在短文的空格内填入适当的词，使其内容通顺。每空格限填一词，首字母已给。
Thousands of years ago, people used
different ways to measure things. Some people used the s{#blank#}1{#/blank#}of their king s foot or hand to measure
things. After the king died, they used the new king's foot or hand, and so on.
However, it was i{#blank#}2{#/blank#}for
people to tell the exact size of a thing. In 1584, the Dutch(荷兰的) engineer Simon Steven started
to think about a set of measures, The measures used the number ten. H{#blank#}3{#/blank#}, it was just an idea. No one was
interested in his idea at that time.
About two hundred years later, the French
scientists created a n{#blank#}4{#/blank#}system
of units, using Simon Steven's idea. Around this time, the French scientists w{#blank#}5{#/blank#}out the length of a metre and began to
use metres to measure length. They decided to c{#blank#}6{#/blank#}a hundredth of a metre a centimetre and
a thousand metres a kilometre.
