4、In 1755 there were no commercial banks in the American colonies. The commercial Bank of England was already almost a century old, but few colonists had any dealings with it or with the Mother Country’s huge funded debt. However, there are some colonial institutions, both public and private, which went by the name of “bank”, but most of these were very different from commercial banks. In the decades following the first attempts in Philadelphia, New York and Boston to establish the Bank of North America in 1781, the Bank of New York in 1784, commercial banking survived political attacks, and economic depressions. In the early days of the American Republic, there developed two different types of banks: commercial and savings. Savings banks only let the individual put money in the bank. Loans or credits to buy unimproved land came from the land owner, which could be an individual, a large company such as the Holland Land Company, or the government. Sometimes wealthy personal friends supplied money.

Country banks, which were commercial banks, but which broke many of the rules of strict commercial banking, also loaned money for real estate（不動(dòng)產(chǎn)）. Insurance and Trust companies did too. Individuals and country and city banks made personal loans backed only by promissory notes（本票）, though the latter usually tried to hide the fact. Bad agents broke the states laws to supply short-term unsecured（無抵押的）credit at high interest. Merchants and commercial banks conducted currency exchanges.

Commercial banks accepted special and demand deposits. They also created deposits by loaning “money of account” that could be drawn on by check. Finally, commercial banks, and sometimes other companies, both public and private, used loans to issue their own promissory notes payable to the bearer（持票人）on demand. By presenting the note at the bank of issue, the bearer received the note’s face value in gold or silver. Merchants considered bank notes the equal of specie （money in coins）. A bank that could not change its notes into gold or silver was considered bankrupt and could lose its charter.

1．Which of the following statements best expresses the main idea of the passage?

       A．Commercial banking in early America was slow to develop.

       B．Banking in America was often unlawful.

       C．America developed its own banking institutions in response to local developments rather than reproducing those of England.

       D．Commercial banking in early America was not really commercial banking.

2．The underlined word “which” in the first paragraph refers to         .

       A．loans or credits

       B．unimproved land

       C．land owner

       D．a(chǎn)n individual, a large company or the government

3．According to the passage, commercial banks supported their promissory notes by honoring to pay      .

       A．in coins               B．in kind                 C．in theory             D．in gold and silver

4．According to the passage, a commercial bank could have to close if         .

       A．it didn’t have enough gold and silver

       B．too many customers wanted to present their promissory noted for payment

       C．the value of money in coins was not about equal with the money of gold and silver

       D．it only let the individual put money in the bank