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The 1940's

The Age of Computers Begins

The Age of Computers Begins
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 7 to 9
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.73

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    boon, denote, multiplication, subtraction, reentered, Archeologists, better, segment, usable, primary, successful, graze, repaired, ruler, provided, general
     content words:    Mediterranean Sea, World War II, War II

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The Age of Computers Begins
By Jane Runyon 		  
1     People have always had to have math skills. Archeologists have found evidence of the need for these skills as far back as 30,000 B.C. to 20,000 B. C. They discovered bones with notches carved into them that were used for counting.
 
2     Early sheepherders developed their own way of computing information. The shepherd would drop a stone into a basket for each sheep as it left the pen in the morning. The shepherd would take the sheep into grassy meadows to graze during the day. When he returned home in the evening, he would take a stone out of the basket as each sheep reentered the pen. If there were any stones left in the basket when all sheep he had were in the pen, he knew he had lost some of his sheep. He would have to go back to the meadow to search for them.
 
3     Early Egyptians devised their own signs to denote certain numbers or groups of numbers. Sea merchants used these symbols to keep track of the cargos they delivered throughout the Mediterranean Sea area. They might use tally marks to show individual items and a rope to show eight of those items. They might use a snake to represent six groups of eight.

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