Tooth Fairy (仙女)
All over the world, many young children believe in magic. It’s just the way a child’s mind works. As we get older, many of us aren’t able to believe in magic. But when we are young, anything is possible.
In Canada, young children believe in a magical character known as the “Tooth Fairy”. The Tooth Fairy is a pretty girl with wings (翅膀). Can you guess what she does? Her job is to take care of children’s baby teeth.
Children get two sets of teeth. One set is called the baby teeth. Baby teeth fall out on their own as children reach the age of seven. When a baby tooth falls out, or is pulled (拉) out, children do not throw (扔) it away.
In fact, they put this tooth under their pillow (枕头) when they go to bed, and they are very excited. They think about the Tooth Fairy when they fall asleep. They truly believe that the Tooth Fairy will visit them. And best of all, they believe that she will do something special when she arrives.
During the night, the Tooth Fairy comes and takes the tooth. But the special thing is that she leaves something behind for the children. She leaves money in place of the tooth. When the children wake up the next morning, the first thing they do is to look under their pillow. The tooth is lost, but there is some money in its place.
Losing your baby teeth is scary, but the Tooth Fairy makes it a lot easier. What’s more, in a few weeks, a new tooth will start to grow in your mouth.
【小题1】What is the Tooth Fairy like?【小题2】Does the Tooth Fairy take care of the children’s teeth which grow after the age of seven?
【小题3】What does the Tooth Fairy do after the children go to sleep?
【小题4】If the Tooth Fairy can make one of your dreams come true, what do you want? Why?
Today, we consider zero as a common number. Few of us know zero has an unusual history. Yes, zero is, in fact, different from the other numbers.
At first, there were only the numbers one to nine. Zero started to be seen in India about 2,000 years ago. Many other ancient cultures had been marking nothingness. However, the ancient Indians were the first to consider nothingness as a number.
Little by little, communication around the world became more often. Finally, zero was brought out of India. It was accepted as an Arabic (阿拉伯的) number. During the 13th century, Arabic numbers were introduced to the West. However, people in the West had been used to using Roman numbers (I, V, X, etc.). Arabic numbers were not popular. This was especially true for zero. Since there is no zero in Roman numbers, people found it hard to accept the new number. It was quite easy for dishonest business people to turn a “0” into “6” or a “9”. Some people, therefore, believed zero would lead to much trouble. Zero was also seen as an unlucky number. That’s because it is close to negative numbers—the idea of having debts (债务). People in Florence even weren’t allowed to use zero citywide.
It was not until the 15th century that zero and the other Arabic numbers were fully accepted. Business people played an important role. Just think about doing calculations (计算) using Roman numbers. You can hardly do any trade, can you?
The | ||
Introduction | Zero is not the | |
| Different of zero | 2000 years ago | Before zero |
During the 13th century | Arabic numbers were It was not People believed zero would Zero was not seen as a | |
| Until the 15th century | People | |
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