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Gold is a rare metal with a lovely colour．It is not affected by （81）air or water．Because gold is so soft，it can be make into very thin flat pieces and very fine thread．
Over 5，000 years ago，gold had some special meanings for the ancient Egyptians．They believed that all gold （82）belonged to their kings，the Pharaohs．In fact，luckily for us，they put many precious gold objects in the palaces with their Pharaohs when they died，and we can see a lot of them in museums today．The Egyptians had a lot of skill in working with gold； they could make it into sheets so thin that a pile of 35，700 pieces would be only 2.5 cm high．Sheets like this are called gold leaf．Gold leaf is still used today to （83）decorate furniture and other things．
The gold used to make jewellery is usually mixed with other metals．This not only makes the things （84）cheaper，but also harder．People use the word"karats"to talk about how good the gold is．One carat means one twenty-fourth part of it is made of gold．
Because it was not （85）common and therefore had a high value，gold was used as money all over the world in the past．Today，we use pieces of paper （86）instead，but many countries still keep bars of gold in the banks．They can change this gold into money by selling it to other countries．About two thirds of all the gold in the world is kept in this way．
Gold is found in many parts of the world，usually deep （87）under the ground．It can also be found in rivers．The sea contains gold too，but it would cost more money to get the gold out of the sea than the gold is worth．
