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.
我剛開始給我的兩個女兒零花錢，觀察她們會怎麼處理這些零花錢——不是指怎麼處理這筆收入，而是指怎麼處理實物現金本身——是件很有意思的事。年幼的哈福德小姐不知道，按照傳統來說，七邊形硬幣的價值是厚硬幣的一半。（她姐姐懂得多，所以會提議跟她交換，對此我們必須盯緊一些。）她也不能深刻地認識到以下事實：這些圓形的金屬片兒可以用來交換糖果和玩具，真是有用的東西。她對這些硬幣感興趣，是因爲她覺得這些物件本身很好玩兒。