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.

也揭示了我们对数学的看法。我们假设，依据微积分和代数成绩就可以辨别一个人是否足够聪明。

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.

但中西方在数学体系上的不同也揭示了其他方面的不同，或许在数学上的卓越能力是源于其所处群体的文化。

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.

历史沿袭下来的文化礼节是造成韩国飞机失事的重要因素

Here we have another kind of legacy, one that turns out to be perfectly suited for twenty-first-century tasks.

当然，也有一些社会历史文化传统为实现21世纪的社会大业推波助澜。

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,

正如我们在以上事例中看到的那样，文化传承的重要性，体现为权力距离指数上的重要差别，这种差别不仅是三维度或者两个维度，而是四个维度上的差别，

it's hard not to wonder how many other cultural legacies are there that have an impact on twenty-first-century intellectual tasks.

我们不能理解，还有很多社会历史传统会对21世纪的科研任务有所影响。

What if coming from a culture shapes by the demands of growing rice also makes you better at math?

是不是在一种以粮食为主导的文化背景下，你的数学能力就一定会很好？

Could the rice paddy make a difference in the classroom?

稻田是否会对课堂上的成绩产生影响？

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积。水稻的面积小到让人意想不到，

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.

如果你不是亲自站在田里，你不会想到一亩地也就是酒店里一间房间的大小，只有一公顷的十五分之一。

A typical Asian rice farm is two or three mu.

一名亚洲的农民一般也就能耕种2～3亩地，

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.

如果有一块450英亩的土地，在中国，这需要村子里的1500人去耕种。但是如果在美国中西部，这只是一家农民耕种的面积。

At that scale, with families of five and six people, living off a farm the size of two hotel rooms, agriculture changes dramatically.

按照这样的比例，通常，一个农民家庭中的五六个人就依靠着两个酒店房间大小的土地来谋生。

Historically, western agriculture has been "mechanically" oriented.

农业的差别非常大，从历史的角度看，西方农业是属于“机械化作业”。

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，如果一个农民想变得更有效率并且能够增加产量，他就必须要引进更多精密的农业设备，

which allowed him to replace human labor with mechanical labor: a threshing machine, a hay baler, a combine harvester, a tractor.

如打谷机、稻草打捆机、混合收割机、拖拉机，这样他就可以用机械操作代替更多的人力，从而开发更多的土地并且增加耕种面积。