In the passage, 'placeholder' means:
Early number systems did not have a symbol for nothing. Ancient peoples used a blank space to show an empty place, but this could be confusing, since a blank could easily be overlooked. In India, mathematicians began to treat zero as a number in its own right and described how it behaves in addition and subtraction. Their work reached the Arab world, where scholars in Baghdad studied and expanded it, and later it travelled to Europe. Today the zero is so familiar that it is hard to imagine arithmetic without it, yet it took centuries for it to be accepted as a true number rather than only a placeholder.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: D. a symbol that shows an empty position without having a value of its own
- Step 1: The passage contrasts a placeholder with a 'true number'. Step 2. A placeholder fills a position so other digits keep their value. Answer: a symbol that shows an empty position without having a value of its own. Why not the others: The other options give unrelated meanings.
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