[单项选择]

Passage One
We have no idea about when men first began to use salt, but we do know that it has been used in many different ways throughout the history.
For example, it is recorded in many history books the people who lived over three thousand years ago ate salted fish. Thousands of years ago in Egypt, salt was used to preserve the dead.
In some periods of history, a person who stole salt was thought to have broken the law. Take the eighteenth century for an example, if a person was caught stealing salt, he would be thrown into prison. History also records that only in England about ten thousand people were put into prison during that century for stealing salt! About one hundred and fifty years ago, in the year 1553, if a man took more than his share of salt, he would be thought to have broken the law and would be seriously punished. The offender’ s ear was cut off.
Salt was an important item on the dinner table of a king. It was always
A. they had been caught stealing salt
B. they had sold salted fish
C. they had taken salt from the king' s table
D. they had used salt to preserve dead bodies