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In short, the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus teaches you all you need to know for a dazzling administrative career.
萊因德紙草書能教會(huì)你應(yīng)付繁忙的公務(wù)員生活所需的一切知識(shí)，
It's a crammer for the Civil Service exams around 1550 BC and, like self-help publications today that promise instant success, it has a wonderful title, written boldly in red on the front page:
幾乎等于公元前一五五〇年的埃及公務(wù)員考試應(yīng)試寶典。就像今天那些成功學(xué) 的書籍一樣，它的標(biāo)題也極富吸引力。首頁上用粗體紅字寫著：
The correct method of reckoning, for grasping the meaning of things, and knowing everything-obscurities and all secrets.
通曉計(jì)算高招，掌握事物內(nèi)涵，解開一切秘密與難題。
In other words: Buy me, and you can't go wrong.
通俗點(diǎn)說就是：所有你需要了解的數(shù)學(xué)知識(shí)都在這里，買了我，你就會(huì)成功。
The numeracy of the Egyptians, honed by works like the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, was widely admired across the ancient world. Plato, for example, urged the Greeks to copy the Egyptians, where…
在這樣的教材訓(xùn)練下，埃及人的數(shù)學(xué)水平廣受古代社會(huì)的推崇。如柏拉圖就敦促希臘復(fù)制埃及模式，認(rèn)為在埃及：
The teachers, by applying the rules and practices of arithmetic to play, prepare their pupils for the tasks of marshalling and leading armies and organising military expeditions and all together form them into persons more useful to themselves and to others and a great deal wider awake.
老師用游戲的方法讓學(xué)生學(xué)習(xí)數(shù)學(xué)規(guī)則和運(yùn)算，讓他們做好擔(dān)任將領(lǐng)，領(lǐng)導(dǎo)軍隊(duì)，組織軍隊(duì)遠(yuǎn)征的準(zhǔn)備。以便讓他們提升自我價(jià)值，造福他人，并擁有豐富的學(xué)識(shí)。
But if everybody agreed that training like this produced a formidable state machine, the question of what mathematics the Greeks actually did learn from the Egyptians, remains a matter of debate. Clive Rix, of the University of Leicester:
但即使大家都相信這種訓(xùn)練會(huì)制造出強(qiáng)大的國家機(jī)器,關(guān)于希臘人在數(shù)學(xué)方面從埃及人那里學(xué)到了什么,至今尚無足論。因?yàn)楸４嬷两竦陌＜皵?shù)學(xué)文獻(xiàn)數(shù)量極少：其余大部分都已腐爛。
Well, the interesting thing is, that the traditional view has always been that the Greeks learned of their geometry from the Egyptians.
傳統(tǒng)觀點(diǎn)認(rèn)為，希臘人的幾何學(xué)是從埃及人那里學(xué)來的，
Greek writers such as Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, all refer to the outstanding skills of the Egyptians in geometry.
希羅多德、柏拉圖和亞里士多德都提到過埃及人在幾何學(xué)方面的驚人成就。
