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That's how we think about math.We assume that being good at things like calculus and algebra is a simple function of how smart you are.
也揭示了我們對數學的看法。我們假設，依據微積分和代數成績就可以辨別一個人是否足夠聰明。
But looking at the differences in number systems between east and west suggests something very different that being good at math may also be something rooted in a group's culture.
但中西方在數學體系上的不同也揭示了其他方面的不同，或許在數學上的卓越能力是源于其所處群體的文化。
In the case of the Koreans, one kind of deeply rooted legacy stood in the way of the very modern task of flying an airplane.
歷史沿襲下來的文化禮節是造成韓國飛機失事的重要因素
Here we have another kind of legacy, one that turns out to be perfectly suited for twenty-first-century tasks.
當然，也有一些社會歷史文化傳統為實現21世紀的社會大業推波助瀾。
Cultural legacies matter, and once you've seen the surprising effect of things like power distance, and numbers that can be said in a quarter as opposed to a third of a second,
正如我們在以上事例中看到的那樣，文化傳承的重要性，體現為權力距離指數上的重要差別，這種差別不僅是三維度或者兩個維度，而是四個維度上的差別，
it's hard not to wonder how many other cultural legacies are there that have an impact on twenty-first-century intellectual tasks.
我們不能理解，還有很多社會歷史傳統會對21世紀的科研任務有所影響。
What if coming from a culture shapes by the demands of growing rice also makes you better at math?
是不是在一種以糧食為主導的文化背景下，你的數學能力就一定會很好？
Could the rice paddy make a difference in the classroom?
稻田是否會對課堂上的成績產生影響？
The most striking fact about rice paddy, which you never quite grasp until you actually stand in the middle of one, is its size.It's tiny.
如果你想了解水稻，你就一定要了解一下它的面積。水稻的面積小到讓人意想不到，
A mu, which roughly corresponds to the size of a typical rice paddy, is one fifteenth of a hectare.That's about as big as a hotel room.
如果你不是親自站在田里，你不會想到一畝地也就是酒店里一間房間的大小，只有一公頃的十五分之一。
A typical Asian rice farm is two or three mu.
一名亞洲的農民一般也就能耕種2～3畝地，
A village in China of 1,500 people might support itself entirely with 450 acres of land, which in the American Midwest would be a size of a typical family farm.
如果有一塊450英畝的土地，在中國，這需要村子里的1500人去耕種。但是如果在美國中西部，這只是一家農民耕種的面積。
At that scale, with families of five and six people, living off a farm the size of two hotel rooms, agriculture changes dramatically.
按照這樣的比例，通常，一個農民家庭中的五六個人就依靠著兩個酒店房間大小的土地來謀生。
Historically, western agriculture has been "mechanically" oriented.
農業的差別非常大，從歷史的角度看，西方農業是屬于“機械化作業”。
In the west, if the farmer wanted to be more and more efficient or increase his yield, he introduced more and more sophisticated equipment,
在西方，如果一個農民想變得更有效率并且能夠增加產量，他就必須要引進更多精密的農業設備，
which allowed him to replace human labor with mechanical labor: a threshing machine, a hay baler, a combine harvester, a tractor.
如打谷機、稻草打捆機、混合收割機、拖拉機，這樣他就可以用機械操作代替更多的人力，從而開發更多的土地并且增加耕種面積。
