Scientists from Oxford University in England have [recovered / discovered] that the written use of [the / a] zero is 500 years older than [previous / previously] thought. The scientists used carbon dating to [trace / brace] the symbol's origins to a famous ancient Indian scroll called the Bakhshali Manuscript. Scientists found the scroll [dates / dating] back to the third century, which [makes / has] it the oldest script using the symbol. Before the carbon dating of the scroll, scientists [belief / believed] the manuscript was created in the eighth [century / centuries] . It was found in the village of Bakhshali in 1881. The zero symbol that we use today [evolved / revolved] from a round dot frequently used in India. This symbol can be seen [severe / several] times on the manuscript.
Marcus Du Santoy, a mathematics professor at Oxford University, explained the [significance / significant] of the zero in our [livelihoods / lives] . He told Britain's 'Guardian' newspaper that: "Today, we take it [for / from] granted that the concept of zero is used [crossed / across] the globe and is a key building block of the digital [earth / world] . But the creation of zero as a number in its own [rightly / right] , which evolved from the placeholder dot [symbol / symbolic] found in the Bakhshali manuscript, was one of the greatest [breakouts / breakthroughs] in the history of mathematics." Zero has many names in English, including nought, nil (in football) and love (in tennis). It is often said as "oh" in the [context / contract] of telephone numbers. Informal or slang [trims / terms] for zero include nowt, nada, zilch and zip.
