Pick-up-Sticks “挑小棒”，玩一次便会爱上的游戏

圣诞节白象游戏上我得到了一个游戏盒，
I won a game-set during the white elephant game on Christmas.

里面有扑克牌一副， 骰子5个，悠悠球一个，还有一组小棒。
In the box, there was a pack of cards, five dice, a yo-yo, and a set of pick-up-sticks.

其中小棒把我带到了童年记忆最深处，小时候玩儿的小棒是用刀把细竹杆儿砍成大概15厘米长的小节儿。细竹杆儿是哪儿来的呢？是家里的竹扫帚用旧了，竹叶都掉了，就只剩下一捆细竹竿儿，然后从中抽上几只较细竹杆儿切成小棒。后来冰棍儿开始流行，大家就在街道上去捡冰棍儿的小棍儿玩。

The sticks brought me to the deepest part of my childhood memory. When I was a kid, my mom would use the thinner bamboo sticks from old bamboo brooms to make pick-up-sticks for me. When a bamboo broom became old from wear-and-tear, all the leaves would fall off, then only sticks remained. She would pull a few thinner sticks from the broom, and then cut them into small pieces (each would be about 10-15 cm).

抑制不住童年的记忆，于是我邀请老公，后来哥哥也加入一起玩挑小棒。他们两个都是第一次玩，于是我就教他们按我小时候玩的规则玩。但是游戏结束我再看说明时，发现这些彩色的小棒还有一些不同的规则。所以我就按照说明书给大家介绍一下小棒的玩法。

One year, the ice lollypop began to appear in our village, and children began to pick up the thrown sticks of the ice lollypops on street to play.

Being unable to resist my childhood memory, I invited my husband to play pick-up-sticks. Later, his brother joined us.

I showed them how to play it because this was their first time. When we finished playing, I checked the instructions. I found the rules about how to play.

How to play pick-up-sticks:

怎么玩挑小棒？

• Player 1 (determined by a coin toss) holds all 41 sticks vertically in their hand and drops them onto the playing surface. 
  

1号游戏者（可以用扔硬币决定谁先玩）用手垂直握住所有（41支）小棒，然后松开手，小棒落在地面上。

• Player 1 then picks up sticks one by one. Only the stick the player is trying to pick up can move---if any other sticks move, the turn is over, and the next player gets to go.

1号游戏者然后开始一支一支挑小棒。只有用来“挑”的那支可以动，如果其他任何一支小棒动了，就轮下一个游戏者。

一般来说，当松开手后，差不多每次都会有一两支小棒和其他小棒都不连，我们可以叫它们“free ones”, 因为我们很容易拿到它们，且不会触动别的小棒，所以我们叫它们“免费的”。

For most of the time, when you release your hand and let the sticks fall, there will be one or two sticks that don’t touch any other sticks. We call them “free ones” because we can get them so easily without moving any other sticks.

如下图中靠右下角有三支free ones.

For example, in this picture, at the bottom-right corner, you can see three free sticks.

技巧：假如一开始连一支free one都没有的话，就没法用小棒挑后面的，这个时候可以用小拇指当小棒用。
Tip: If you don’t have one free stick from the start, you can use your little finger as a stick. (Or designate one stick to use from the beginning)

• Player 2 does the same, continuing to pick up sticks until unintended sticks are moved. 
  

2号游戏者按同样的方法玩儿，继续挑小棒，直到碰动别的小棒。

我们玩儿的时候我还用了我小时候玩儿时的规则，可以用一只小棒挑，也可以用两只同时挑。

We used my old rules: we can use one stick to pick; we can also use two sticks to pick at the same time.

或者，不用挑的方法，可以用一支手大拇指按住小棒较低的一头，一只手扶住高的一头。这时小棒另一头便会翘起来（杠杆原理），再用另一只手拿起小棒。

Or, you don’t pick it up. You can use another way: use one thumb to press the lower end of the stick, and use the other thumb and first finger to hold the other end. The stick will get up according to lever theory. Then you can pick it up.

• If a player picks up the blue spiral stick, they may use that stick to assist picking up other sticks.
  

如果游戏者获得了蓝色带旋转条纹的小棒，他／她可以用这只小棒辅助挑， 如上图。我们再玩儿时，并没有看说明，所以任何一支已经获得的小棒都能用来辅助挑。

• The person who picks up the most sticks wins. OR the person who has the highest total points wins. 谁获得最多支小棒谁赢。或者，谁获得最高点数谁赢。我们是按谁的小棒最多谁赢。
  

POINTS 点数 ( piece:支)
*Blue spiral = 20 points (1 piesce)
*Red/blue/red/blue/red = 10 points (5 pieces)
*Blue/red/blue =10 points (5 pieces)
*Red/yellow/blue =5 points (15 pieces)
*Blue/red = 5 points (15 pieces)

这个游戏对小朋友的眼手训练非常有益。在挑小棒的过程中是需要高度集中注意力和耐心的，也适合训练小朋友的耐心。今天我们三个大人在玩儿的时候，或坐着，或趴着，或蹲着，从各个角度考虑先挑哪支小棒，都特别投入。一会儿大笑，一会儿唏嘘。就像小孩子一样。我们会婆婆便跟公公开玩笑说，“我们以后就应该给孩子们买这种游戏，可以培养他们的耐心。”

This game is good for eyes and hands training. It can also help children to concentrate and be patient. When we, three adults were playing it, we were sitting, or lying on our stomachs, or squatting, trying to find the best angle to pick. We laughed loudly when we succeeded and we sighed when we lost. I think we are not so different from kids. Mom even joked to dad , “We should buy more games like this for our kids to train their patience.”

谢谢阅读！

Thank you for reading!