时间:2018-12-31 作者:英语课 分类:英语听力文摘 English Digest


英语课

   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 1 describes either a number or a finger. So if anyone teases 2 you for counting on your fingers, just tell them you find your digits 3 quite handy!

n.零到九的阿拉伯数字,手指,脚趾
  • Her telephone number differs from mine by one digit.她的电话号码和我的只差一个数字。
  • Many animals have five digits.许多动物有5趾。
v.取笑,戏弄( tease的第三人称单数 );梳理(羊毛等)
  • My boyfriend's brother is really out of it; he always teases us. 我男友的弟弟很无聊;他总是捉弄我们。 来自辞典例句
  • The little boy teases for ice-cream. 小男孩不住地吵着要买冰淇淋。 来自辞典例句
n.数字( digit的名词复数 );手指,足趾
  • The number 1000 contains four digits. 1000是四位数。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The number 410 contains three digits. 数字 410 中包括三个数目字。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
学英语单词
acyclic digraph
add one to memory
adsorbed complex
alexipharmics
amethystanthus japonicus nakai
anti fatigue
archimedean method
auschwitz-birkenau
basic command
biconical cusp
body Ianguage
camouflaging
capitular process
carboniums
cascade grade
choledochitis
coastal rein orchids
computer-formatted terminal forecast (cftf)
convoker
corpora amylacea
counter die
coursably
curated
cyclopentobarbital
diadynamic electrotherapy
Difeandion
dinicotinylornlthine
disparageth
drawing out frame
exponent part format
extracoelenteric
extrauterine
famine food
fibrilae
field application relay
filter contact
four-cell type magazine loom
fractional dissolution
graviera
h-street
holacanth
Humorsol
Hymenolepis
idioparasite
indirect heater
Ischaemum setaceum
knowledge management (km)
lead-acid accumulators
liberary edition
limnodromus scolopaceuss
line access point
livestock judge
local sources
mcillwain
mysticisms
Myxosarcina
national manager
noncash document
noncommutatively
ordzhonikidzes
outslips
package of service program
painted crayfish
past the breast
payload carrier
persistable
personal control
phreatic water table
plasticizing
pocerounce
pulp catcher
punch-and-die process
puttyblower
pycnidial
Ragogna
right-hand mill
ring nut spanner
robbery suspect
ruthenium(iii) cyanide
savagerous
screw cutting tool
Senecio jacoboea
sidejack
solid propellant rocket engine
speaks in tongues
spring rolls
square division
square eyes
Taj.
television networks
Temple City
tethes
theory of estate tax
threshold drying
thymokesis
torvizcons
travelling crab
uncleji
weatherproof adhesive
Wien-De Sauty bridge
world export prices indices
zanuck