Given the advantages of electronic money, you might think that we would move quickly to the cashless society in which all payments are made electronically.【C1】_____, a true cashless society is probably not around the corner. Indeed, predictions have been【C2】__for two decades but have not yet come to fruition. For example, Business Week predicted in 1975 that electronic means of payment would soon “revolutionize the very【C3】__of money itself,” only to【C4】__itself several years later. Why has the movement to a cashless society been so【C5】_____in coming?

Although electronic means of payment may be more efficient than a payments system based on paper, several factors work【C6】_____the disappearance of the paper system. First, it is very【C7】__to set up the computer, card reader, and telecommunications networks necessary to make electronic money the【C8】__form of payment. Second, paper checks have the advantage that they【C9】__receipts, something that many consumers are unwilling to【C10】__. Third, the use of paper checks gives consumers several days of “float”—it takes several days【C11】__a check is cashed and funds are【C12】__from the issuer’s account, which means that the writer of the check can earn interest on the funds in the meantime.【C13】_____electronic payments are immediate, they eliminate the float for the consumer.

Fourth, electronic means of payment may【C14】_____security and privacy concerns. We often hear media reports that an unauthorized hacker has been able to access a computer database and to alter information【C15】__there. The fact that this is not an【C16】__occurrence means that dishonest persons might be able to access bank accounts in electronic payments systems and【C17】__from someone else’s accounts. The【C18】__of this type of fraud is no easy task, and a new field of computer science is developing to【C19】__security issues. A further concern is that the use of electronic means of payment leaves an electronic【C20】_____that contains a large amount of personal data. There are concerns that government, employers, and marketers might be able to access these data, thereby violating our privacy.

Millions of Americans and foreigners see G. I. Joe as a mindless war toy, the symbol of American military adventurism, but that’s not how it used to be. To the men and women who【C1】________ in World War II and the people they liberated, the G. I. was the【C2】_____man grown into hero, the poor farm kid torn away from his home, the guy who【C3】__all the burdens of battle, who slept in cold foxholes, who went without the【C4】__of food and shelter, who stuck it out and drove back the Nazi reign of murder. This was not a volunteer soldier, not someone well paid,【C5】__an average guy, up【C6】_____the best trained, best equipped, fiercest, most brutal enemies seen in centuries.

His name isn’t much. G. I. is just a military abbreviation【C7】_____Government Issue, and it was on all of the articles【C8】__to soldiers. And Joe? A common name for a guy who never【C9】__it to the top. Joe Blow, Joe Palooka, Joe Magrac…a working class name. The United States has【C10】_____had a president or vice-president or secretary of state Joe.

G. I. Joe had a【C11】_____career fighting German, Japanese, and Korean troops. He appears as a character, or a【C12】__of American personalities, in the 1945 movie The Story of G. I. Joe, based on the last days of war correspondent Ernie Pyle. Some of the soldiers Pyle【C13】__portrayed themselves in the film. Pyle was famous for covering the【C14】__side of the war, writing about the dirt -snow-and-mud soldiers, not how many miles were【C15】__or what towns were captured or liberated. His reports【C16】__the “Willie” cartoons of famed Stars and Stripes artist Bill Maulden. Both men 【C17】__the dirt and exhaustion of war, the【C18】__of civilization that the soldiers shared with each other and the civilians: coffee, tobacco, whiskey, shelter, sleep.【C19】__Egypt, France, and a dozen more countries, G. I. Joe was any American soldier,【C20】_____the most important person in their lives.