新东方背诵文选 L19.children's numerical skills
时间：2018-12-15 作者：英语课 分类：新东方背诵文选
英语课
people appear to born to compute 1. The numerical skills of children develop so early and so inexorably that it is easy to imagine an internal clock of mathematical maturity 2 guiding their growth. Not long after learning to walk and talk, they can set the table with impress accuracy---one knife, one spoon, one fork, for each of the five chairs. Soon they are capable of nothing that they have placed five knives, spoons and forks on the table and, a bit later, that this amounts to fifteen pieces of silverware. Having thus mastered addition, they move on to subtraction 3. It seems almost reasonable to expect that if a child were secluded 4 on a desert island at birth and retrieved 5 seven years later, he or she could enter a second enter a second-grade mathematics class without any serious problems of intellectual adjustment.
Of course, the truth is not so simple. This century, the work of cognitive 6 psychologists has illuminated 7 the subtle forms of daily learning on which intellectual progress depends. Children were observed as they slowly grasped---
--or, as the case might be, bumped into----- concepts that adults take for quantity is unchanged as water pours from a short glass into a tall thin one. Psychologists have since demonstrated that young children, asked to count the pencils in a pile, readily report the number of blue or red pencils, but must be coaxed 8 into finding the total. Such studies have suggested that the rudiments 9 of mathematics are mastered gradually, and with effort. They have also suggested that the very concept of abstract numbers------the idea of a oneness, a twoness, a threeness that applies to any class of objects and is a prerequisite for doing anything more mathematically demanding than setting a table-----is itself far from innate
1 compute
v./n.计算，估计
- I compute my losses at 500 dollars.我估计我的损失有五百元。
- The losses caused by the floods were beyond compute.洪水造成的损失难以估量。
2 maturity
n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期
- These plants ought to reach maturity after five years.这些植物五年后就该长成了。
- This is the period at which the body attains maturity.这是身体发育成熟的时期。
3 subtraction
n.减法，减去
- We do addition and subtraction in arithmetic.在算术里,我们作加减运算。
- They made a subtraction of 50 dollars from my salary.他们从我的薪水里扣除了五十美元。
4 secluded
adj.与世隔绝的；隐退的；偏僻的v.使隔开，使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词)
- Some people like to strip themselves naked while they have a swim in a secluded place. 一些人当他们在隐蔽的地方游泳时，喜欢把衣服脱光。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- This charming cottage dates back to the 15th century and is as pretty as a picture, with its thatched roof and secluded garden. 这所美丽的村舍是15世纪时的建筑，有茅草房顶和宁静的花园，漂亮极了，简直和画上一样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
5 retrieved
v.取回( retrieve的过去式和过去分词 )；恢复；寻回；检索（储存的信息）
- Yesterday I retrieved the bag I left in the train. 昨天我取回了遗留在火车上的包。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- He reached over and retrieved his jacket from the back seat. 他伸手从后座上取回了自己的夹克。 来自辞典例句
6 cognitive
adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的
- As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
- The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。
7 illuminated
adj.被照明的；受启迪的
- Floodlights illuminated the stadium. 泛光灯照亮了体育场。
- the illuminated city at night 夜幕中万家灯火的城市