英语听力材料下载：格陵兰岛神奇的计数法

英语听力材料下载：格陵兰岛神奇的计数法How People In Greenland Learn How To Count

Kids learn to count on their fingers, because they’re so, well, handy! And it makes sense–most number systems

originally developed as people counted using their fingers.

The counting system of native Greenlanders not only uses

all ten fingers, but all ten toes as well! Here’s how it works. The Greenlandic word for the number seven translates as, “second hand, two.” That means you count five on the

first hand and add two from the second, to make seven. After you run out of fingers, go for the toes. Thirteen translates

as “first foot, three.” That means you add all ten fingers plus three toes.

The counting system we use has a base of ten. Larger numbers are simply multiples of ten. For example, ten tens make one hundred. We’re so used to our base ten system that

it may seem like the only possibility. But the Greenlandic number system has a base of twenty, and others have a base of five. Of all the number systems ever invented, five, ten, and twenty are the most common bases.

It’s no coincidence that these bases match the number of fingers on one hand, or two hands, or all of our fingers and toes. The connection between fingers and counting is so close that several languages have just one word that means both “hand” and the number five. Even in English, the word digit describes either a number or a finger. So if anyone teases

you for counting on your fingers, just tell them you find

your digits quite handy!

格陵兰岛人是怎样学会计数的？

小孩通过数手指来学习计数，因为这样确实非常方便。由此，最

初的数字系统是从人们以手指计数发展而来也就变得合乎情理了。

古代格陵兰岛人的计数系统不但要用到十个手指，甚至连十个脚

趾都用上了！以下就是这种计数方式的工作原理。格陵兰语中，数字7翻译出来就是“第二只手，两根手指。”意思是说你数完第一只手的

五个手指，再加上第二只手的两根手指得到数字七。如果手指不够用，那就再用脚趾。数字13翻译出来是“第一只脚，三只脚趾。”说明

你数完了所有十个手指，再数三个脚趾就得到数字十三。

我们使用的计数系统是十进制的。较大的数字就是用10来倍乘。

比如，10个10就是100.我们非常习惯使用十进制计数，以至于认为

世上只有这个种计数系统。但是格陵兰岛的计数系统是二十进制的，

也有一些地方采用五进制。在所有发明的计数系统中，五进制、十进

制和二十进制是最为常见的。

这些计数的基数和我们的一只手的手指数、两只手的手指数，以

及所有的手指和脚趾的数目吻合并非巧合。手指和计数之间的联系如

此紧密以至于很多语言里都只有一个词用来同时表示“手”和数字“五”。甚至在英语里也有这样的情况，单词digit既可表示数字也

可表示手指。所以，如果有人因为你用手指数数而取笑你的话，你只

需告诉他你觉得使用手指计算很方便就行了！