Car registration plates (牌照) are just a series of numbers and letters, right? Well, yes…but not for everyone.

France was the first country     1    (introduce) plates in 1893. Early number plates differed     2    shape and size, and were made of lots of different materials, including iron, cardboard and even pressed soybeans. In fact, it was not until 1957     3    car manufacturers and the governments agreed on standardized(标准化) plates.     4    was first registered in the UK was A1. The letter “A” showed the number was from London, while the number “1” showed it was the first number issued. At the moment, number plates     5     (consist) of a sequence of letters and numbers are applied in the UK.

Different EU countries also use different arrangements of numbers and letters, and     6     systems have changed many times because these letter-number     7     (combine) keep running out. In the past decades, some number plates     8     (become) extremely valuable, particularly those that spell out words.     9     (basic), numbers on the plates can be used to represent words or parts of words. For example, “NVERLA8” means “Never Late”. And the most     10     (expense) number ever was “M1” which an anonymous(匿名的) buyer has acquired for ￡331,000.