Take a look at the following list of numbers: 4, 8, 5, 3, 7, 9, 6. Read them loud. Now look away and spend 20 seconds memorizing them in order before saying them out loud again. If you speak English, you have about a 50% chance of remembering those perfectly. If you are Chinese, though, you’re almost certain to get it right every time. Why is that? Because we most easily memorize whatever we can say or read within a two-second period. And unlike English, the Chinese language allows them to fit all those seven numbers into two seconds.
That example comes from Stanislas Dahaene’s book The Number Sense. As Dahaene explains: Chinese number words are remarkably brief. Most of them can be spoken out in less than one-quarter of a second (for instance, 4 is “si” and 7 “qi”). Their English pronunciations are longer. The memory gap between English and Chinese apparently is entirely due to this difference in length.
It turns out that there is also a big difference in how number-naming systems in Western and Asian languages are constructed. In English, we say fourteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen and nineteen, so one might expect that we would also say oneteen, twoteen, threeteen, and fiveteen. But we don’t. We use a different form: eleven, twelve, thirteen and fifteen. For numbers above 20, we put the “decade” first and the unit number second (twenty-one, twenty-two), while for the teens, we do it the other way around (fourteen, seventeen, eighteen). The number system in English is highly irregular. Not so in China, Japan, and Korea. They have a logical counting system. Eleven is ten-one. Twelve is ten-two. Twenty-four is two-tens-four and so on.
That difference means that Asian children learn to count much faster than American children. Four-year-old Chinese children can count, on average, to 40. American children at that age can count only to 15. By the age of five, in other words, American children are already a year behind their Asian friends in the most fundamental of math skills.
The regularity of their number system also means that Asian children can perform basic functions, such as addition, far more easily. Ask an English-speaking seven-year-old to add thirty-seven plus twenty-two in her head, and she has to change the words to numbers (37+22). Only then can she do the math: 2 plus 7 is 9 and 30 and 20 is 50, which makes 59. Ask an Asian child to add three-tens-seven and two-tens-two, and then the necessary equation(等式) is right there, in the sentence. No number translation is necessary: it’s five-tens-nine.
When it comes to math, in other words, Asians have a built-in advantage. For years, students from China, South Korea, and Japan --- outperformed their Western classmates at mathematics, and the typical assumption is that it has something to do with a kind of Asian talent for math. The differences between the number systems in the East and the West suggest something very different --- that being good at math may also be rooted in a group’s culture.
【小题1】What does the passage mainly talk about?

A.The Asian number-naming system helps grasp advanced math skills better.
B.Western culture fail to provide their children with adequate number knowledge.
C.Children in Western countries have to learn by heart the learning things.
D.Asian children’s advantage in math may be sourced from their culture.
【小题2】What makes a Chinese easier to remember a list of numbers than an American?
A.Their understanding of numbers.
B.Their mother tongue.
C.Their math education.
D.Their different IQ.
【小题3】Asian children can reach answers in basic math functions more quickly because ____________.
A.they pronounce the numbers in a shorter period
B.they practice math from an early age
C.English speaking children translate language into numbers first
D.American children can only count to 15 at the age of four

Americans think that travel is good for you. Some even think it can help to solve one of the coun­try ’ s worst problems ~: crime (犯罪).
Crime worries a lot of people. Every year, the number of crimes is up and up. And many criminals (罪犯)are young. They often come from sad homes, with only one parent or no parents at all.
There are many young criminals in prison,but prison doesn ’ t change them. Six or seven in ten will go back to crime when they come out of prison.
One man ,Bob Burton, thought of a new idea. In the old days, young men had to live a difficult life on the road. They learned to be strong and brave, and to help their friends to be strong and brave, and to help their friends in time of danger. This helped them grow into men. So Bob Burton started “Vision Quest. “ He takes young criminals on a long ,long journey with horses and wagons (马车), 3,000 miles through seven states. They are on the road for more than a year.
The young people in Vision Quest all have bad problems. Most of them have already spent time in prison. This is their last chance.
It's hard work on the road. The day starts before the sun comes up. The boys and girls have to feed the horses. Some of them have never loved anyone before  but they love their horses. That love can help them to live a new life.
Not all the young people on Vision Quest will leave crime behind them. Three or four in ten will one day be in prison again. Bob Burton is right. Travel can be good for you. Even today, Americans still say, “ Go west, young men. ”
【小题1】In the last paragraph “leave crime behind them" means    .

A.no longer do a crimeB.leave people who do a crime
C.don't do all the crimesD.leave criminals behind
【小题2】Why is Bob Burton right?
A.Because he can help to solve crime.
B.Because three or four is better than six or seven.
C.Because the young criminals have a hard life on the road.
D.Because he can stop crime in the country.
【小题3】Form the passage we may infer that   .
A.getting up before the sun rises can help out of crime
B.we can hardly find a person who has no love for anybody or anything
C.travelling can help all criminals out of prison
D.young people can do anything freely
【小题4】    On “ Vision Quest"   .
A.young people have bad problems
B.young people grow tall very fast
C.young people often help their friends in time of danger
D.all of the above
【小题5】Americans still say, "Go west, young men. ”because .
A.if they go west they can have a travel
B.in the west there is a prison
C.there they have to live a hard life to grow into men
D.prison doesn't change them

Americans think that travel is good for you. Some even think it can help to solve one of the coun­try ’ s worst problems ~: crime (犯罪).

Crime worries a lot of people. Every year, the number of crimes is up and up. And many criminals (罪犯)are young. They often come from sad homes, with only one parent or no parents at all.

There are many young criminals in prison,but prison doesn ’ t change them. Six or seven in ten will go back to crime when they come out of prison.

One man ,Bob Burton, thought of a new idea. In the old days, young men had to live a difficult life on the road. They learned to be strong and brave, and to help their friends to be strong and brave, and to help their friends in time of danger. This helped them grow into men. So Bob Burton started “Vision Quest. “ He takes young criminals on a long ,long journey with horses and wagons (马车), 3,000 miles through seven states. They are on the road for more than a year.

The young people in Vision Quest all have bad problems. Most of them have already spent time in prison. This is their last chance.

It's hard work on the road. The day starts before the sun comes up. The boys and girls have to feed the horses. Some of them have never loved anyone before  but they love their horses. That love can help them to live a new life.

Not all the young people on Vision Quest will leave crime behind them. Three or four in ten will one day be in prison again. Bob Burton is right. Travel can be good for you. Even today, Americans still say, “ Go west, young men. ”

1.In the last paragraph “leave crime behind them" means    .

A.no longer do a crime

B.leave people who do a crime

C.don't do all the crimes

D.leave criminals behind

2.Why is Bob Burton right?

A.Because he can help to solve crime.

B.Because three or four is better than six or seven.

C.Because the young criminals have a hard life on the road.

D.Because he can stop crime in the country.

3.Form the passage we may infer that   .

A.getting up before the sun rises can help out of crime

B.we can hardly find a person who has no love for anybody or anything

C.travelling can help all criminals out of prison

D.young people can do anything freely

4.    On “ Vision Quest"   .

A.young people have bad problems

B.young people grow tall very fast

C.young people often help their friends in time of danger

D.all of the above

5.Americans still say, "Go west, young men. ”because .

A.if they go west they can have a travel

B.in the west there is a prison

C.there they have to live a hard life to grow into men

D.prison doesn't change them

 

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