Reading passages

12- The author states that, in the Middle Ages, ……… . 
A) Roman numerals had lost their influence 
B) football, tennis and cricket were popular pastimes 
C) people used to count In twenties 
D) numbering systems developed close to their present forms 
E) there were still primitive tribes counting by finger 
Military rockets filled with gunpowder were first used in 1312 by the Chinese against the Tatars. The 
idea caught on in the West, too, and rockets lit up the sky in 1380 in battle between Venice and 
Genoa. Th  Indians used them against the British at the end of the 18th century. The British were 
impressed and Colonel William Congreve set to work on the Congreve rocket, with a rang of 1,800 
metres. In 1806, during the Napoleonic wars, some 200 Congreve rockets set fire to Boulogne. This 
had no been part of the plan: they had actually beer aimed at shipping in the harbour. Rockets have 
since been also used to fire lifelines from ship to shore, to fire harpoons into the backs of whales, and 
of course, to launch humans into space.