I've just started to give my daughters pocket money, and it's fascinating to see how they deal with it - not the income, that is, but the physical cash itself. The younger Miss Harford hasn't figured out that by tradition, the five-sided coins are worth half as much as the stubby fat ones. (The swaps that her clued-up older sister proposes have to be monitored with some care.) She has also failed to gain any visceral appreciation of the fact that these metal discs can be used to obtain sweets and toys, useful things. She is fascinated by the coins as objects in their own right.
我刚开始给我的两个女儿零花钱，观察她们会怎么处理这些零花钱——不是指怎么处理这笔收入，而是指怎么处理实物现金本身——是件很有意思的事。年幼的哈福德小姐不知道，按照传统来说，七边形硬币的价值是厚硬币的一半。（她姐姐懂得多，所以会提议跟她交换，对此我们必须盯紧一些。）她也不能深刻地认识到以下事实：这些圆形的金属片儿可以用来交换糖果和玩具，真是有用的东西。她对这些硬币感兴趣，是因为她觉得这些物件本身很好玩儿。