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
alarm dismissal probability
antiskeptic
as warm as a toast
ASCR
attorney at law
automobile traffic
Balastya
ballast waterline
ballow
barium soap
betz
biasing spring
bitchier
brassica campestris chinensis purpuria
buckle folds(flexural folds)
cellular dolomite
centilitre
central sphere
chisel nail point
cilleral
coliindex
crotchlines
cyberutopians
cyrtohypnum sparsifolium
dated back
decision-making section
die like flies
differential astrometry
domestic transport
edelrid
eisenstaedts
electric filter
elsilimomab
engh
excess 3 binary coded decimal
fixed count check
fractional-order
God botherer
haires
have a touch of
heart-kidney imbalance
Heli-Grid packing
hochner
hoggets
howea belmoreana becc.
ingroup (in-group)
klipdassie
Kysyl-Sulus
Leonardo
leukokraurosis
linear porosity
Lisskogsåsen
LTBMC
LTSP
maillart
mediocentric
micro-machines
minimum access programming
moneyless
mongean method
nagged
nonspiked
Norris, George William
oxypetalous
phlegmasia alba dolens puerperarum
picotamine
pigeon-wood
pittle
plane of support
plastic glove
postjudge
priestleys
red-eared sliders
reevoking
register-renaming
reorganising
rights of beneficiaries
scherzando
schizocythere gibbrosa
schwannoma of kidney
severe pollutant
shaft counter
showhouses
simple insurance
slnb
sneakest
Southville
sterculia gums
Temburong Dis.
the pledge of love union
therapeutic drug
Tocantins, Estado de
Tonate
toolkit without an interesting name
uncenturied
underwater floodlamp
upper arcs
uromyces mucunae
vacuum leak hunting
Vermand
wolfram bonze
xiantang