Evidence of early stages of arithmetic and numeration can be readily found.

早期算数和计数方式的证据倒是不难获取。

Traces of the very first stages in the development of numeration can be seen in several living languages today.

计数体系最初阶段的痕迹仍存在于当今的某些语言当中。

Even the earliest of tribes had a system of numeration that, if not advanced, was sufficient for the tasks that they had to perform.

即便最早期的部落也拥有计数体系，尽管它可能尚不先进，却也足以用来完成他们的各项工作。

It will never be known how and when this numeration ability developed, but it is certain that numeration was well developed by the time humans had formed even semi-permanent settlements.

我们永远无法知晓计数体系是在何时以何种方式发展起来的，但是我们可以确定一点，即计数体系在人类形成半定居生活伊始，就已经非常完善了。

From earliest childhood we are so bound up with our system of numeration that it is a feat of imagination to consider the problems faced by early humans who had not yet developed this facility.

从很小的年纪开始，我们就与计数体系存在着非常紧密的联系，以至于它已经变成了我们考虑早期人类所面临的问题时用到的重要依据之一，而这些问题产生之时，这一体系尚未存在。

Careful consideration of our system of numeration leads to the conviction that, rather than being a facility that comes naturally to a person, it is one of the great and remarkable achievements of the human race.

认真地分析一下我们的计数体系，不难得出这样的结论：计数体系不是某个人水到渠成的想象，而是整个人类最伟大、最杰出的成就之一。