妈妈终于从黑龙江回来了，她说给我带回来一份礼物。我很好奇，立刻要妈妈拿给我看，哇！竟然是好大一个松塔，足足有17公分高，据说很罕见，我得用两只手才能把它捧住。

Finally my mother came back from Heilongjiang Province. She told me that she brought me a present. I was curious and insisted on seeing it immediately. Wow! It was a big pine cone with a height of 17cm, which was said to be very rare to see. I needed to hold it with both of my hands.

        我们开始从松塔里剥松子。每个松瓣里都有一到两粒松子，有的埋得很深，需要用镊子夹出来；有的很浅，只需用手指就能拿出来。剥完后我们数了数，一共有132粒松子，称重发现足足有有100克。我和爸爸随即上网搜索了一下有关松塔的信息，了解到一棵松树一般情况下能结45个松塔呢。

We began to husk it for the pine nuts. Under each cone scale, there were one or two pine nuts. Some were buried really deep. We had to use tweezers to get them out. Some were hidden in a shallow surface. You were able to get them out with your fingers. After husking, we counted and found that there were totally 132 pine nuts. The weight was about 100 grams. My father and I then searched the information about pine cones on internet. We got to know that normally a pine tree could produce as many as 45 pine cones!

数松子

Counting

称重

Weighing

        妈妈说一个松塔大约可以卖10元，1000克松子大约50元。我心想，有了这些信息，爸爸肯定是要给我出几道数学题了。果然不错，第一道题是"每个松塔剥出来的松子能卖多少钱？"，我算了算是5元；第二道题是"一棵松树上的松塔可以卖多少钱？"，答案是可以卖450元。爸爸又问："那你知道为什么人家辛辛苦苦把松子剥出来只卖5元，整个松塔却卖10元呢？"我回答说："松塔也有价钱啊！"。爸爸说："不对，其实是自己剥松子有很多乐趣呀，你还可以知道松子是从哪里来的。"
        这一次剥松子让我增长了知识，也提高了我的数学能力。

My mother said that the price for a pine cone was about 10 RMB and the price for 1000 grams of pine nuts was about 50 RMB. Based on the numbers, I thought my father would certainly make me do some math problems. Within my expectation, the first item was "how much are the pine nuts from one pine cone?" I calculated and announced my answer: 5 RMB. The second item was, "how much do the pine cones from one pine tree cost?" The answer was 450 RMB. My father then asked, "Do you know why a pine cone costs 10 RMB, while the pine nuts got difficultly from it cost only 5 RMB?" I answered, "Because a pine cone also costs." My father answered, "Not exactly. In fact, it is a lot of fun to husk pine cones by yourself. Besides, you can know where pine nuts come from."

From this experience of husking a pine cone, I not only widened my horizon but also improved my mathematics ability.

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• province [´prɔvins]   n.省；领域；范围   (初中英语单词)
• height [hait]   n.高度；顶点；卓越   (初中英语单词)
• hidden [´hid(ə)n]   hide 的过去分词   (初中英语单词)
• shallow [´ʃæləu]   a.肤浅的；表面的   (初中英语单词)
• horizon [hə´raizən]   n.地平线；范围；视野   (初中英语单词)
• ability [ə´biliti]   n.(办事)能力；才干   (初中英语单词)
• seeing [si:iŋ]   see的现在分词 n.视觉   (高中英语单词)
• expectation [,ekspek´teiʃən]   n.期待(望)；预期   (高中英语单词)
• husking [´hʌskiŋ]   n.农家碾米会   (英语四级单词)
• totally [´təutəli]   ad.统统，完全   (英语四级单词)
• mathematics [,mæθə´mætiks]   n.数学   (英语四级单词)
• normally [´nɔ:məli]   ad.正常情况下；通常   (英语六级单词)