These excerpts from Animal Farm are examples of the many instances in which mathematical ideas, especially those connected to number, are used in the book. The author used his ‘common’ knowledge of mathematics and his familiar language to present the story of Animal Farm using mathematical ideas explicitly or implicitly. It is possible that the author’s intentions were not to present mathematics or mathematical ideas, but because some storylines needed the use of mathematical language, he could not do so without using mathematics. This article emerges from a study that assessed learners’ abilities to interpret what they read and in particular, to ‘see’ mathematical aspects in the book Animal Farm. The study sought to find out learners’ abilities to read mathematically since mathematics is a specialised language that requires a specialised domain of practice. Animal Farm was one of the English Home Language literature books for high school learners in Grades 10–12 in South Africa in the 2015 academic year. According to the Department of Basic Education (2014), other novels for English Home Language were The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald, 2008) and Pride and Prejudice (Austen, 2008). Learners were presented with excerpts from Animal Farm such as the ones quoted above. They were required to identify the mathematics part of the excerpts and to interpret what the excerpts meant. In the first excerpt, the mathematics part is ‘eighteen hands high’. According to conversion rates one adult hand is approximately 0.1016 m long. Therefore, Boxer’s height in metres was approximately 1.83 m. It was important for learners to understand this mathematical aspect in order to make sense of the extract. Without this understanding, the statement: ‘eighteen hands high’, does not make sense as one reads it in the printed media. Understanding what one is reading and how one needs to read is a critical skill required in relation to learning and achievement in education generally and mathematics education specifically.

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“十八手高”：从数学角度对动物农场的叙事解读

这些来自动物农场的摘录是许多实例的示例，其中书中使用了数学思想，尤其是与数字有关的思想。作者利用其数学的“共同”知识和熟悉的语言，以明示或暗含的数学思想来介绍动物农场的故事。作者的意图可能不是表达数学或数学思想，而是由于某些故事情节需要使用数学语言，因此如果不使用数学，他就不可能这样做。本文来自一项研究，该研究评估了学习者解释其阅读内容的能力，尤其是“看”《动物农场》一书中的数学方面。该研究试图找出学习者的数学阅读能力，因为数学是一种特殊的语言，需要专门的实践领域。《动物农场》是2015学年南非10-12年级针对高中生的英语家庭语言文学书籍之一。根据基础教育部（2014年）的说法，其他英语家庭语言小说是《了不起的盖茨比》（菲茨杰拉德，2008年）和《傲慢与偏见》（奥斯丁，2008年）。向学习者介绍了动物农场摘录，例如上面引用的摘录。他们被要求识别摘录的数学部分并解释摘录的含义。在第一节摘录中，数学部分是“十八手高”。根据转换率，一只成年手大约长0.1016 m。因此，拳击手的身高（米）约为1.83 m。对于学习者来说，重要的是要理解这一数学方面，以便使摘录有意义。没有这种理解，这种说法：“十八手高”，因为人们在印刷媒体上阅读它是没有意义的。理解什么是阅读以及如何阅读需要是与一般教育尤其是数学教育中的学习和成就相关的一项关键技能。