家庭作业让数一亿颗米粒 Students were asked to count 100 million rice grains as homework

A Chinese math(数学) teacher(老师) has triggered(引发) mixed reactions(反应) from parents(父母) after giving fourth graders(四年级) a rather unusual homework(家庭作业) that entailed counting(数) 100 million grains of rice(米粒).

"One of the homework today is to count 100 million grains of rice, and hope parents could help their children finish it," reads the assignment posted on one of the group chats of a primary school(小学) in south China's Foshan City on WeChat, which was later posted by startled parents on the messaging app and Twitter-like Weibo platform.

The parents soon realized(意识到) how impossible(不可能) it is to finish(完成) the task(任务), which the teacher reportedly gave students two days to complete.

"How can I store around 1.67 tonnes of rice at home?" asked one parent. Another one wondered if it is a "brainteaser," while a third one said, "If we could count three grains of rice in one second, it will take about one year to finish the homework!"

The mathematics teacher defended the assignment, saying she intended to(打算) teach students what "estimation(估算)" is, adding that she wanted children to use their brains.

"I actually never hoped my students would directly count the rice [grains one] by one. I hope my students will count 100 grains first and then multiply(乘) the figure(数字) by 10 or 100 until the figure reaches 100 million," she was quoted by local media as saying.

词汇 Words:

[shù xué] 数学 math
[lǎo shī] 老师 teacher
[fù mǔ] 父母 parent
[fǎn yìng] 反应 reaction
[rèn wù] 任务 task
[gū suàn] 估算 estimation
[wán chéng] 完成 finish
[yìshí dào] 意识到 realize
[dǎ suàn] 打算 intend to
[shǔ] 数 count

中国常用数字单位 Unit of number in China

[shí] 十 ten
[bǎi] 百 hundred
[qiān] 千 thousand
[wàn] 万 10 thousand
[shí wàn] 十万 100 thousand
[bǎi wàn] 百万 million
[qiān wàn] 千万 10 million
[yì] 亿 100 million