英国财政部长乔治·奥斯本在一组儿童测验他的数学能力时，拒绝回答一道简单的乘法题目。

　　Asked to give the answer to 7x8 by Samuel Raddings, aged 7 from Manchester, one of the panel’s youngest interviewers, the Chancellor said he made it a "rule in life not to answer a load of maths questions".

　　这组小记者中的一员，来自曼彻斯特的7岁的萨默尔·拉丁斯提问7乘8等于几。财政部长说他的人生信条就是不回答数学问题。

　　Samuel helped out the Chancellor pointing out with no hesitation that 7x8 equals 56.

　　萨默尔帮财政部长回答了这个问题，他毫不犹豫的报出了答案：56。

　　The young interviewer from a panel of readers of First News - the UK's first national newspaper for young people - had previously asked Mr Osborne whether he was “good at maths”.

　　First News是英国第一家面向年轻人的全国性报纸。这名小记者是该报的一名读者。他在此前曾问奥斯本财长的数学是否很好。

　　The Chancellor said he had done a “maths A-Level” and had been “tested at school”.

　　财长说他通过了A-Level数学，也在学校里参加了测验。

　　“Of course there is a lot of maths in my job but it is also about making judgments about where the Government should spend its money”, he added.

　　他补充道：“显然，在我的工作中有大量的数学，但主要是决定政府该往哪儿投钱。”