《文化对比阅读》(上) Unit 8--Special Numbers 3. Why Lucky 7 Really is the Worlds Magic Number.docVIP

Why ‘lucky 7’ really is the world’s magic number David Derbyshire Seven is the most significant number across religions and cultures It also appears in some of the world’s favourite fictional works Poll of 30,000 people reveals 7 is overwhelmingly our favourite number Stop any person in the street and ask them to choose an odd number between 1 and 10. More often not, they will say the number 7. For ‘lucky 7’ is the world’s favourite number. There are seven days of the week, seven colours of the rainbow, seven notes on a musical scale, seven seas and seven continents. Snow White ran off to live with seven dwarves, there were seven brides for seven brothers, Shakespeare described the seven ages of man, Sinbad the Sailor had seven voyages. And when Ian Fleming was looking for a code for James Bond, he didn’t go for 006 or 008. Only 007 had the right ring. This week, a poll of 30,000 people confirmed that 7 is overwhelmingly our favourite number — with 3 in second place. A remarkable ten per cent of those surveyed gave 7 — from the infinite choice of numbers available — as their lucky number. But why do we prefer some numbers to others? What is so special about 7? And how can something as dry as a number generate such strong emotions? Our fascination with certain numbers goes back to the dawn of recorded history. For the Ancient Babylonians the most meaningful number was 60. They based their mathematics and calendar around it — and we, many centuries later, have inherited their system. That’s why an hour has 60 minutes, and a minute 60 seconds. In Ancient Egypt, 12 was considered special. In Egyptian mythology there were 12 realms of the dead. Indeed, 12 crops up throughout history — inches to a foot, pennies to a shilling, months of the year, the number of apostles. A day is split into two cycles of 12 hours. There are sensible reasons to venerate 60 and 12. Both divide neatly into halves, quarter and thirds, making them ideal units of currency and measurement. But t