Howquicklycanyoucountfromonetoten?Doyouusetendifferentwordstodoit?CanyoudoitinEnglish,ordoyouhavetouseyourfirstlanguages?Doyoucountonyourfingers?Manypeoplethinkthatnumbersandmatharethesameallove

　　Howquicklycanyoucountfromonetoten?Doyouusetendifferentwordstodoit?CanyoudoitinEnglish,ordoyouhavetouseyourfirstlanguages?Doyoucountonyourfingers?Manypeoplethinkthatnumbersandmatharethesameallovertheworld.Butscientistshavediscoveredthatitisnottrue.

　　Peopleindifferentpartsoftheworldusedifferentwaystocountontheirfingers.IntheUnitedStates,peoplethinkbegincountingwiththeirfirstfingers,whichtheyextendorstickout.Theythenextendtherestoftheirfingersandfinallythethumb(拇指）tocounttofive.Thentheyrepeatthiswiththeotherhandtogettoten.InChina,peoplecountbyusingdifferentfingerpositions.Inthisway,aChinesepersoncaneasilycounttotenononlyonehand.

　　Besideswaysoffingercounting,scientistshavefoundthatculturesandlanguagesarealsodifferentwhenitcomestonumbers.Somelanguageshaveonlyafewwordsfornumbers,andothershavenowordsfornumbers.Agroupofscientistsstudiedaboriginal(土著的）peopleinAustralia.Thesepeopledon’thavehandmovementstostandfornumbers.Theydon’tevenhavewordfornumbers.However,theyarestillabletounderstanddifferentideasaboutnumbers.

　　Inasimilarstudy,researchersfromtheMassachusettsInstituteofTechnologydiscoveredthatpeopleofthePirahatribe(部落）innorthwesternBrazildon’thavewordsfornumberssuchas“one”or“three.”.Theyarenotabletosay“fivetrees”or“tentrees”butcansay“sometrees,”“moretrees,”or“manytrees.”ProfessorEdwardGibsonsaidthatmistpeoplebelievethateveryoneknowshowtocount,“buthereisagroupthatdoesnotcount.Theycouldlearn,butit’snotusefulintheirculture,sothey’veneverpickeditup.”

　　Althoughallhumansareabletounderstandquantities(数量）,notalllanguageshavenumbersandnotallpeopleusecounting.Numberwordsinacertainlanguagearearesultofpeopleneedingnumbersintheirdailylives.Nowweknowthatpeoplehavedifferentideasaboutnumbersandmath,too.

　　小题1:Thewriterbeginswiththefourquestionsinorderto______.A．makeasurveyB．interestreadersC．tellastoryD．solvemathproblems小题2:Whatdowelearnfromthedifferenceinfingercountingbetwee