Back to 11 years old

In late July, it was time for the International Mathematical Olympiad.This year's host country was Canada. Originally, He Lin thought that he could go to the competition and see the exotic customs, but after arriving in Canada, the jet lag was over, and it was almost time for the competition.

Each country has six contestants, and there are two mathematicians leading the team. Huaxia's team is led by the former Professor Yan and Professor Ma from the Academy of Sciences, because of language and jet lag physical problems , the two professors are not very old, but they are in their early 50s. For academics, they are almost still in the golden age.

The two professors tend to be stubborn and strict except when they are related to their majors, but they are usually kind people. After arriving at the destination, when a few students get better from the jet lag, they don't force them to cram. They played around the hotel, took them to a local restaurant with a good reputation, and then returned to the hotel.

After the 90s, Huaxia has won the total score championship several times in previous competitions, and there are more countries participating in the competition. Moreover, although it is said that science has no national boundaries and scientists have national boundaries, it is relatively simple. , and will not involve other things in it. Therefore, although Canada arranges for all participating contestants to lead teachers to live in the same hotel, the relationship between them is quite harmonious.Professor Yan and Professor Ma used to have a lot of exchanges with foreign colleagues. Many of the team leaders this time are barely acquainted with them. Therefore, even if they are competitors, nothing unpleasant happened. The evening buffet At the banquet, they talked and laughed happily, and some people even greeted them in some half-baked Chinese.

The official languages ​​in Canada are English and French. He Lin's English is not bad, but he has never had much experience with French. Fortunately, English is enough here. He Lin's spoken English is mostly learned from American TV dramas. Therefore, He brought a lot of accents from the United States, which surprised many people. He Lin had been honed with others in his previous life, and the few students who were with him were still a little hesitant and didn't know how to communicate with these foreign countries. When people were communicating with each other, He Lin had already chatted with several people.

In fact, this is also normal. It is different now from more than ten years later. At that time, even in a small city, it was normal to see a few foreigners. Now, even in the capital city, it is not easy to do it casually. Seeing foreigners, not to mention being in a place full of people from all over the world with different skin colors and hair colors. Although the Chinese contestants all have high IQs, when it comes to interpersonal skills, in fact, except He Lin Except for the little monsters who have been human in two lifetimes, there are really not many qualified ones.

Fortunately, many high IQs are low in this respect, so they don't stand out among so many people.

On the second day, the test questions submitted by each participating country have been selected and determined by Canada, and written in English, French, German, Russian and other working languages.As the team leader, Professor Yan translated the test questions into Chinese and distributed them to the contestants.

There are not many test questions, a total of six questions, three questions a day, and there are four and a half hours to answer the questions every day. If you have any questions about the test questions, you can write them down and submit them to the main examination committee for resolution.

In the previous training camp, He Lin and the others have done almost all the test questions in the International Mathematical Olympiad Competition over the years, but after so many years, there have been few similarities. After all, the test questions are all mathematicians from all over the world. People often write questions that are unconstrained and unconstrained, and there are new tricks every year, which is enough to stimulate a group of talented youngsters to want ~ fairy ~ want to die.Many of these questions seem to be almost illogical on the surface, similar to how much money Xiao Ming spent on what he bought, and asking you how old Xiao Ming is when you look back. Confused.

He Lin took a few deep breaths, suppressed the tension in his heart, collected himself, and began to look at the questions one by one. The questions in this kind of competition are always from easy to difficult, but occasionally there will be some surprises, and what is more, they are good For the problem, He Lin read all three questions carefully first, and then began to analyze the logic in it, and calculated it on the straw paper.

The examination room was very quiet, only the sound of calculations could be heard. Occasionally, if someone had any questions, they would write them on the paper and raise their hands. Naturally, someone would come down and take the paper away.

Candidates answer the questions below, and the members of the main examination committee above are also observing the candidates below.To be honest, compared with physics, chemistry, biology, electronic technology and other disciplines that often have various new achievements, there are really not many outstanding achievements in mathematics in recent years, that is, Fermat's last theorem was published before. , among the three major conjectures, there is only one Goldbach conjecture that has not been really solved so far. Jumping up and down, some young mathematicians even started to use computers to solve problems directly. Many traditional ones feel that the times have gone backwards.

Therefore, these mathematicians are keen to participate in this kind of competition, and they also hope to have a good seedling.

Professor Yan has been paying attention to He Lin from the beginning. The first time Professor Yan knew about He Lin, it was already before. Chen Wenjia and Professor Yan are brothers in the same school. Before Chen Wenjia went abroad to study, he also studied with Professor Yan. After a while, Chen Wenjia mentioned He Lin to Professor Yan. He sighed at that time. He Lin was probably delayed by his family. Chen Wenjia knew about He Lin's original grades in school. Among the primary school students, it is still a township primary school, and it is really not a big deal to be among the top in the exam. Besides, He Lin was like a normal child at that time, and he still had some problems with Ma Daha, but according to the villagers, He Lin Lin was very sensible at home at that time, and would help with some housework when she came home from school. Lin Hong had to be busy inside and outside the house every day, earning money, farming, leaving early and returning late, and He Lin had to have breakfast every day. There is no guarantee, and I even had diarrhea because of eating spoiled rice.Thinking about it, I know what condition He Lin was at that time. If Lin Hong had been around, if she was not knowledgeable enough, or because of money, if He Lin was not allowed to go to school, no matter how smart He Lin was, he had no choice but to It was a waste. After all, he really couldn't see how good he was at that time. He couldn't say that because of his life, he disappeared from everyone, like an ordinary farm boy. Working in a big city, marrying a wife and having children step by step, repeating this cycle of life from generation to generation.

He Lin was able to come into contact with Mathematical Olympiad entirely because his math teacher saw that he was about to drop out of school, felt pity for a moment, and told him that as long as he could get a place in the competition, he would be able to reduce the tuition fee, and the school had a bonus, so he left. On this road, he really showed his talent in this area.

Professor Yan remembered He Lin's name after listening to Chen Wenjia expressing his fortune and fate.Professor Yan is one of the more prestigious mathematicians in China. To be honest, he often feels that there are no successors. He recruits master students and doctoral students every year. There was once a doctoral student who was his favorite student. Later, he went abroad. Yan When the professor went abroad for an inspection one year, he met this student, but he was unhappy abroad. After all, even if he got a permanent residence permit, he was still an outsider there, and he couldn't touch the core things at all. You have to read more, people think you want to steal other people's achievements or something, but in a fit of anger, you resigned directly. Later, a doctor opened a grocery store directly abroad, and did single-digit addition and subtraction with a group of people. I have to deal with community residents who use calculators, but they are reluctant to part with that green card, so they just dawdle like this.

It is also very annoying in China. There are fewer and fewer people who are willing to study mathematics, and it is difficult to produce results. Students learn this, even if they get a Ph. D., the jobs they can find are limited. Professional research institutes are almost a radish. He is Professor Yan's proud student, and it is not easy to get in. Even if you are a professional student, it is not easy to apply for research funding. After all, for other research, people need to add instruments and purchase various related equipment , or even a professional laboratory, what do you want for mathematics, aren’t you a mathematician, wouldn’t it be enough to get a blackboard and some chalk?In this situation where the future and money were not clear, in the end, many students in the Department of Mathematics were almost transferred in, and some even thought about changing departments after entering, and not many were willing to apply for Professor Yan's postgraduate entrance examination.

After teaching He Lin for a period of time, Professor Yan had high hopes for He Lin. He knew some things about He Lin, knew that he didn't need any money for the time being, and didn't have too high requirements for life. Gao's talent, to put it an exaggeration, was born for mathematics. Therefore, Professor Yan has long made up his mind, whether it is coaxing or deceiving, he must also recruit He Lin into his family, otherwise, it would be a waste of money. ah.

At this moment, Professor Yan saw He Lin writing and drawing below, concentrating on it, and wished to go over to see how He Lin was doing, but he was worried that He Lin was nervous, so he still didn't go down, but he saw that He Lin was very smooth, and he was very smooth in the draft. After doing some calculations on the paper, he began to answer the questions on the answer sheet, then nodded secretly, quite relieved.

He Lin was concentrating on answering the questions, but he didn't know that Professor Yan had been paying attention to himself. He was very clear-headed at the moment, and the inspiration was like a fountain, pouring out continuously. After reading the questions for a while, he could sort out his thoughts, so , but in more than two hours, I finished the three test questions. After careful calculation, I also had a bottom line in my heart. I couldn't help but let out a long breath. I didn't know that he didn't pay attention for a while, the voice was a little louder, and the examination room was very quiet. , It was extremely clear, and for a while, it attracted a lot of attention. He Lin was stunned, feeling a little embarrassed, and simply lowered his head, intending to read it again before handing in the paper.