3歲天才兒童：IQ145會用5國語言算術

Michael McBride has had a busy day for a three-year-old.
3歲的邁克爾·麥克布萊德度過了忙碌的一天。

He started with breakfast of toast with orange jam, then he practised some big sums in his head, (‘67 minus 14 makes 53!’), learnt a new tune on the keyboard he got for Christmas and went off to the library with his granny to find some books on Space, his latest passion.
他的早餐是土司加果醬，然後他在腦中過了一遍龐大的算術題（67-14=53!），敲着聖誕節得到琴的琴鍵學了新的曲調，然後和奶奶一起動身前往圖書館，去尋找一些關於宇宙的書籍，這是他最新的愛好。

When they came home they read the books together — Michael helpfully correcting Granny if she mispronounced a word.
回家的時候，他和奶奶一起讀書——如果奶奶讀錯了單詞，他會幫忙糾正。

He has an IQ of 145 (the UK average is 104), a reading and writing age of eight and a brain the size of Jupiter.
邁克爾IQ145（英國的平均IQ是104），擁有8歲小孩的讀寫能力，腦容量大小和木星一樣。

Michael has caused something of a stir by appearing in newspapers and on TV in a spoof of the Mastermind programme, doing complicated sums, reeling off his times tables like an old pro and spelling eight-letter words.
邁克爾在報紙和電視節目《最強大腦》惡搞版中的出現引起了轟動：他會做複雜的算法，像一個老手一樣一口氣報出自己的時間表，並且能背出8個字母的長單詞。

A few months ago, with the help of YouTube videos on an iPad, he taught himself how to count to ten in English, French, Spanish, Russian and Japanese.
幾個月前，在Ipad上YouTube視頻的幫助下，他教會了自己用英語、法語、西班牙語、俄語和日語從1數到10。

While both parents are bright and articulate, they’re not brain boxes like Michael.
邁克爾的父母很聰明，口才也好，但不像邁克爾那樣有個超級大腦。

Emma, 39, has nine GCSEs, three A-levels and a degree in English and history but describes herself as ‘more of a word person than a numbers person’. Dad Anthony, 33, dropped out of school early and is a chef in an Italian restaurant.
母親艾瑪39歲，修完了三個A-Level課程和一個英語歷史學位，但她描述自己更多是“一個文科生而不是理科生”。父親安東尼33歲，早年就輟學了，現在是一家意大利餐館的廚師。

‘We’re just ordinary working people. Who knows where he got it from?’ says Emma.
“我們就是一般的工薪族啊。天知道他（的聰明才智）是從哪來的？”母親艾瑪說道。

But it was clear from an early stage there was something special about Michael.
但是很明顯，邁克爾先天聰穎，十分特別。

He was interested in numbers as soon as he could see them, was walking at 11 months (‘He never crawled — he just got up and walked’), has always been obsessed with books and, sadly for Emma and Granny, has never needed a nap.
他一見到算術就愛的不可自拔，11個月就會走路了（他從來都不爬行——長大了以後就直接會走路了！），他總是着迷於書籍，真爲母親艾瑪和奶奶感到傷心——他都不需要午睡。

‘He requires very little sleep,’ says Emma. ‘His brain is constantly whirring. There’s no point in putting him to bed before nine as he’s just not tired out and then the minute he falls asleep his brain starts recharging.’ “他幾乎不需要睡眠，”艾瑪說。“他的大腦不斷嗡嗡的轉動。在9點前根本沒法把他哄上牀，因爲他就是不會疲倦啊，然後他一睡着，腦袋就又充上電了。”