiwesdaeg, or Tuesday. Instead of Mercury’s name, that of the godWoden was given to Wednesday. The Roman day of Jupiter, the thunder, became theday of the thunder god Thor, and this became Thursday. The next day was namedfor Frigg, the wife of their god Odin, and so we have Friday. The day of Saturnbecame Saetemdaeg, a translation from the Roman, and then Saturday.
(From How Did the Days of the Week GetTheir Names?)
请选择恰当单词填空
51. reason
52. month
53. trade
54.decided
55. example
56.each
57.called
58.planets
59.gods
60.moon
